FBC Morning Light –5/18/2024

Good Saturday morning, people of faith.

The Transition from Asaph’s Psalms to Solomon’s Reign

This weekend we are transitioning from the Psalms of Asaph into the ending of David's reign as king to Solomon as king. So we're reading Psalms 81 through 83, Psalms of Asaph, and then 1 Kings chapters 2 and 3, and 2 Chronicles chapter 1.

So we're going to talk a little bit about the transition from David to Solomon, but mostly I'm going to talk about just one verse from 2 Kings chapter 3. So David, and it transitions to Solomon as king, and there's several different threats to his kingship, and Solomon deals with them, of course, wisely, and it resulted in the execution of some who threatened his kingship.

Generally not a good thing to do to a king is to threaten their rule. So Solomon goes on to request wisdom, and the Lord grants him that wisdom and bestows on him many other things. But I wanted to look at one verse in 1 Kings chapter 3, and speaking of Solomon, it says in verse 3 of chapter 3, it says,.

Solomon Loved the Lord, Yet Had a Blemish

And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. So Solomon loved the Lord. He wrote many of our scriptures. He wrote, of course, most of the book of Proverbs.

The Song of Solomon is his. He's widely considered the wisest man who ever lived, and yet there is a blemish on his record. And I say this because oftentimes we think we've got it all figured out. We've learned lessons from the past, and we can look back at others in the past with a little bit of a jaundiced eye and say, oh, how come they couldn't get this part right?

And I'll explain that in just a little bit. But Solomon did love the Lord, but for whatever reason, the Lord allowed this part of his life to not be put in correct order in that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.

And so certainly, clearly, this was not something he was supposed to have done. But I think this example is here to show us to not be so proud as to think that we have it all together. For example, there's many people in our culture today who would disregard the works of George Whitefield or Jonathan Edwards, two great theologians that the Lord used mightily back in the 1600s and 1700s, excuse me, to do many great and mighty things.

Yet one might say, well, they owned slaves and owning slaves is such an egregious sin that they couldn't possibly have anything else right in their lives. Well, it is possible to have something right in your life, some major thing, and still have an egregious sin in your life.

One of the most quoted preachers of all time, the prince of preachers, he is called, Charles Spurgeon, had issues in his life as well, yet the Lord used him mightily. So I say these things to say, please don't think that you or I have this all together.

It may be that in a hundred years people look at things that we say or things that we have done and go, how could it be that that person could love the Lord and yet there is this in their life? Well, right here in verse three of chapter three, it says, and Solomon loved the Lord except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.

Let this be a humbling thing to us today and perhaps let's spend some time and you can spend some time praying that the Lord might show to you any place where there might be that except in your life, where your life does not match up to what the Lord has called.

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Prayer for Humility and Repentance

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you knowing that we do not have everything together. We know who you are and what you've done, but yet there could be things in our life that future generations may look back and shake their head and say, how is it that they did not know?

Well, we ask that you would reveal those things to us and grant to us repentance of things that would hinder your gospel in this world. May you be glorified in us today as we walk with you. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen.

Have an excellent day, people of faith.