What is weighing heavily on your heart and mind this week?
Here are a few snippets of text conversations I had this week, all of show the tell-tale signs of burden. Maybe one of these will resonate with you.
“Gonna have a hard conversation this weekend, with [—]: “Stop drinking and coming home or find another place to live.””
“We are not sending out Christmas cards this year due to our ACA health insurance going from $835 a month to $3000 a month so we are cutting back.”
“I’m not sure how it took the contractor SEVEN MONTHS… or how I didn’t murder them in the process, but alas… we finally have a bathroom and they are NOT EVER coming into my house again!”
“The difficult meeting went about as well as can be expected. There were tears of sadness but expressed gratitude for the stable housing she has had while in the program and the things she has learned.”
What burdens are you feeling?
On this third week of Advent, I’m excited to once again welcome guest blogger, Molly Stouffer, who will be talking about the reality of the burdens we feel in life. Molly is a pastoral ministries student at Regent University. I first met her when she was a student in one of my classes at Lancaster Bible College. Since that time, she and her boyfriend Colin became active participants in our church family, and Molly preached for me three times. This past summer she completed a ministry internship at her home church in Maryland. She then decided to stay home, transferring to Regent’s online program, so she could help care for her mother.
Molly will be following our Advent devotional’s theme for week three of Advent, “Even the Darkness is Not Dark,” based on Psalm 139. I encourage you to read Psalm 139 ahead of time. What does Psalm 139 have to say about the burdens we carry?
As Isaiah continues talking about the government of Jesus in Isaiah 9, he gives us more descriptions of the messiah. Consider his famous words in Isaiah, 9, verse 6:
“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
These royal titles show have a fascinating variety.
Wonderful Counselor. Jesus will call the Holy Spirit “the Counselor.”
Mighty God. The Messiah is not just a person, he is God.
Everlasting Father. The Messiah is eternal. Also, Jesus regularly prayed to the “Father,” and yet in Isaiah’s prophecy, the Messiah is also God the Father.
In these first three titles, notice how Isaiah’s description of the Messiah aligns with Christian trinitarian theology. But there’s one more title.
Prince of Peace. Of all the titles, this one is specifically royal. But this prince is not a military general. He is a prince of peace.
The kingdom of heaven is peaceable kingdom. When Jesus was arrested the night before his crucifixion, his disciple Peter whipped out a sword and cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear. Peter was thinking about armed rebellion. Jesus said, “Peter, put your sword away…All who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”
What Jesus was requiring of his people here is that his kingdom would not advance through military means. He was enacting another prophecy from Isaiah, that of Isaiah 2:4-5,
““Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
Jesus’ kingdom melts down the tools of war into the tools of human flourishing. That is what brings light. We need that kind of peace.
Isaiah concludes with a powerful statement about the messiah’s kingdom in verse 7:
“Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
More emphasis on peace. This time adding justice and righteousness. Justice is a legal word. A measurement, a judgement, a legal claim. Righteousness is a very similar word, referring to loyalty to the community, honesty, what is good and right.
Notice, though, in verse 7, who is the source of the justice and righteousness? The Messiah. The Messiah establishes justice and righteousness. Upholds them. The word “zeal” here is sometimes translated “jealous.” The Messiah’s zeal, his strong desire, will make sure that his kingdom is filled with justice and righteousness. That is a very different kind of kingdom indeed.
When we read about the government and nations, our own and those around the world, throughout history we read a story of corruption, injustice, war crimes, and the like. There is much darkness in so many human governments.
Not the Messiah’s kingdom. In the Messiah’s kingdom there is hope and peace, as his light breaks through the darkness. In the Messiah’s kingdom we experience inner peace of wholeness, not perfectly, but in a real way.
We participate in bringing that light of peace, when we are peacemakers, justice bringers, striving to pursue righteous living.
The first week of Advent was about hope. This second week we have focused on peace. The light of Jesus brings peace in the darkness.
We just had a new baby in our family. Our second son and his wife had their first, a son, a month ago. I was holding my new baby grandson recently, as he was sleeping, and I noticed his blond eyelashes. Not typical for my family, but so cute. When a baby is born, we want details. What color eyes, hair, length, weight.
