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Misunderstandings happen all the time. Leaders can help their teammates navigate these verbal landmines—and avoid a lot of trouble—by asking the clarifying questions that will bring the whole team together.
We would love to serve as your leadership coach, so get in touch with us. My book Shepherd Leadership also has some biblical principles that leaders can immediately apply to their organizations.
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I don’t know when the last was that you may have tried to get a dozen little kids lined up, but it’s quite an experience! Everyone is vying for their spot. Someone gets mad and yells out, “He cut!” And then the reply is yelled back, “No, I didn’t. She was saving my spot!” This usually results in lots of pushing and shoving as each person tries to reclaim their rightful place in line.
This is the backdrop for Psalm 7. The introduction tells us that Cush is causing David grief. Maybe because Cush is from the tribe of Benjamin like King Saul, and he doesn’t want David cutting in line so he is shoving him back to his proper place.
There’s a musical term David uses, which isn’t used in any other psalm: shiggaion. This means a rhythm that isn’t normal—it’s a freewheeling, irregular, impassioned beat. This also helps set the atmosphere for what’s happening in David’s life. The root word for shiggaion implies a shakeup (or a shoving and pushing) that could lead to someone losing their way.
David tries to do the right thing. He asks for God’s help (v. 1) so that he doesn’t get ripped to shreds (v. 2). He even takes time to ask himself if he has done anything that led to Cush’s shoving (vv. 3-5). But notice these are all David’s attempts to make things right.
Remember that this is a Royal Psalm, but we haven’t heard anything about God as King yet. But now we come to the end of v. 5, which is also the end of David’s own striving. It’s marked by the word Selah.
My little friends push and shove to try to get their place. But all of that stops when I say, “Johnny is my line leader, and this is the way the rest of you are going to line up behind him.” David’s Selah pause was a call to switch from doing things on his own to yielding to the King to sort things out. He was saying, “The King of kings is the Leader and He knows my place in line.”
It’s only after the Selah that we see the royal terms for the Undisputed Leader:
He is the One who will decree justice (v. 6)
He will rule…from on high (v. 7)
He is the Supreme Judge (vv. 8, 11) so David yields his introspection to Him (vv. 3-4, 8-9)
He is God Most High (vv. 10, 17)
Our King has no rival. No one can shove Him. No one can contradict Him. No one can hide anything from Him (vv. 11-16).
We must bow only to the King of kings (Philippians 2:10-11).
We mistakenly bow our knee to man when…
…we aren’t willing to own our mistakes
…we try to administer our own “shove” of justice
…we make our own refuge
So we bow to the King when…
…we acknowledge, confess, and repent of our sins (vv. 3-5; Psalm 19:12, 69:5)
…we follow the example of Jesus when we’re shoved around (1 Peter 2:21-23)
…find our refuge solely in God (v. 1; c.f. 2:12; Ephesians 6:12; James 4:7)
Our best response in troublesome times—when you feel like you are being shoved around—is to fall to your knees in reverence to the King of kings (v. 17)! The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; He covers him all the day long, and makes His dwelling between his shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12 AMPC).
Controlling leaders shut down creativity among their teammates, which leads to higher turnover. If your team isn’t sharing their good ideas with you or if they are leaving you, that may be an indicator that you are too controlling. Check out the full conversation on The Craig and Greg Show
“As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic. … Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.” —G.K. Chesterton
Astronomical technology like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are providing breathtaking images. They are also creating problems for the scientific theories of the origins of our universe. University of California Santa Barbara physicist Caitlin Casey, said, “It makes sense—the Big Bang happens and things take time to gravitationally collapse and form, and for stars to turn on. There’s a timescale associated with that…. And the big surprise is that with JWST, we see roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances.” There is a more straightforward answer found in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
“Knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to use God’s gifts and God’s methods to get them there, in reliance on God’s power through Christ, with God’s appointed people following.” —John Piper, giving his definition of godly leadership
The Bible records the names of five Persian kings. One of them called “Darius the Persian” in Nehemiah 12:22 requires some historical cross-referencing to identify. The Bible Archeology Report presents another one of their fascinating archeological biographies on this Persian king.
“The greatness of a leader is in his humility before God, not in his eloquence before men.” —Anonymous
The most viewed and downloaded resource on my blog is my chart of the kings of the united kingdom of Israel and the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. I was thrilled to discover this week that Jacob Edson at Biblegateway has taken my chart even deeper!
