Today, the reading plan called for Psalm 72, the last psalm in Book II. We start Proverbs tomorrow. There aren’t many of these: “A Psalm of Solomon.” The New King James Version I’m using gives it the title:

Glory and Universality of the Messiah’s Reign

But like a lot of the Old Testament, we really don’t know if it’s talking about Solomon’s present (past, now) reign or Jesus’ future reign. This part sounds like Solomon:

Give the king Your judgments, O God, And Your righteousness to the king’s Son…The kings of Tarshish and of the isles Will bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba Will offer gifts. (Psalm 72.1, 10, NKJV)

These verses sound more like Jesus:

Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; All nations shall serve Him…His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72.11, 17 – 19, NKJV)

Reminds one of Psalm 67, that we looked at recently.

But the real lesson is, What does good government look like? If we’re looking at the righteous rule of Jesus or looking for righteous rule now, what are we looking for?

He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people, And the little hills, by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the children of the needy, And will break in pieces the oppressor…For He will deliver the needy when he cries, The poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy, And will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence… (Psalm 72.2 – 4, 12 – 14, NKJV)

Seems clear. A provocative Christianity Today piece, Who Are the “Court Evangelicals,” ends with this challenge:

While the court evangelicals enjoyed Easter dinner, worshiped in the White House, and expressed their grievances about anti-Christian bias, other evangelicals in the United States and around the world were saving lives with vaccines, defending Christians in Ukraine, finding solidarity with the suffering, and bringing attention to the globally displaced. – John Fea, June 4, 2025

What would Jesus do? He told us:

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (See Isaiah 61.1, 2a)

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4.17 – 21, NKJV)

PS In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s account of his meltdown, what did Daniel advise Nebuchadnezzar to do?

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. (Daniel 4.27, ESV, emphasis mine)

I realize in my two blogs on Grand Cayman (An Adventure and Hell: Not even a nice place to visit), I have not been entirely kind, especially about the heat. But it’s not Grand Cayman’s fault that I’m more acclimated to Colorado!

After two weeks on the island, our last night there, we finally got a glimpse at why people go there. Dinner at a nice restaurant on seven-mile beach, a lovely stretch of natural sand, not to be confused with the “iron beach” I had seen earlier.

Part of the “iron beach”…part of seven-mile beach. Big difference.

Friday night’s beach restaurant…

Other beach views, including with the granddaughters, Liana (left) and high school graduate Shirah (right):

So if you’re a beach person and don’t mind the heat, Grand Cayman is grand. I’m glad we went…glad to be back home. And I’m glad not all of us like the same places. A new friend on Grand Cayman told me, “I really like Colorado, but I don’t understand your weather…snow in June?”

If we all liked the same places, it might get awfully crowded!

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place… (Acts 17.26, ESV)

As this blog comes out, we are recovering from our two-week visit to Grand Cayman Island for our granddaughter’s graduation from high school. (Our daughter, Melody, and her husband, Cody, teach music in Cayman International School.) It’s a nice place if you’re into HOT, which we are not, now that we’ve been in Colorado since 1984 (minus five years back in Alabama).

Turns out that when I thought I must be on the outskirts of Hell, I was right. It’s not every day, when you finish breakfast with a pastor, he says to you, “Go to hell.” Well, to be fair, that’s not all of what he said. He was responding to my request from before breakfast. What he said was, “Let’s go to hell.”

Hell is a geologic formation less than a mile from our daughter’s house in West Bay. Kind of like Garden of the Gods near where I live, which got its name when an early visitor said, “It’s a garden fit for the gods!” This place got its name when British Commissioner Sir Allen Wolsey Cardinall said, “This must be what hell looks like.”

