Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Lungs of the City | The Writings | Psalm 112

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

What's the "lung" of a city? What does it mean to be blessed? Are you extending God's light into your community?  In today's episode, Jeff shares how Psalm 112 encourages us to receive the blessing of God and share it with the world around us. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 112

Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. If you want to evaluate the power of a location or the power of an object, you have to observe the impact it has on its surrounding environment. I was reminded of this recently when my father-in-law returned from a trip to Spain. While spending time in Madrid, he noticed how locals would call the famous Retiro Park by a different yet revealing nickname.

That nickname was the lung, the lung of the city. This vast space is beautiful and inspiring in its appearance, yet for the locals, it's most known for its function, acting as a lung that breathes in a sense of life to the entire city. It turns out that this nickname extends to other local parks around the world. For instance, in the 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted declared that Central Park would function as the lungs for the entire city of New York. Going back to the 1700s, the English politician William Pitt described

how the three main parks of London would function as the lungs of the city that cleanse and purify the air that people breathe. To call the expansive green space of a park a lung is to honor the impact it has on its surrounding environment. Places like this, they don't exist for themselves alone. They exist to renew, restore, and establish flourishing for everything they touch. Perhaps the true beauty within these public spaces doesn't lie in their appearance, but in their effect. As the lungs of cities, these parks serve as the presence of beauty that extends beyond themselves. They are the presence of life, begetting more life. Their existence isn't evaluated simply by what they look like, but by the difference they make.

The impact of these parks that serve as lungs for their cities, it reminds me of the kind of presence that followers of Jesus are meant to have in their cities. We get a glimpse of this life-creating difference in Psalm 112, a Psalm of particular importance to God's people in exile, as they found themselves in spaces and cities devoid of true flourishing lives. How did God call them to be a life-giving community in spaces that seemed barren? What can we learn from Psalm 112 to be the kind of people who, together, bless our cities with the life-giving power of the gospel? As we approach God's word, let's pause and ask for his steadfast love and kindness to move

through our time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, and thank you for your word. Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth now. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 112. As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us so that we may be a restorative presence wherever you have us. In Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 112 begins with the flourishing existence of those who put their trust in the Lord.

We read this in verse 1. praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord who greatly delights in his commandments. This introductory verse really sets the tone for the next nine verses. Notice here how the blessed, good, and flourishing life is one that holds together a fear or a reverent awe for God and at the same time a delight in his commandments. Some people dilute the life of faith by emphasizing one of those dynamics at the expense of the other. But this portrayal of the blessed life embraces both, helping us recognize the power of God with our reverent awe, and yet at the same time helps us recognize the love of God with our delight in his design for our lives and for our world.

yet this awe and delight aren't meant to fuel our personal individualistic experiences of flourishing alone. As Psalm 112 continues, we see how this awe and delight in God actually serve as the seedbed for the blessing and flourishing of other people. The blessed person is meant to be a blessing to others. This becomes especially prominent when we examine how Psalm 112 describes the effect that God's people have on their surrounding environment. For instance, verse four describes how the person who fears the Lord and delights in his commandments is like light dawning in the darkness.

This kind of person embodies with their very lives the grace and mercy and righteousness of God through their daily interactions with others. They're reflecting the character traits that elsewhere in the Bible are used to describe, describe God himself. The presence of darkness here indicates that the flourishing of God's people. It often takes place in the context of adverse conditions. And this is counter to the comfort-oriented expectations of many modern people, especially modern people in the church. A similar theme appears in verse 7, which says this. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. Now, let's recognize how this verse, verse 7, assumes that bad news may come to the one following the way of the Lord.

In fact, it's likely to come. As a quick aside, this is totally contrary to the false, misleading, health and wealth gospel that is pervasive in a lot of contexts today, that minimizes the goodness and truth of the gospel. oftentimes the life of faith leads to seasons of suffering that can't be rationally understood or controlled and yet in the midst of uncertainty and pain the one who fears the lord and delights in the lord is not afraid in the presence of bad news not outside of the bad news but in the presence of bad news this kind of person is a non-anxious presence who trusts in the lord now this is a great moment for us to remember the early audience of Psalm 112. The people of God living in exile did not enjoy certain control over political power. They did not exist in a space where it was comfortable to be a follower of Yahweh.

They lived in a time and place that was usually devoid of flourishing life, as the Bible describes it. And yet Psalm 112 suggests that their setting in this barren place is precisely why, they're meant to be a life-giving presence. While living in the darkness, they were positioned to mirror the light of God. While surviving in the smog of sin, death, and evil, they were able to function like the lung of a city, extending life and love to those around them. One of the specific ways that Psalm 112 applies this life-creating dynamic to those ancient exiles and to our lives today is through the discipline of generosity. We read this in verse 5. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. We also read this in verse 9. He is distributed

freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted and honored. There's a question. Why this focus on generosity as a practical outworking in Psalm 112? Well, perhaps it's because the topic of generosity is one of the most difficult yet defining elements in the life of faith. To live a generous life is to recognize that we aren't our own. To live with generosity is to live a life that extends beyond yourself. It's to be like the lung of a great city, to be a presence of life that creates more life beyond the boundaries of your own comfort and control. This concept of blessing and life that extends beyond us,

it's punctuated in Psalm 112 by the repeated reference to a righteousness and remembering that endures forever. We pick up on that refrain in verses 3, 6, and 9. When we live with a generosity and a righteousness that points to God's generosity and God's righteousness, we participate in something that extends beyond, our lives because what we're sharing with other people isn't ultimately our life and our love. It's the life and love of God.

Back in Genesis 12, one of the most important chapters in the Old Testament, God blesses his people in order to be a blessing to the world. This sets the trajectory for the rest of the biblical story. And that mission of blessing others, it's not abandoned when the world seems to fall apart. In the time of exile, the mission of God's people is the same. When the odds are against you, be a blessing. When the world around you is caving in, be a light. When it seems like you're surrounded by toxicity, be someone who creates life.

Be like the lung of a city. Life extending beyond itself to beget more life. Psalm 112 is a necessary reminder that we don't exist for ourselves. We exist to glorify God and bless others. And in that space, we have a deep delight in the one who made us and moves through us. And just like the beauty of a park lies in the impact it has on its environment, the beauty of the community of faith lies in the way it affects its surroundings. As we close, pause to consider your setting, your environment today.

You may be in a city that's small or large, town of varying sizes. You may be in an office complex or a classroom. You may be caring for an aging parent or a growing child. Wherever God's placed you, how can you have a generous heart that images the grace, mercy, righteousness, and justice of God? How do you need to grow in your own awe of God and delight in God in His commands to better reflect the fullness of his character to those around you. If you're to take stock in your life right now,

how would you evaluate the impact you're making on your surrounding environment? Wherever you are, wherever you're going, God has created you and placed you to be a personal extension of his love, to cultivate a kind of beauty that endures forever. You don't exist for yourself. You exist to renew, restore, and establish flourishing with every, your life touches. Father, we praise you for your grace in making us who we are and in placing us where we are. Jesus, help us reflect the sacrificial, generous love of your kingdom and the day

before us with our time, our possessions, our presence. Holy Spirit, would you relentlessly work in us and through us to create a beauty that involves our lives yet extends far beyond our lives? Do this for your glory for the good of others, leading to our deepest delight in you. In Jesus' name, amen.