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rs of the hebrew alphabet in verses 1 10 we have the thanksgiving and v11 22 he tells us what he has learnt from his experience he begins the psalm with a pledge that he will bless the lord at all times his praise will be continually in my mouth he goes on to recount that the lord answered and delivered him he recounts what god has done in hearing and saving him he talks of the angel of the lord who is near to those who fear him he calls on god s people to taste and see that the lord is god to take refuge in him and they will be safe and satisfied in verses 11 22 the language is similar to what we have in proverbs there is a fatherly tone he addresses our speech we should keep our tongue from evil he instructs us in our behaviour turn away from evil and pursue peace in relationships with others then in verses 15 16 the eyes of the lord are on the righteous he knows everything about us and a contrast is made with enemies of god the face of the lord is against them in v17 david speaks of the righteous crying for help and the lord hearing delivering them out of their trouble in v19 he tells us that many are the afflictions of the righteous and again the lord delivers them out of them all verse 18 is obviously still addressing the righteous it isn t a generic promise for all people going through difficulties but it particularly speaks to those who know god and are counted righteous in his most famous work christianity and liberalism j gresham machen writes christianity is the religion of the broken heart he goes on to specify that although christianity does not end with a broken heart it does begin with a broken heart because there is a consciousness of sin in the world one day our hearts will be healed because of jesus did we know that now our sins have been dealt with at the cross of christ hurled in to the sea micah 7 19 put as far as the east is from the west psalm 103 12 put behind his back isa 38 17 and yet our hearts are not completely healed yet authentic biblical christianity and the authentic christian church is marked by this brokenness of heart god resists the proud but gives grace to the humble 1 peter 5 5 james 4 6 god cannot and will not inhabit a proud rebellious stubborn heart but he inhabits by his holy spirit a submissive believing contrite heart that is god s dwelling where he delights to be he is near to all who call on him psalm 145 18 he is near to those who seek him isa 55 6 but wonderfully he is near to the broken hearted the god who is infinite eternal unchangeable in his being wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth is also near david in his repentance in psalm 51 tells us that the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart o god you will not despise psalm 51 17 he is not only near but he saves those who are crushed when we describe someone as being crushed there is a sense in which we are are admitting there is very little we can do we and they sense their desolation and sadness the picture here in psalm 34 is of having to be broken in order to be healed the breaking of bones in order to be healed who is the healer the lord jesus wonderfully goes to the synagogue in his home town luke 4 and he quotes from isaiah 61 the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted jesus is in the business of mending broken hearts we see that again and again in his ministry particularly though not exclusively to women he does not and he will not heal the self righteous and the proud he brings people down in order to raise them up we see him healing broken hearts he breaks in order to mend he is still doing that work he promised isaiah 57 15 for thus says the one who is high and lifted up who inhabits eternity whose name is holy i dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite it may be this is the reason so many will not come to him as they refuse to break their hearts there is no other way to god than a broken heart and a contrite spirit the church of jesus christ is wonderfully full of the broken and the crushed who have looked to him for healing the christian life is this paradox of a joyful and broken heart and from my stricken heart with tears two wonders i confess the wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness your minister and friend ealinglevy ministers letters uncategorized 1 comment april 30 2026 april 30 2026 4 minutes the clueless farmer minister s letter march 25 i m not sure we should have favourite parables but i find myself reflecting on and speaking of the parable of the growing seed in mark 4 more than any other 26 and jesus said the kingdom of god is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground 27 he sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows he knows not how 28 the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear 29 but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come the reason i love this parable is because in many ways it gives us a blueprint for our work as a church it tells us of our limitations and gives us our confidence in the previous parable of the sower we re told the seed is the word of god v14 in the next parable we have the parable of the mustard seed on the certain growth of the kingdom i love the picture given here of the church in v27 the farmer is up night and day going to sleep and rising early each day there is the relentless work of sowing the seed there is the slowness of the whole venture you put the seed into the ground and at first nothing seems to be happening but you have to persevere i have friends who are farmers their days are long there is always more to do and there is a sense in which the job is never finished things often need redoing there is a rhythm to their weeks and years often things happen which are out of their control holidays are difficult to manage because the work of the farm never stops the farmer has to wait and trust he needs to stick at it and persevere it is relentless back breaking gut wrenching work so much of the farmer s life is monotonous jesus tells us this seed that the farmer puts in the ground begins to sprout and grow then at the end of v27 we are given one of my favourite lines in all of the gospels this hardworking farmer sees the growth and he knows not how he has worked hard and he has begun to see growth but he cannot tell you how it has happened he does not understand it verse 28 moves on to tell us about the nature of this growth it is slow and it is gradual the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear the farmer doesn t get up one morning and there is a full blown grain harvest the slowness of growth would be frustrating at times different years with different weather conditions means growth is not uniform then v29 teaches us the certainty of harvest despite the slowness and the gradual nature of the growth there is a harvest at just the right time this parable is a beautiful picture of christian work in the kingdom and in church life the sowing of the seed of god s word happens both morning and evening sleeping and rising keeping on keeping on the work is slow and monotonous christian ministry is all of that we are utterly convinced that god works through his word and so we will keep on sowing for some of us