Today we come to Psalm 120 in which the Psalmist – “out of his distress” – calls upon the LORD to save him from “lying lips and deceitful tongues” (verse 1). We live in a world filled with lying lips and deceitful tongues, and it is certainly “distressing” when we experience these practices firsthand. Interestingly, no one – not even liars and deceivers – wants to be on the receiving end of those sins. Liars and deceivers have only their own greedy interests at heart, so their actions reflect straightway Satan’s original temptations and damages done to Adam and Eve – together with all the subsequent harm that the devil perpetrated on the whole human race through them. Truly, liars and deceivers “are of their father, the devil” (cf., John 8:44). However, we notice here that, after calling on the LORD, the Psalmist also testifies, “He answered me” (verse 1). Our God answers our prayers. The Psalmist reflects, “What will He do to you, O deceitful tongue?” (verse 3). And his reply? From his experience with God’s previous answers to his prayers, the Psalmist maintains that “He [God] will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows and burning coals of the broom tree” (verse 4). As a “man of peace” (verse 7), the Psalmist knows that “vengeance belongs to the LORD” (cf., Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:17-19).
In Ezekiel 13-15, we see how the “word of the LORD” came to Ezekiel to condemn the false prophets in the land of that day. Like “jackals among ruins” (verse 4), these false prophets were “foolish, and they followed their own imaginations rather than the Word of the LORD” (verses 3-5). Their words and prophecies were as useless as the sound of wild animals howling among the desert ruins, where no one could hear them, and just as pointless as “whitewash on a flimsy wall that collapses when the rain falls. No one knows or cares where the whitewash went after the rains” (verses 10-12). Based on charms and lying divinations, the false prophets misled the people, for which God promised to “unleash a violent wind, hailstones, and torrents of rain” (verse 13). Chapter 14 shows us the depravity and idolatry of the elders of Israel and the inescapability of the coming wrath of God. Chapter 15 reveals Ezekiel’s allegory of Jerusalem as an unfruitful vine. Vines serve the purpose of producing fruit, but this vine – a picture of Israel – was unproductive. Vines that produce no fruit are of no value other than to be burned in the fire (cf., verses 6-8).
Hebrews 8 tells us that “the main point” of the entire book is to communicate to us that we “have a [superior] high priest in heaven who sat down” (verse 1), and who “serves (or ministers and advocates) on our behalf in the sanctuary” (verse 2) – according to “the new covenant” (verse 8). This new covenant provides “forgiveness of our sins” (verse 12); and it enables us “to know the Lord” (verse 11). In addition, the new covenant secures us eternally because its “Mediator is superior and it is founded on better promises” (verse 6). Thus, the new covenant renders the old covenant “obsolete,” and, from the author’s perspective at the time he wrote the book of Hebrews, “it would soon disappear” (verse 13). The writer is saying here that the old covenant was temporary, limited, and founded on conditions, but the new covenant is permanent, unlimited, and based on God’s grace and faithfulness to fulfill all His promises completely. Compared to the new, the old has become useless and pointless.
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