It’s Christmas season, and I wonder what Jesus looked like as a baby.
We’ve been studying Isaiah 9 this second week of Advent, and in verses 6 and 7, Isaiah mentioned a baby: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” What image does that bring to mind? The nativity scene, right? Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus in a manger.
When Isaiah wrote this, he likely wasn’t thinking about a specific childbirth in Bethlehem seven hundred years in the future. He might have been thinking about the birth of his own sons, which had just happened one chapter previously, in Isaiah 8.
Yet, when we jump ahead to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, what do the angels declare to the shepherds in the fields just outside town? In Luke 2:10-11 they declare, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
The Messiah means “anointed one,” a savior. The angels were right! This is good news. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. Not simply because a baby was born. Anytime a baby is born, it is good news. But this baby was, is, the Messiah. The Savior.
After telling us that a son is born, Isaiah now begins to describe this baby. But he doesn’t give us height, weight, and hair color. Look at the rest of verse 6, “the government will be on his shoulders.”
Government? On a baby’s shoulders?
In Jesus’ day, many people misinterpreted Isaiah’s prophecy, believing that the messiah was going to be a political, government, military leader who was going to restore the kingdom of Israel to its glory as in the days of the great kings David and Solomon.
The messiah was not going to be an earthly king who would kick the Romans out of Israel. The Messiah is king of the eternal kingdom of God. When you think of the eternal kingdom of God, what word comes to mind? Heaven, right?
Where we go wrong is to assume that the Kingdom of God only refers to some non-earthly heaven. We go wrong when we assume that God just wants us to leave this earth and go to heaven.
But didn’t Jesus talk about his kingdom as not of this world? Yes, he did. In John 18:36, as he was being questioned by the Roman governor Pilate, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Jesus is not suggesting that his kingdom has nothing to do with our world. He is simply saying that his kingdom is not a geographical, national kingdom or government like those that are of the world.
We know that the government of the Kingdom of Heaven is here on earth too, because Jesus taught us that. His earliest sermons declared, “The Kingdom of God is in your midst, is near.” When he taught us to pray, he said we should pray to God asking, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of God is here now, not in a building, not by elected officials, not in courts, not with geographical boundaries.
The Kingdom of God is here now, as people like you and I, within whom God the Spirit lives, when we behave in ways consistent with the way of Jesus. This is why at Faith Church we so often refer to the Fruit of the Spirit. We demonstrate the Kingdom by living a life of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. We strive to invite other people to enter that kingdom as well, to meet Jesus, to follow his ways. We strive to eradicate the structures of injustice in our communities, because in God’s kingdom oppression will cease.
In that way, the government is upon his shoulders.
Isaiah has more to say about the government being on the shoulders of the baby, and he does so by giving us more descriptions of the messiah. We learn about that in the next post.
This second week of Advent 2025, we’re studying Isaiah 9. In the previous two posts here and here, we’ve learned that the prophecy sees a light breaking into the darkness of war-torn northern Israel. A new hope of peace has dawned. No surprise, then, how the prophecy continues in verse 3,
“You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.”
Four times the words joy or rejoice are used in this one sentence! Of course there is rejoicing when the light of peace dispels the darkness. But there’s more reason for the rejoicing.
Look at verses 4-5, “For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.”
The rejoicing amplifies because those under oppression are set free. Originally, this prophecy was about the people in Northern Israel who were under the oppression from Assyria. As such, this was a very historical prophecy of national freedom. The prophecy also reveals God’s heart.
God’s light of peace includes freeing people who are suffering under oppression of all kinds. People who are experiencing suffering are feeling the opposite of peace. It could be food insecurity, housing insecurity, financial insecurity, abuse, addiction, incarceration. Sometimes they bring it on themselves. Yet God cares for all, whether they brought it on themselves or not.
We do well to share God’s light of peace when we seek to overturn suffering of all kinds. Just as Jesus did, we give ourselves sacrificially, living simply, generously, to lift people who are suffering.
Consider the words of the great Christmas carol, “O Holy Night”:
“Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.”