that has meant years even decades of faithfulness in various ministries keeping teaching god s word that is a beautiful thing the temptation is to look for something else to build the church to depend on our ingenuity and efforts but the path of faithfulness is to keep teaching god s word the minister is to devote himself to preach the word 2 timothy 4 2 and there are only two seasons when he is to do that in season and out of season he is to keep on doing it and not give up he is to be relentlessly sowing god s word in the farmer s life there are disappointments and so it is the same in ministry i heard of a minister who when once asked how he had lasted so long said i developed an infinite capacity for disappointment that is the nature of christian ministry as well as the keeping on sowing the first lesson we can learn from this clueless farmer is so important he knows not how we are living in an age of the minister being encouraged to be the ceo to look at his systems and metrics inputs and outputs measuring growth some of this is of course right as elders we are to manage the household of god but fundamentally when it comes to how people come to a saving faith in christ how they grow how and why god blesses we know not how there are many books on church pure church total church simple church messy church everyday church mission shaped church if i was going to start a ministry using mark 4 27 i d call it clueless church the strapline would be levy he knows not how then we need to remember the gradual nature of the work disciples are not made in a flash and leaders are not trained instantly don t expect the church to go from 0 60 quickly it s long slow hard work sowing the seed things happen slowly and gradually the change of sanctification you see in your own life which is so painfully slow is what we see in the lives of others so the faithful farmer elder works and waits and trusts the work of the gospel in a church s life is often little by little i feel like i constantly have to repent of the sin of impatience and finally there is the certainty of harvest there will be definite results we just don t know how much or how many or what shape those results will take but at the right time in god s economy there will be a harvest we labour in the light of a certain glorious harvest don t you just love the simplicity of it all sow the word work hard at it keep sowing this obviously includes the work of prayer but go to sleep god gives the growth but you don t know how he does it be sure of a gradual but certain harvest keep going yours cluelessly ealinglevy ministers letters leave a comment march 31 2026 march 31 2026 4 minutes time minister s letter feb 26 dear all at ipc i was recently up in the isle of harris at a conference and there was a time of prayer at the start of the day an older man began his prayer by saying today lord is a day that has been given by you a morning which we will never have again a day which we will not be able to redeem i can t remember anything else about the prayer but i was suddenly struck by the force of truth that our time on earth is finite a certain number of days hours and minutes and then no more on our gravestones there is a date of our birth and a date of our death the bible begins and ends talking about time genesis 1 1 in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the creation story is full of references to time right at the very end of the bible in revelation 22 20 john writes he who testifies to these things says surely i am coming soon amen come lord jesus god is the author of time he is the ancient of days god is above time he is eternal but he has made himself known in time at just the right time christ jesus came into the world to die for the ungodly romans 5 6 when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons galatians 4 4 5 god is sovereign over time he is working all things out in accordance with his will eph 1 11 there is a season and a time for everything eccl 3 1 he declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done isa 46 10 god is the one who changes time and seasons daniel 2 20 we experience time sequentially there is the past the present and the future but god knows the beginning from the ending he is eternal in his being wisdom and power shorter catechism q4 there is no change in god he does not age when you were little do you remember that feeling of wanting time to speed up now in middle age with my children the age they are i want time to slow down i am told that in old age people want to wind the clock back none of those things are possible we are not in control of time and so it is vital in life to understand how we must live in the time we ve been given we receive time as a gift from god it s why the prayer of the friend at the conference is so striking and so helpful day by day morning by morning we remind ourselves with the psalmist that our times are in his hands it means that we don t need to give way to fear but recognise that god has given us time to use and enjoy the book of proverbs is full of advice on investing time wisely and not wasting it 3 2 9 11 28 16 31 12 10 27 15 15 psalm 90 famously prays teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom psalm 90 12 the finality of life is taught again and again in scripture jesus tells us that none of us can add a single hour to our life matthew 6 27 luke 12 25 time is precious and limited how can we number our days wisely paul tells us in ephesians 5 15 16 look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil the old king james version talks about redeeming the time it s the sense of there being so much we can spend our time on and so much we can waste time on that we should deliberately and carefully use our time it s the bible version of a time management course colossians 4 5 tells us to make the best use of time we will also see that time is a gift from god to be enjoyed god has made everything beautiful in its time eccl 3 11 the years months days hours and minutes are given to us by god we have no idea how many we will have in comparison to god our lives are like a few handbreadths psalm 39 5 6 we re like the morning mist the dew on the grass and so we are to enjoy the time that god gives us seeing time as an opportunity to glorify god and enjoy him the good gifts he has given us are to be enjoyed we also live in the light of eternity i find thinking about how time will work in the new creation difficult to understand and yet it will be glorious we will never have that feeling of wanting more time and that fear of things passing too quickly will be removed we will never just run out of time the dread of times to come will be removed we are told more in scripture regarding time in hell where it will be tortuously long where there will be no end to suffering living in the light of both these realities will change how we live how we act and how we speak time is very precious and limited and so i suggest that you begin your days with the prayer of my friend today lord is a day that has been given by you a morning which we will never have again a day which we will not be able to redeem your minister and friend ealinglevy ministers letters 1 comment february 26 2026 4 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