Indeed. It’s good to be home.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. (Psalm 139.7, 8, NKJV)

Psalm 71 has good words for me at my age and with my shoulder challenge:

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

Do not forsake me when my strength fails. (Psalm 71.9, NKJV)

O God, You have taught me from my youth;

And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and grayheaded,

O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your power to everyone who is to come. (Psalm 71.17, 18, NKJV)

As I say, a good word for us in old age, “Do not forsake me when my strength fails.” But the same day I read Psalm 71, I received an email from a friend who’s not yet 40:

I’m turning 40 in September…that’s a big ol’ round number and sliding very quickly into middle age. Last week I couldn’t do weighted squats at the gym because my bad knee was acting up. I was racing my son in the backyard this weekend and gave myself a charley horse because apparently I now need to stretch before sprinting around like a child. Back in March, I was skiing at Wolf Creek for the first time in a decade and became aware almost immediately that my legs at 39 are not my legs at 29. I, too, have been feeling like everything on me is falling apart these days.

God is our God for ALL ages! We start getting old sooner than we want. For example, it’s a rare professional athlete that goes deep into their 30s before realizing that the body just can’t do what it used to.

We all need Paul’s assurance:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4.16, ESV)

It’s the 81st anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe, and I can’t do better than repost what I wrote last year with a few minor edits…

It’s worth a pause to remember that freedom isn’t free. Over 4,000 allied soldiers died that day. The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan (9+ minutes) captures some of the horror of it:

Here are a few of the comments posted on this film clip:

Imagine living for 18-30 years, then going through weeks of demanding training, just be shot dead immediately after the landing boat door opens.

This is thought to be the most accurate depiction of war ever put to film. Hundreds of veterans walked out of seeing it in theaters because it was too much to take in.

I’d like to say a thanks to all the brave men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice on June 6th 1944, lest we forget.

I can’t improve on those.

Here is a first-person account from a 101-year-old veteran of D-Day. Jake Larson would be 102 years old now, still alive, as far as I know.

Wright Bryan, a graduate of my alma mater, Clemson University. broadcast the the first radio report of the invasion. He went on to have a distinguished career in journalism and was Vice-President for Development at Clemson when I was a student. (Of course, none of us undergrads knew any of that history.)

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15.13, ESV)

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.8, ESV)

We all know (I hope!) the Great Commission: here it is from Matthew’s Gospel:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, ESV)

Make disciples “of all nations…” Navigator patriarch Jim Downing, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 104, asked, “Where is the Great Commission in the Old Testament?” Jim believed the answer to the question is Psalm 67. Let’s see. It opens this way:

To the Chief Musician. On Stringed Instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. (Psalm 67.Introduction – verse 2, NKJV)

“God be merciful to us” – why? “THAT your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” There it is: “all nations.”

Psalm 67 continues:

Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations on earth. Selah (Psalm 67.3, 4, NKJV)

“…the peoples…the nations…” And the psalm repeats verse 3 and closes…

Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. (Psalm 67.5 – 7, NKJV)

God’s heart is that ALL the nations, ALL the peoples praise God. Then…

• The earth shall yield her increase
• God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, And
• All the ends of the earth shall fear Him. (Psalm 67,5 – 7, NKJV, bulleted for clarity)

And how will the nations praise the true God if we don’t tell them?

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10.14, 15, NKJV)

Yesterday’s blog about my being wrong about which Chicago team Pope Bob (Leo XIV, for you non-Bobs!), flashed me back to an event that occurred over 50 years ago…

I was on a 6-man crew tracking satellites from a base in eastern Turkey back in 1970. At Christmas we got into a discussion about who wrote “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” I had seen a TV show a few years before that introduced Johnny Marks as the composer of Rudolph and a number of favorite (secular!) Christmas songs.

So I was confident. I knew exactly who wrote Rudolph. But not as confident as my crewmate Willie who was even more convinced that Gene Autrey wrote it. Actually, Gene Autrey recorded it, and it was a huge hit for him. I told Willie I had seen Johnny Marks on TV, etc. Nope. Then I scrounged around for a Christmas record (remember records?). The label contained not only the list of songs on the record but also who composed each. And there it was:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by…Johnny Marks

Done, right? Of course not. Willie said something like, “I don’t know what all that stuff means on the label, but it can’t mean that Johnny Marks wrote Rudolph since everyone knows that Gene Autrey wrote it.”