The eradication of oppression sometimes requires destroying the structures of oppression, structures that can be perpetrated by other Christians. In our American Civil Rights era, for example, overturning oppression required a massive, organized movement, including marches, protests, meetings, publicity, politics, legal cases, including lawsuits that went the whole way to the Supreme Court.
Where do you see suffering in your community? It might be hidden. Oppression often lives in the shadows, especially in affluent communities. My own community is gorgeous, with its heritage of farming, Amish tourism, and yet we have one of the highest unhoused populations in our county. While we have had tent communities from time to time, most of our unhoused persons live in cars, hotels, or with family/friends. Numerous churches, nonprofits, and government orgs work together to support unhoused people, providing for their immediate needs, helping them get work, do financial planning, and traditional housing.
Recently a group of people at nearby Forest Hills Mennonite Church partnered with Chestnut Housing to purpose a property which will be converted to below market rate housing. It will likely be a 3+ year process that will involve lots of fundraising, sweat equity, and result in about 15 units of joyful hope.
There’s also legal work that has been done, such as townships changing zoning laws to allow people to build secondary dwellings on their properties, for the purpose of providing affordable low-income house.
These are just a few examples of how in Jesus’ name, oppression will cease.
Matthew was there. He not only saw the light of Jesus’ peace change others, Matthew personally experienced what happened when Jesus light of peace enters the darkness of a person’s life.
Matthew’s life was dark, without peace. He was a tax collector. Hated by his fellow Jews because tax collectors were not only in league with their Roman overlords, but also because the tax collectors got rich by overtaxing people.
Imagine how Matthew himself might have felt. Have you ever been in a situation like that when it seems that the people in your life are against you? It doesn’t feel peaceful. You might not ever have been a tax collector, or have to face your family, friends, and neighbors calling you and treating you a traitor, but my guess is that you have experienced brokenness, relationships that fall apart, grow distant, even conflicted or hateful. You’ve experienced the darkness, the lack of peace. You can identify with Isaiah 9:2 (see previous post here), and you might think to yourself, “Yeah, I get why Matthew quoted that verse.”
In Matthew chapter 9, verse 9, we read the story of the very day that light broke into Matthew’s darkness. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
How amazing is that? Jesus asks Matthew to join his group, to enter into his peace, and experience a new way of life. Matthew sees the light, turns from the darkness, and follows Jesus. Then they have dinner together. In Luke’s version of this story, he describes the dinner as a “great banquet.” It’s a party! Matthew wants to celebrate the light, the new peace he has found.
Notice who is invited to and shows up to Matthew’s party? Matthew 9, verse 10, “Many tax collectors and sinners.” That’s an important detail. Jesus partied with sinners. Jesus partied with people who were walking in darkness, so that he might bring light and life to them. Jesus wanted more and more people to experience the wholeness of life, the peace that Matthew was now experiencing.
It makes sense why Matthew makes the connection between Jesus’ ministry and Isaiah 9:2. Jesus, through his words and deeds, brings light to the darkness, he brings peace to our hearts, minds, and bodies so that we can experience wholeness.
At this juncture, though, I need to make an important clarification: please don’t read me as implying that Matthew never had any problems ever again for the rest of his life. Matthew is rightly celebrating the new peace he found in Jesus, but there would be numerous difficult days ahead for Matthew.
Jesus himself, the Prince of Peace (as we will see in a post later this week), experienced deep darkness just before he was arrested and crucified. He was betrayed by one of his followers. In the garden, he prayed an anguished prayer to his Father, that if there was any other way, asking God to make it so. He was sweating hard, eager for his followers to surround him, but they just fell asleep. Then when the betrayer, Judas brought guards to arrest Jesus, the rest of his friends fled. One of his friends denied him three times. The crowds who once adored him did a 180 a proclaimed “Crucify him!”. But Jesus carried peace through the darkness.
We won’t always have peaceful situations in our lives. And that is not the point. Jesus did not come to make all situations peaceful. Some, yes. More and more, hopefully, as Christians live out our calling to be peacemakers. Still there will be moments and seasons in which the situations of our lives are less than peaceful, or downright awful. Just like Jesus experienced at the end of his live. Also like Jesus, we can have his peace in the midst of the darkness because he is with us.
