Joel Johnson | Biblical History & Theology

Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. (Psalm 3) King David wrote this psalm when his third-born son Absalom had rebelled and was trying to take over the kingdom for himself, attempting to kill David and a number of his brothers in the process We read about the narrative of these events in 2 Samuel chapters 15-18, but this psalm gives an insight into how David was feeling at this time. He had numerous enemies as it says in verse 1 - more of the...

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness that of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3:7-11, ESV)  What was Paul’s ultimate aim, in his life and death? It wasn’t to look good; that is why he counted his impeccable Israelite heritage and his academic achievements as loss rather than gain. It wasn’t to be a suffering martyr. It wasn’t to convert as many people as he could. It wasn’t to preach the gospel to the ends of t...

I have been thinking about the uniqueness of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, as a memorial event. Now memorial events are reasonably common in our culture – for example, we have Remembrance Day (11 th Nov) in Commonwealth countries and the Fourth of July in the United States. Even birthdays can be thought of as “memorial events”, as we are celebrating the anniversary of our birth. Most of these memorials focus almost exclusively on what happened in the past: there was a significant event, and we want to keep remembering and recognising it. Sometimes there is a small aspect on the relevance of the event today, but it is largely marking the anniversary of a historical date. The Lord’s Supper is different, in that it forms one point on a continuous timeline. It brings together the past, the present and the future at this one point in our lives. Yes, we remember the past: we look back as far as the origins of the Passover in the exodus narrative and the celebrations of the Passover thr...

Psalm 49:7 says “No one can redeem the life of another / or give to God a ransom for them”. It underscores a notable point – we cannot redeem someone else’s life from death; much less our own lives. The reason is that the price is too high (Ps 49:8); there is literally nothing of enough value in the world that we can get hold of that would cover the cost. A soul is too costly to be bought with mere gold or silver.  Let’s continue on to Ps 49:10-14. Rich or poor, foolish or wise, death comes for us all. We are all under the curse of death. And there is nothing in the world that can help us. It’s not something that we like to think about; but it’s something that we intrinsically know is true. Our death is just a matter of time. So what are we to do? Our only hope is in the prophetic words of verse 15 (Ps 49:15).  God is the only one who can redeem our lives. We know today that this has been ultimately fulfilled through Jesus’ life and death. Christ is our ransom price, providing...

The entirety of Psalm 1 is a picture of two men; of two paths; of two ways of living. It is a picture of the righteous man, and of the wicked man. The psalm is answering a burning question of the day, and a question which remains just as relevant today. But to find out what that question is, we need to go back a little way. In the layout of the Hebrew bible, the books of the prophets are placed earlier than they appear in our English bibles. Consequently, in the Hebrew bible, the book of Psalms comes directly after the book of Malachi. So when you are doing your read-through-the-scrolls-in-a-year program, you finish the book of Malachi and move straight onto Psalms. Now one of the important questions that people are asking in Malachi is “Who really is happy?” They’ve finished rebuilding the temple, but they don’t feel like God is blessing them, and they’re getting tired of serving God. Malachi 3:14-15 reads, “You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keep...