As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“If your worldview isn’t robust enough to account for what we’re seeing all around us, then it makes sense to be frustrated and angry. Why won’t people listen? Why won’t they do the sensible—and virtuous—thing? Why?” - Olinger
Read Part 1.
Basically, this is a prayer for spiritual restoration. The psalmist has strayed from the “paths of righteousness,” and he cries out for the Great Shepherd to rescue him. He wants forgiveness, and he wants to know again the joy of his salvation. As he makes his petition he’s conscious of at two realities:
Christian biographies are a great means of edification and godliness. And yet, their benefits aren’t free from dangers. One danger that comes to mind is that of developing an unrealistic view of the Christian life. Often, Christian biographers maximize the virtues and minimize the faults of the saints. The picture they paint has too rosy a hue. We can partly understand this. Obviously, we want to view Christians in the best light. We want to give them the benefit of the doubt. We want to showcase their faithfulness to God.
“Thomas Sowell once said, ‘It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.’ Humility must precede all healthy learning and dialogue. An awareness of our own limitations will not only force us to take a more humble stance ourselves but also compel us to grant grace to our fellow human beings.” - LifeWay
“In Romans 5:1–11, Paul leads us from rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2) to joy that comes in tribulation (v. 3) to exulting in God Himself (v. 11; see Ps. 43:4). The unbeliever finds this incredible, because he has been blinded by the joy-depriving lie of Satan that to glorify God is the high road to joylessness.” - Ligonier
“Talking about ethics is not an easily embraced conversation in today’s electrified political society, but Michael Jones, Mark Farnham, and David Saxon talk through 15 ethical topics in their new book Talking About Ethics: A Conversational Approach to Moral Dilemmas.” - MBBU
“Brett McCracken has written a helpful, short book on managing our information-overload world. He rightly notes that though we live in a world of exponentially increasing knowledge, such knowledge has not done much to make us wise.” - DBTS
“We are so often drawn to bad news more than good, to evidences of depravity more than evidences of grace. Why then should we be surprised that our feet grow heavy, that our pace begins to falter?” - Challies
“Partisan … advance Christian ends with extrabiblical, and sometimes unbiblical, methods. Silent churches rightly reject the partisan model but embrace a kind of quietism, resulting in silence on political issues about which Christians really do need moral and scriptural guidance.” - TGC
Let me begin with a few lines from T. S. Eliot:
Discussion