The apostle Paul writes about this in Philippians 4:6-7, ” Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
When you are in one of those dark situations, go to God in prayer, ask him to help you be thankful, to experience his peace.
Today we go back in time nearly 2700 years and Israel is at war. There is no peace.
Isaiah 9, verse 1 gives us the context: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan.”
Like I said, when this passage was written, Israel was at war. You can hear the talk of war in the passage when he uses the words “gloom” and “distress.” But I’m not talking about all of Israel.
The nation of Israel had long before been split in two by civil war. The northern nation retained the name Israel, while the southern nation was called Judah. The prophet Isaiah ministered in Judah, in Judah’s capital city Jerusalem, serving as royal prophet for a number of Judah’s kings, with righteous King Hezekiah perhaps the greatest.
But in the north things were very dark, as the Assyrian empire was growing and Judah’s sister country to the north, Israel, was declining. During Isaiah’s lifetime, the Assyrians defeated Israel. Zebulun, Naphtali, and Galilee refer to northern Israel. These are areas the Assyrians had already invaded and captured.
Isaiah would have been safe, as he lived in Judah to the south.
Still the threat of war, of occupation, of a powerful enemy at their borders was ever present. When verse 1 says, “there will be no more gloom,” it means that there was gloom. Gloom was their real situation. There were dark storm clouds of war, of invasion, of exile, of death, for the people Isaiah ministered among in the south.
Yet, Isaiah’s prophecy says that a time is coming in the future when God will honor Israel.
Which brings us to verse 2, a famous Christmas passage, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” In this dark time of war, a light of peace would shine. What peace?
While this passage had application to its original audience in Isaiah’s day, some 700 years before Jesus was born, the earliest Christians believed that this passage found its greatest fulfillment in in Jesus. In Matthew 4, verse 15, Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:2. Look at Matthew 4, verse 14, right before the quote, and Matthew says that Jesus’ ministry began in Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, and thus Jesus fulfilled the prophecy.
Jesus taught the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven was in their midst. Jesus also did the deeds of the good news of the Kingdom, welcoming everyone, healing the sick, releasing people from oppression, confronting hypocrisy, and preaching, as Matthew says in verse 17, the message of repentance, which is turning to God, restoring relationship with God, and following God’s ways.
Why? Because, Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus himself was the light of the Kingdom of God, and the people could see that, hear it, feel it. They could experience it. Sometimes in their own bodies, as they were healed, freed from oppression, and as they ate food he miraculously provided. They were experiencing the light of peace in their lives.
In the Old Testament Hebrew the word for peace is shalom. It is not just peace between warring parties. It is wholeness. Shalom peace is when things are whole. Jesus came to bring that kind of peace in people, between people, and between people and God.
Matthew was there. He not only saw shalom peace, he felt it. We learn how in the next post.
Have you sensed that there is a widening ideological divide in our American culture? I’ve written about it here on the blog, the sorting of our society. I recently heard someone suggest, however, that only 10% of people hold to the extremes poles of cultural ideology. 80% reside in the middle. I wouldn’t have guessed that. But I had an experience this past week that challenged my assumptions.
This past week, on the same day I attended a breakfast and a lunch, both of which featured presentations by the Lancaster Journalism Fund. It was simply coincidence that the two events happened on the same day.
The first event was the quarterly gathering of Connection Village, sponsored by Conestoga Valley SEEDS and held at our school district boardroom. At Connection Village, representatives from a variety of Conestoga Valley based organizations meet to talk about life in our community. I represented the faith community, as I am president of the CV Ministerium. Also in attendance were representatives from the school district, first responders, business, social services, government, and finance. We each shared “wins,” with the goal of encouraging healthy community connections. It is a wonderful gathering.
The second event was new to me, Lancaster County in Common. Sponsored by the Lancaster Journalism Fund, and held at the Lafayette Fire Company, I barely knew anyone. Representatives from Ad Voz led us in conversational exercises, focusing on practicing listening. I was reminded of our humanity as I listened to strangers briefly tell me about their lives.
