David Powlison on Literature

Tony Reinke David Powlison, Literature, Reading, spurgeon

cj-powlison--studio2Over at the Sovereign Grace blog, my friend C.J. Mahaney has posted the transcript of his dinnertime conversation with biblical counselor David Powlison. A few weeks back I mentioned this conversation on the blog. C.J.’s posts contain further details.

Dr. Powlison’s literature recommendations included two “pastoral” titles:

And six “dark realism” titles:

For more background on the pastoral usefulness of these literary works, please read C.J.’s interview posts:

David Powlison on Literature (1)

David Powlison on Literature (2)

Depression, Worldliness, and the Presence of God

Tony Reinke Preaching, Sermon, Sermon notes

Three years ago I was asked to preach Psalm 73 to the precious saints at Omaha Bible Church. This week I was asked to re-post it. Apparently the original audio file had become corrupted.

The original message is titled: “Depression, Worldliness, and the Presence of God.” My point was that our hearts are tempted towards depression when we envy the comforts and excesses of the ungodly (vv. 1-16). To help us out of depression—and protect us from it—we are reminded that God’s eternal judgment is near (vv. 17-23), and His presence is here (vv. 24-28).

It’s a rough message, and much of what I hear makes me wish I could re-preach it with what I now know about preaching. But alas, it is what it is. And for anyone interested, you can download the mp3 (21.7MB) or listen to the message here (47:26):

As always, I would benefit from your feedback.

Sheol

Tony Reinke Grave, Sheol

“The noun occurs 66 times in the Old Testament, 58 times in poetry. The frequent prepositions with it show that it is the grave below the earth. The biblical poets use rich and varied figures to depict it. Sheol has a ‘mouth’ (Ps. 141:7), which it ‘enlarges’ (Isa. 5:14), and it is ‘never satisfied’ (Prov. 27:20; 30:16). It is so powerful that none escapes its ‘grip’ (Ps. 89:48; Song 8:6), but some are redeemed from it (Ps. 49:15; Prov. 25:14; Hos. 13:14). It is a like a prison with ‘cords’ (2 Sam. 22:6) and a land that has ‘gates’ (Isa. 38:10) with ‘bars’ (Job 17:16). Here corruption is ‘the father,’ and the worm ‘the mother and sister’ (Job 17:13ff). It is ‘a land’ of no return to this life (Job 7:9); an abode where socioeconomic distinctions cease. Rich and poor (Job 3:18-19), righteous and wicked (3:17) lie together. It is a land of silence (Ps. 94:17), darkness (13:3), weakness, and oblivion (88:11-19). The destructive nature of this realm is intensified by the addition of ‘Abaddon’ (Prov. 15:11; 27:20). One errs in using this figurative language to build a doctrine of the intermediate state. On the other hand, these vivid and powerful figures transform the grave from a six-foot pit to a metaphorical and transcendent realm distinct from life on top of the earth inhabited by living mortals and from heaven inhabited by the immortal God and his court. Those who descend there will never again participate in salvation history or join the holy throng at the earthly temple (Ps. 6:5; Isa. 38:18). Like the Jordan River and Mount Zion, the grave symbolizes eternal realities that transcend their physical space.”

—Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1—15 (Eerdmans 2004), 1:116.

Pride’s Problem with Evil

Tony Reinke Evil, N.D. Wilson, Pride

“The problem of evil is a genuine problem, an enemy with sharp pointy teeth. But it is not a logical problem. It is an emotional one, an argument from Hamlet’s heartache and from ours. It appeals to our pride and our nerve endings. We do not want to hear an answer that puts us so low. But the answer is this: we are very small.

The apostle Paul: Who are you, O man?

Nothing in the existence of evil implies that God must not be in control. Nothing implies that He does not exist (exactly the opposite—without Him, the category evil does not exist; all is neutral flux and entropy). The struggle comes when we look at ourselves in the mirror, a carnival mirror, a mirror that stretches our worth into the skies. Given my immense personal value, how could a good God ever allow me to feel pain?

Our emotions balk at omni-benevolence.”

—N.D. Wilson, Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World (Thomas Nelson 2009), pp. 109-110. My full review of this book is forthcoming.

Nietzsche’s Pity

Tony Reinke Atheism, Atheist, N.D. Wilson, Nietzsche

“Nietzsche published The Anti-Christ in 1888. Along with many other things, he had this to say about pity: ‘Pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights on the side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many of the botched of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect.’

One year later Nietzsche entered into madness. True or false, the story is that he was overcome by the sight of a horse being whipped. Unhinged by pity. He wouldn’t die until 1900. For a decade he was kept alive and maintained through his insanity, strokes, and incapacitating illness. At the age of fifty-five, partially paralyzed, unable to speak or walk, he discovered what life waited for him beyond the grave.

Nietzsche lashed out at his Maker with his tongue, the only notable muscle he had—his greatest gift. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

There was little that Nietzsche loathed more than the heritage of his Lutheran father.

I have never been irritated by Nietzsche, never annoyed. At his most blasphemous, at his most riotously hateful and pompous, I have only ever been able to laugh. But even then, there is something bittersweet about the laughter. I know his story. I know how his bluff was called, how he was broken.

Again from The Anti-Christ: ‘The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.’ Spake the paralytic. The man fed with a spoon by those who loved him.

‘What is more harmful than any vice—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity….’

And yet, because I see the world through my eyes and not his, I have sympathy for Nietzsche himself. Bodies and minds are not all that can be botched in a man. Souls can be hollow, twisted, thrashing, more bitter than pi**.”

—N.D. Wilson, Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World (Thomas Nelson 2009), pp. 124-125. My review is forthcoming.

Get behind me, Satan!

Tony Reinke Cross of Christ, Sin

What’s behind Jesus’ stinging rebuke of Peter in Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33?

Satan must have been conscious that the approaching cross would become the moment of his personal defeat. In his public ministry, Jesus clearly connected the cross and the defeat of Satan (John 12:31-33). This explains why Satan worked diligently to entice Jesus off the road to Calvary in the desert temptations (see Matt 4:1-11). These temptations were Satan’s attempt to block Jesus’ path to the cross, to hinder Jesus’ victory over evil. Satan could smell his own defeat.

So as Jesus spoke to the disciples of His impending death upon the cross, Peter rebuked him for the idea (Matt 16:21-22). Yet Peter’s rebuke—no doubt conceived and motivated by Satan himself—became yet another roadblock, one last attempt by Satan to knock Jesus off the path that led to the cross. Inadvertently, Peter was now acting in tandem with the intentions of Satan, seeking to distract Jesus from his ultimate purposes in the cross.

[For more on this see John Piper, Spectacular Sins (Crossway, 2008), pp. 100-101. Download the book for free here.]