Thy Strong Word from KFUO Radio

Rev. Chris Biernacki, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Florence, Alabama, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 32. This psalm is called a “maskil.” David wanted us to use it in worship, and he also wanted to teach us from his life experience: if you try to bury your sins and forget about them, they’ll eat you from the inside. We’re lying to ourselves if we think we can deal with them on our own. The only real solution is to confess and ask for God’s forgiveness. And at the end of the day, forgiveness is what makes life worth living. Psalm 32 was one of Luther’s favorites. He called it a “Pauline psalm”—not just because Paul quotes from it in Romans 4, but because it teaches grace through faith. Christians around the world are familiar with Psalm 32, particularly the second half of verse 5: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Rev. Curtis Deterding, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Myers, Florida, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 52. It’s Christmas and Good Friday at the same time—this remarkable chapter has both of the yearly readings, right next to each other: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news” right before “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.” The long winter’s night of exile finally was ending, and the exiles received the greatest Christmas present: their return home. The next time you see the magi, those “three kings of orient,” remember the Judean exiles who brought gifts back home to Jerusalem from Babylon. And remember the gifts flowing down to us from the Cross and from the right hand of God, where Christ has been lifted up.

Rev. Doug Nicely, pastor of Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Collinsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 51. “The heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment.” What is this scary-sounding end-of-the-world prediction doing in Isaiah 51? Reading in context, the Babylonian empire must have felt like it was never going to end. They had re-shaped a vast region; it was their world. Isaiah’s message is that their world was coming to an end: the Persians were going to wipe it out. God uses disaster to rescue His people. Like the way He multiplied Abraham and rescued us from the Red Sea, so He rescues us today through His Son. And Jesus isn’t merely the next phase of the plan; He is the one who drains the cup of wrath, who ends the cycle of judgement to bring us real righteousness.

Rev. David Andrus, pastor of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in St. Louis and Not-Alone.net Ministries, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 50. “Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” Isaiah 50 proclaims that God has not divorced His people Israel. He is faithful even when we are faithless, and the remnant of Judah will not be forgotten. Judah has been disciplined through Assyria and Babylon, and he now willingly accepts the blows and the shame. Yet even restored Judah could not overcome the idolatry of the heart. Only Christ in the flesh can awaken us to true obedience, morning by morning through baptism. Because Christ set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, we have the true torchlight of salvation to rescue us from torment.

Rev. Kevin Parviz, pastor of Congregation Chai v’Shalom in St. Louis, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 49. You haven’t been forgotten; can a mother forget her children? Isaiah 49 uses tender and compassionate language to describe God’s love for us. Even though the exiles felt like they had been cast aside, it turns out they were only hidden like an arrow in God’s quiver or a sword “in the shadow of his hand.” Now the time had come to depart from exile and strike with God’s words of purpose. Paradoxically, Israel gathers Israel. The remnant gathers the survivors who had forgotten their God. Ultimately Jesus Christ is the true remnant who gathers us all together, whose hands are engraved with our names in His blood.

Rev. Lane Burgland, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Churubusco, Indiana, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 106. “Gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name.” Christians are not thankful in an abstract sense; rather they concretely say “thank you” to God for His acts of mercy and faithfulness, even in dark times. Even in the midst of exile, God’s people give Him thanks. We are consoled that God has always been faithful in the past, even in our worst moments. When we forget God, we imperil ourselves. When we make remembrance of Him, His power can save us from the impossible, as He showed on Easter.

Rev. Chris Biernacki, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Florence, Alabama, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 105. The story of the Old Testament is our own story. When God looked at His people Israel, He saw you and me, so He acted to protect us even before we were born. Psalm 105 says that, even in the days of Abraham, God saw all His “anointed ones” and “prophets”—He saw the whole line of kings leading up to His own Son, Jesus of Nazareth. So when we praise God, we give thanks for everything He’s done for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and all the rest. Even when He sent the famine or hardened the hearts of the Egyptians, God was directing history to bless us today. Praise God and give thanks for His steadfast love.

Rev. Matt Tooman, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wahpeton, North Dakota, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 48. Israel stands to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. God has opened the way home to Judah through Cyrus of Persia, but the exiles have become comfortable in Babylon! In Isaiah 48, God criticizes His people for being Israelites in name only and for becoming as dense as the idols they’ve made for themselves. This is tough love: there is no rest for the wicked, and there is no peace to be had living in Babylon. If we have God’s Word, we will have a never-ending supply of peace, flowing down to us like a river even in the midst of the wilderness. From His riven side, Christ’s peace flows to us in the midst of the darkness of death.

Rev. John Lukomski, retired pastor in Darmstadt, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 47. Babylon thought she was invincible. True, she was God’s weapon of justice against His own people, but she went too far. She forgot her place, she became merciless and oppressive, and she relied on her own charms and enchantments instead of giving glory to God. Like Cinderella, she went from a princess in a coach to a servant girl in a pumpkin just like that. God defeats even His people’s most impressive enemies—but we must be humble. We too fall into the trap of Babylon, unlovingly berating people and thinking our own cleverness will solve every problem. Only Jesus Christ is the savior; our wisdom always comes second to Him.

Rev. David Boisclair, pastor of Faith and Bethesda Lutheran Churches in North St. Louis County, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 46. “Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock.” No god is like Yahweh the true God, and in Isaiah 46 the prophet names the false gods of Babylon. All they do is weigh you down: you have to carry them around until someone else carries them away from you in your defeat. The Babyonian exilers have become the exiled. God, on the other hand, has carried us from the very beginning, like a mother carrying her child in the womb. The God that carried us around in Abraham is the same God that carried us out of Egypt. He is the same God that carried us out of exile and the same God that carries us out of the grave and into the glorious presence of God in Christ.