These events were so uplifting because there is another discouraging reality in our culture. Lancaster Journalism Fund representatives reported that as recently as 20 years ago, our local Sunday newspaper, the Sunday News, reached 80%-90% of county households. Now it only reaches 20%. There is no longer a common source of community news. Our local TV station is great, but it also doesn’t provide the level of commonality that the newspaper once did.
Instead, Lancastrians, just like most other communities across the country, hear about news from a fractured variety of sources. National platforms, and especially social media, can lead us to believe that most people are actually extremists, and that we should be extremist too.
If the person I mentioned at the beginning of this post is correct, and 10% of the country holds to the extreme ideological poles, that is still a lot of people. 10% + 10% of a population of 340 million is 68 million people.
How, then, do we address this?
One experimental solution in my community is Roundabout CV. Conestoga Valley is one of five communities across the country that have been selected for the launch of a hyper-local new source, Roundabout. It will not use an algorithm. Instead it will be only for residents of CV, to post about life and events in CV. Will it bring us together? Will it help us cross ideological divides? I think it has potential.
But I also believe there is a deeper lack peace. This second week of Advent we will talk about what can bring genuine peace. See for yourself ahead of time by reading Isaiah 9.
How much of your gift-giving this Christmas will be lavishing gifts on people who already have all their needs met? I will love the gifts I receive at Christmas, but I can tell you very honestly that I don’t need a single Christmas gift. I want them. It feels great to open them. New stuff makes us happy, at least temporarily. But so often, our Christmas gift giving is enriching people who are already rich.
Joel, you grinch.
I know. But stay with me here.
In this first week of Advent, we’ve been studying Psalm 112, a wisdom psalm that uses the classic biblical wisdom phrase, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Then in verses 7 and 8 the psalm appears to do a one-hundred eighty degree turn in its use of the word “fear.” Verse 7, “No fear of bad news.” Verse 8, “have no fear.” But in verse 1 we are told to “fear the Lord.” Sounds like a contradiction. They are even all the same Hebrew word. This is, however, not a contradiction. Here’s how.
The psalmist is saying that when you fear the one good thing, you won’t fear bad things. In fact, when you fear the one good thing, you won’t fear anything. He points out that when we fear, respect, and honor God, our hearts will be steadfast (verse 7) and secure (verse 8). These two words, “steadfast” and “secure,” give us the image of a strong, supported, immovable, foundation. God is the foundation. We fear him, we trust in him. He is our strong foundation.
Because we have such a strong trust in him, we can delight in his commands, even in the middle of darkness, by serving others, by reaching out to others in need, being compassionate, gracious, and generous to them.
Notice how the psalmist describes this in verse 9, “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.”
“Freely scattered their gifts to the poor.” This verse is not talking about Christmas, but I had to think about the coming Christmas holiday when I read this verse, because of the mention of “their gifts.” I think about all those Christmas gifts around all those Christmas trees. Lots and lots of gifts. Gift giving is a wonderful thing. Christmas embodies the spirit of generosity in this passage.
But notice the recipients of the gifts in verse 9, “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor.” The poor are those who truly need our gifts. This is why I pointed out at the beginning of the post the reality that at Christmas we can give gifts to those who don’t need gifts. What if during Christmas, we gave gifts to people in need? What if, instead of giving gifts to each other, husbands and wives give gifts to organizations who do this good work each day? In my community, there is an Alternative Giving Fair, Gifts the Give Hope, at which people can purchase gifts for the loved ones in their lives. Those gifts directly support non-profit organizations doing good work to benefit those in need. Don’t have an Alternative Gift Fair in your community? Start one! Or just connect with local organizations near and dear to your heart, or to the hearts of your loved one, and give a donation to that org in your loved one’s honor.
What if you take ten percent of your Christmas gift budget and give it to those in need? I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give any Christmas gifts to the people you love. Instead, I’m suggesting that wise living, in the fear of the Lord, is just like Psalm 112 suggests, “freely scattering our gifts to the poor.” By that kind of gift-giving, you participate in bringing light to darkness.
The psalm concludes with one verse of contrast, of warning. Verse 10, “The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.”