Reminds me of the flat earth story I shared back in January.

Let’s be teachable, shall we?

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. (Proverbs 29.1, ESV)

No cure for intentional blindness, I’m afraid – Seth Godin

When Pope Bob (known as Leo XIV) was announced (I saw it live), reporters were scrambling to find any facts that they could. Among the tidbits of information was that even though he was born on the south side of Chicago, he was a Cubs fan, not a White Sox fan.

Imagine my shock to read Gerard Baker’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal An American Pope in the Era of Trump, which includes this sentence:

I’m sure the conclave—and the Holy Spirit—had all kinds of reasons for picking a protege of Francis, a missionary, and a Chicago White Sox fan for the throne of St. Peter.

I told my wife, “How could Baker make such a mistake? The Pope is a Cubs fan!” I was reading the print version, and I thought to myself that someone would point out the mistake and it would be fixed online. About 10 days later, I decided to check on it, the sentence is still there – see above. How can this be?

Easy. the initial report that he was a Cubs fan was wrong. He’s always been a White Sox fan, and this article has a brief video of then Father Prevost at a White Sox World Series game in 2005. This initial report was wrong…and therefore, I was wrong. And instead of letting Gerard Baker, an editor at large of the Wall Street Journal, correct me, I assumed he was wrong, and I was right. Oops.

There’s a lesson there, and it reminds me of a story from Air Force days more than 50 years ago. Stay tuned.

The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15.31 – 33, ESV)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14.12, ESV)

I was shocked a few days ago when I received an email from blog readers Brant and Laura McGlothlin saying that the Sunday sermon in their Texas church opened with “The Parable of the Emails.” The parable occurs in my book That’s Not Church!, which means it first appeared as a blog in the Ewellogy…from 2019. A long time ago, now.

The pastor read the parable in its entirety, citing me and my book:

Here’s the parable:

A business owner called his employees together and said, “I’m going away for a while, and I want you all to keep the business going. I’ll be sending emails from time to time to help keep you on track.” When the owner returned a couple years later, the business was in shambles. He asked them, “Didn’t you read my emails?” 

They replied, “You bet! In fact, we compiled them into a book, and we have read them all very carefully. In fact, we gather at least once a week to have an email study to discuss them!’

The owner was shocked. “Didn’t you do anything I told you to do?” 

“Do anything? No, we didn’t do anything, but those were some really fine emails!”

It’s terrific…the kind of thing I wish I had written. But I didn’t. The original blog post has this introduction:

Our Spring Canyon speaker, retired Army Chaplain Dan Holcomb, told a very effective parable that I want to share with you. It’s the kind of thing I wish I had written! (I hope you understand that some of my stuff is original, but I’m also standing on the shoulders of others! Dan credits the story to Chuck Swindoll.) 

In other words, I got it from Dan Holcomb, who got it from Chuck Swindoll. No matter. It’s a good word, and the pastor not only opened his message with the parable, but he also closed his message…

Being a witness is doing what the emails say instead of just reading them. – Shawn Mullen, GracePoint Church, Portland, TX, May 11, 2025,

Amen.

[Jesus said, ] “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.” (Matthew 7.26, MSG)

Do you know the difference between mercy and grace? Pastor Tim McConnell at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, shared the accepted succinct definitions on May 11, 2025:

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Then Tim shared some excellent Biblical pictures that he attributed to David Jeremiah. Too good not to share:

• Mercy withholds the knife from the heart of Isaac. Grace provides the ram in the thicket. (Genesis 22.9 – 14)
• Mercy runs to forgive the prodigal. Grace throws a party with a robe, a ring, and a fatted calf. (Luke 15.17 – 24)
• Mercy hears the cry of the thief on the cross. Grace promises paradise that very day. (Luke 23.39 – 43. See also this blog.)
• Mercy converts Paul on the road to Damascus. Grace calls him to be the great apostle. (Acts 9.1 – 5)
• Mercy closes the door to hell. Grace opens the door to heaven.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22.17, ESV)