T.M. Moore has vital counsel for pastors, “Jesus must increase in us, and we must decrease. But that doesn’t just happen by carrying out whatever our ‘spiritual work’ requires of us week-in and week-out. Our ‘natural gifts’ cannot replace spiritual ones, and ‘mental powers’ are no match for the mind of Christ. It is a shepherd’s ‘duty’ to attend to the care and nurture of his soul, for unless we are diligent in this, we will not be able to lead the Lord’s sheep into a greater experience of our great salvation or a fuller realization of His Kingdom.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The higher the stakes, the stronger your teammates’ opinions on how the organization should move forward. Leaders who take the time to walk their teams through this process will develop a stronger, more unified team.
Check out the full conversation on The Craig and Greg Show in our episode Unity Not Conformity.
Like Jesus, when we are full of and led by the Holy Spirit everywhere we walk is holy ground; every moment is a sacred moment; every work is worship to God because we are occupied about the Father’s business.
Check out the full series of messages about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the series We Are: Pentecostal.
Don’t judge your creative efforts by the world’s likes (or even by its silence). If you did your best with the talents that God gave you, the applause from nail-scarred hands is all that really matters.
“It will be vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle axe and weapons of war.” —Charles Spurgeon
“A man who has faith must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool.” —G.K. Chesterton
The paleontological evidence of dinosaur fossils is most easily explained by the Flood described in the Bible. ICR reports, “Virtually every dinosaur fossil ever found is ensconced in sedimentary or (rarely) volcanic sediments, indicating a sudden and catastrophic deposition. … So why would paleontologists entertain bizarre extinction explanations such as slipped discs, sunspots, or magnetic reversals? Because if a scientist dismisses the global Flood out of hand, then anything goes when trying to explain the dinosaur demise.”
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Imagine your organization as a cruise ship you’re the captain of. It is your responsibility to man the helm, keeping the vessel away from danger and navigating to the correct destination. Along the way you decide that the guests’ towels need to be folded a particular way, so you step away from your post for hours to meticulously fold them to your exact specifications. You do a great job but in your absence the ship is listless, veering off course into dangerous waters.
Of course it’s very likely you won’t find yourself in this exact situation, but the same logic can be applied to our terrestrial pursuits as well. In today’s episode, Greg and I discuss why it’s important for leaders to remain in control, but also vital that we don’t become controlling.
[1:00] How could a leader self-assess to make sure they are properly balanced in the way they control their organization?
[3:38] Being organized is not a problem, but controlling the organization becomes the problem.
[4:50] I point out the differences between a productive river and a destructive flood.
[6:00] Controlling leaders stifle creativity and innovation.
[8:25] Tim Irwin’s book Derailed talks about how micro-managing has led to the collapse of many successful organizations.
[14:13] The value of a coach is getting answers that others on your team aren’t giving you.
[17:12] Greg shares a quote about self-discipline as it relates to the proper balance of healthy control.
[18:20] Your teammates want your confidence, not your control.
[19:44] Leaders, it’s time for you to look in the mirror.
Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture. Sadly, this unbiblical pursuit has infected our churches too. Let’s talk about this on this episode of The Podcast.
In my book Shepherd Leadership, I have two chapters that address a godly leader’s confident humility and humble confidence. You can also check out several blog posts on videos on this subject by clicking here.
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There are several psalms that are regal in their focus—talking about the King’s coronation, or the King ruling on His throne, or the ultimate victory of the King that is coming in the future. Although these royal psalms are extolling God as King, many of these psalms use King David as an object lesson. The idea is seeing how a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14) became the standard by which all other kings were measured:
Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done (1 Kings 15:11)
Amaziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, butnot as his father David had done (2 Kings 14:3)
Unlike his father, Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had done (2 Chronicles 28:1)
The people followed their king in both righteousness and evil. They were fiercely loyal to their monarch. We don’t really get that loyalty today. “We’re Americans,” we cry, “We live in the land of the free and don’t ever bow our knee to a king!”
That’s an appropriate response for those living in a democratic republic, but we would do well to learn to bow our knee to a true King.
After the United States Constitution was adopt adopted, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?“ Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin went on to say, “In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government.”
Because of our defiance as free people in our government, we have become lacking in our loyalty, which shows itself in a lack of proper reverence or respect. Just listen to how people talk so disrespectfully or even hatefully about those in “the other political party.” Benjamin Franklin also said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Where are the days of the armor bearer who said to Prince Jonathan, “Do all you have in mind. I’m with you heart and soul,” even though Jonathan was proposing an impossible task? Or the loyalty of the men around David who heard him sigh about the water in Bethlehem, and they put their lives at risk to bring him a drink? This was even before he was on a throne, and yet they showed their loyalty to him. I fear that our lost culture of reverence for earthly leaders has eroded our reverence for the King of kings, and vice versa.