The wicked are the opposite of the blessed. The wicked do not fear the Lord. The wicked do not delight in God’s commands. The wicked are self-focused, selfish, bitter. Ultimately, the psalmist says, the wicked are stuck in a state of vexation, waste away, and their longings come to nothing. That is a severe description that God wants no one to end up in.
Therefore, fear God and delight in his ways, even if you are experiencing darkness. I encourage you to get a copy of Darkness Then Light, the Advent devotional this blog is following during Advent 2025.
When we are in dark, difficult situations, we are often self-focused, wallowing in our misfortune and hurt. It is not wrong to sit with our pain. In fact sitting in our pain is needed for a time. As I mentioned in the previous post, when we feel that pain, we lament, and we cry out to God. But there is another step we can take, and Psalm 112 describes that next step.
In our study of Psalm 112 this week, we have arrived at verses 4 and 5. Continuing the theme from the previous post, the psalmist teaches us how to live the way God wants us to live. His words in verses 4 and 5 are very much connected to verse 1, where we read that wisdom is fearing the Lord and delighting in his commands. Now in verses 4 and 5, the psalmist writes that wise people who fear the Lord are “gracious and compassionate and righteous,… generous and lend freely, [and] who conduct their affairs with justice.”
These words in verses 4 and 5 depict the lifestyle choices of a wise person who fears the Lord. Take note of the outward movement of these words. This is the ancient wisdom for those in darkness. Though in darkness themselves, the life of God flows from them. While we do well to be gracious and compassionate toward ourselves when we are struggling, the emphasis of verses 4 and 5 is a person who, despite their own personal darkness, lives a flourishing life because they give their life so others can also life a flourishing life.
What is especially notable about this passage is that it is not only connected to verse 1, describing practically what it looks like to fear of the Lord, but all these outward facing characteristics are connected to the beginning of verse 4. What did we see at the beginning of verse 4? A person in the middle of darkness. But the rest of verses four and five make a significant move, from a focus on ourselves in darkness, to a focus on helping others experience flourishing. When we are in darkness, it is our outward focus on serving others that can bring the dawning light of a new day to both others and ourselves.
Through the years, when my wife and I have counseled people who are going through a hard time, a regular piece of advice we give them is to start serving others. Even if you don’t feel like serving others. When you help others, often the feelings follow. This is not ignoring your pain, it is wisdom, pursuing an outward movement in the midst of your pain.
Fearing the Lord includes serving others, and what you will find in time is that you delight in it. Not always initially. Often fearing the Lord and following his ways might feel like a pain, like we have to force ourselves to do it, but in time, we find it to be a delight.
Furthermore, good things will come. See the beginning of verse 5. This is another proverb, not a promise. You can do everything right, and still have a misfortune in your life. That is just the way of the world. But generally, when you give your life to helping others, to serving others, good things will come to you, even if that simply means good things emotionally and spiritually in your connection to others and God.
See how this theme continues in verse 6: “Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.”
Can you name the names of your great grandparents? How about your great, great grandparents? The fading memory of their names is a reality check to us. We are right to be believe our family relationships are important. But it is normal that those family relationships are important only for a few generations. Clearly, what the psalmist is saying is not true 100% of the time. The vast majority of people, righteous or otherwise, are not remembered beyond a generation or two.
But the psalmist is not wrong! Once again, he is using figurative language, in this case exaggeration, to make a point. Will every righteous person be literally remembered forever? No. But when we live our lives generously for others, we widen the circle of our friends and acquaintances. We are building a community of love that supports one another. Just as we are in people’s corner amid their darkness, they are in our corner in our difficult moments. We have one another, we trust in God, we do not need to fear.
Curiously, though, verses 7 and 8 seem to have a very different approach to the concept of “fear.” Verse 7, “No fear of bad news.” Verse 8, “have no fear.” But in verse 1 we are told to fear the Lord. Sounds like a contradiction between verse 1 and verses 7 and 8. Yet, they are all the same Hebrew word. What is going on?
This is not a contradiction. We find out how in the next post.
Two of the primary hopes parents long for is (1) that their children do well, and (2) that they have enough money to provide for their kids. Parents can expend mountains of emotional energy on these two important concerns throughout the parenting years, and even long after their kids have left the home. Is there a way we can make sure we have well-adjusted kids and secure finances?