The first royal psalm (Psalm 2) practically open the Psalter. This psalm calls us to consider the differences between earthly kings and the King of kings.
Notice that earthly kings “conspire”—they angrily boast and rage. They plot (v. 1b) and scheme (AMPC). They take their stand together (v. 2).
Against Whom? Against the LORD (Jehovah) and against His Anointed One (the Messiah)!
Much like the fiercely independent people I described us as earlier, these earthly rulers want to call their own shots—they don’t want to take directions from anyone else because they think they know best (v. 3). But notice in v. 1 that the peoples have followed their leaders in their plot.
God doesn’t rage at them, but He laughs, He scoffs, He rebukes, and the people are terrified when they realize that they cannot overcome Him. In v. 1 we see their plots are “in vain.”
There is nothing men can do—no matter how powerful they may seem or how many of them “take their stand…together”—to thwart or even delay the plans of Jehovah.
All of History is His Story. Notice the phrase that God speaks, “I have … I will” (in vv. 6-7; c.f. Daniel 4:25).
In vv. 7-9 God speaks to His Son—the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King of kings. We hear this repeated in Acts 13:32-33 and in God’s own voice in Matthew 3:17. Then we see the fulfillment of this in passages like Philippians 2:9-11 and Revelation 11:17-18.
This royal psalm ends with an important conclusion: Therefore (vv. 10-12):
Be wise
Be warned
Serve the King with reverential fear
Rejoice with trembling
Kiss the Son with absolute loyalty and joyful reverence
Check out another “therefore” in Philippians 2:12-16. This is a call for righteous, reverent living for those who have acknowledged Jesus as their King. It’s only those who live this way who will know the blessed refuge in Him that is unshakable for ever and ever!
Follow along with our look at all of the royal psalms by clicking here.
People need to know how much you love them before they will listen to any correction you may need to give them. “Real friends hurt each other.”Check out the full sermon here.
David Mathis shares a faith-building message of confidence during times of crisis. He takes his text from Psalm 46—“Whatever trouble comes, Psalm 46 tells us, with its first word, where to turn. Not to a change in circumstances. Not to our best efforts to fix the problem. Not to our anxious strategies to avoid pain and loss. But rather, turn to God.”
“There is not a facet of our lives, not an interest or occupation, not a nook or cranny of the cosmos, where God does not intend that His glory should shine forth and be known. Indeed, even now He is showing His glory in created things, and even in much of the culture that human beings make to meet their own needs (Psalm 19:1-4; Psalm 68:18). God is manifesting His glory; it is there to be noted and pondered. The task of those entrusted with the Kingdom economy is to serve as docents of the glory of God, bringing His glory to light and making Him known for all to see in these last days. … Our mission in these last days is to glorify God by living out the reality of His indwelling Presence among the people to whom He sends us day by day (cf. Micah 4:1-8). In all our relationships, cultural activities, conversations, families, vocations, and diversions, what will it look like, and how will it appear to others when the glorious Presence of God is being refracted through us?” —T.M. Moore
“The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the one unvarying refrain of the apostles. This chapter [1 Corinthians 15] is the fullest discussion of it in the New Testament. It is one of the most significant and grandest chapters in the Bible because of the meaning it gives to human life. …The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the one most important and most established fact in all history. And the story of it has come down to us through the centuries, beautifying human life with the halo of immortality; making us feel sure that because He lives again we too shall live; making our hearts thrill with the thought that we are immortal, that we have begun an existence that shall never end; that nothing can harm us; that death is merely an incident in passing from one phase of existence to another; that wether here or there we are His, doing the thing He has for us to do; that millions of ages after the sun has grown cold, we ourselves shall still be young in the eternities of God.” —Dr. Henry Halley
Would you like to get better sleep and lower your stress levels? Check this out: “If you share a bed with your sweetie, consider incorporating this step into your nighttime routine if you aren’t already: a snuggle sesh…. A study found that couples who cuddled prior to drifting off experienced less stress and more feelings of security in the relationship.”
“The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” —G.K. Chesterton
John Piper is asked an interesting question from Ephesians 6:12—are our adversaries merely flesh-and-blood humans or are demonic forces at work? “Flesh and blood apart from Christ is always under the sway of the spirit of the age, and it’s always under the sway of the prince of the power of the air, and it’s always acting out of its own bodily, mental desires. Therefore, in one sense, there is no separation in our warfare with human sinfulness and demonic schemes. They overlap; they’re intertwined.”
Craig T. Owens 