Psalm 112 is a wisdom poem, and it talks about those two issues. We know Psalm 112 is a wisdom psalm because the psalm begins with the classic biblical wisdom formula, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Just like the book of Proverbs begins. When we read all those short little wisdom statements in Proverbs, we need to remember that the wisdom genre is not teaching guaranteed promises. Proverbs are not promises. Proverbs’ wisdom sayings are truths that will happen often, maybe even almost always, but not every single time because in life there are sometimes exceptions to the rule, exceptions that prove the rule. The same dynamic is present in Psalm 112, this wisdom poem.
When we read verses 2 through 9, we are reading what to expect will normally happen when we fear the Lord and delight in his laws. But that doesn’t mean God is guaranteeing that all those wonderful results in verses 2 through 9 will absolutely positively happen every time. These are not promises, they are wise principles.
We hear the first one in verse 2. “Your children will be mighty in the land.” You can fear God, delight in his laws, and still have children who are not mighty in the land. But fearing God, delighting in his laws, is the best possible situation for raising kids. Kids are still humans who sometimes choose to disagree with you and follow a different pathway. Maybe just temporarily. Maybe for a long time. But it is still wise, right, and good to teach them to fear the Lord and follow his commands.
Next, verse 3. “Wealth and riches are in their houses.” You can fear God, delight in his laws, and never have wealth, riches, or a house. Fearing God and delighting in his laws is not a magic formula for worldly success. But when we fear God and delight in his laws, we are putting ourselves in a great position to have our needs cared for. Why? Because following God’s laws means working hard, living simply, and giving generously, which usually results in having our needs cared for.
Then comes the Advent theme verse for the week, verse 4. “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.” I appreciate this because the psalmist is giving us a very realistic scenario.
Again, remember the genre of Psalm 112. Wisdom poetry. Poetry uses symbolic language very often. In this verse 4, the psalmist mentions darkness. He is not talking about nighttime. He is talking about dark situations in life, such as difficulty, pain, hurt, brokenness, disappointment, depression, despair. Think for a moment about how you are experiencing darkness in your own life lately.
Dark situations are the norm for humans. I have learned many lessons over the years in pastoral ministry, not the least of which is the fact that just about every family has their own darkness. I see their smiling faces when we gather on Sunday, and it is right and good to be joyful during worship, but there is also darkness in their lives. My family has difficulty in our lives too. I’ve written here previously about my struggle with anxiety and panic. In 2024 our granddaughter needed multiple heart surgeries. Michelle and I have had and still have aspects of darkness in our lives. Life can be hard for everyone.
The darkness in our lives is why on the blog I have talked about lament from time to time. Typically worship services are positive, joyful, light-filled, and that is good, because we are so grateful to God. But the psalms are also filled with laments, where the psalmists bring up the junk of life, the darkness, and they give us permission to cry out in deep pain to God. When the psalmist mentions the darkness here in verse 4, he is touching, very briefly, on lament. He is admitting that darkness is real. We follow the psalmists’ very healthy approach when we say out loud to God and others, “There is darkness in my life.”
Notice what the psalmist is saying about the darkness. In the middle of the darkness, light dawns. This past week I was working out early one morning with two friends. We get to the gym at 6am, which is before sunrise this time of year. Slowly the sky lit up. Gradually the bright red sunlight washed across the clouds. It was beautiful. Here’s a photo of that morning, which doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea:
In Psalm 112:4, “light dawns” is not referring to sunrise, though. It is figurative language. Metaphor. It describes what is so often true about the difficult situations in our lives. They are rarely over and done with immediately. Like the slowly rising sun, change comes gradually to our difficulties. A medical problem slowly heals. A broken heart also slowly heals. Through hard work, living simply, paying off debt, little by little, our finances are restored. With lots of practice, and therapy, and prayer, we can forgive those who hurt us. We can rebuild a broken relationship.
Again, the light breaking into the darkness is not a guaranteed promise of perfection. Instead, the psalmist is using wisdom, proverbially, about what so often happens when people live the way God wants us to live.
In the next post, the psalmist tells us more about what happens when we live the way God wants us to live.
Engaging Scripture 