What are your “go-to” Scriptures – passages or chapters of the Bible you rely on more than most, words of God that never fail to lift you up, that never let you down? I’d like to suggest that Psalm 34 be one of your “go-to” Scriptures. It’s one of mine. Psalm 34 has it all, and is especially useful for those days when everything falls apart before you even fall out of bed.
    
Let’s talk about the setting, why it was written. Most of the Psalms have superscriptions, or subtitles, that appear in our English Bibles. These headings are actually part of the original text, and are loaded with information. Such is the case here. The first verse of Psalm 34 in the Hebrew Bible is the same as the heading in our English versions: “Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.”
    
This event is found in 1 Samuel 21. David is on the run from King Saul for his very life. He'd already been anointed as the next king, but that didn't matter to Saul, who'd gone from pious believer to unbelieving madman during the course of his reign. In fact, the last 11 chapters of 1 Samuel detail David's life on the run, as he waited until Saul's death to assume the throne of Israel.
    
One of David's early attempts to steer clear of Saul's sword led him to the Philistine city of Gath. Apparently he thought he'd be safer with the enemy than in his own country, that's how badly Saul wanted his head. However, this was a classic case of “Lord, I'll take care of things. I've got a plan. Don't worry about me. I'll get out of this mess my way.” What he did was make things worse.
 
Consider - Gath was the birthplace of the most famous Philistine, Goliath, killed in spectacular fashion a few years earlier by David's hand. As he entered Gath, incredibly, he was carrying the sword of Goliath, recently given to him by Ahimelech the priest at Nob. And people recognized him: "Isn't this David...Isn't this the one they sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?" (1 Samuel 21:11)
    
Not such a good plan... In desperation, David pretended to be insane, giving up any claim to dignity and self-respect: he clawed at the gate of the city leaving marks in the wood, foamed at the mouth, and let drool run down his chin all in an effort to convince the Philistines to let him go...and it worked. God used that foolishness to get David out of the foolishness he'd gotten himself into in the first place.
    
As he looked back at that event, David penned this Psalm of praise and thanksgiving, and gave credit where credit was due: “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears…This poor man called, and the LORD heard; he saved him out of all his troubles.” (v. 4, 6) And he was thankful! “I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be in on my lips.” (v. 1)
    
So David extends an invitation to all who hear and read these words, to you and me, an invitation to praise God: “I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” (vv. 2-3)
 
I know what the superscription for Psalm 34 is in the Bible. My personal subtitle for this psalm is “What to do your day goes south by 6:30 a.m. and your computer is acting up and the bills are piling up and now the car needs to be fixed and the kids have school issues and there’s an emergency room visit and your workload together with everything else and the relentless pace of life’s race just seems overwhelming.” Life gets complicated.
 
I challenge you to make Psalm 34 one of your go-to Scriptures. There’s so much here. This week, open up to it every chance you get, at least once a day - read it, pray through it, meditate on it. Check out the familiar comfort of verses 7, 10, and 18. Verse 20 will take you to the cross of Christ! Psalm 34 will comfort you, encourage you, and inspire you. As David writes, "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (v. 8)
 
God be with you,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand

​Last week, over the course of three evenings, Prof. Paul Koelpin from Martin Luther College, led us on a Bible Blitz through all 66 chapters of Isaiah!  He gave us insights into the history of Isaiah’s great book, and he helped us grasp its themes.  He shared masterful, memorable insights along the way--all to help us see the big picture.
 
This Wednesday Encouragement serves as a humble footnote to Prof. Koelpin’s presentation.  We’ll focus on Isaiah 66:10-14. 
 
“Rejoice with Jerusalem and celebrate with her, all you who love her. Share her joy with her, all you who have been mourning over her, so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breast, so that you may suck and find delight from her milk-filled breasts. Yes, this is what the LORD says. I am ready to extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. You will be nursed. You will be carried on her side, and you will be bounced on her knees. Just like a man whom his mother comforts, in the same way I myself will comfort you, and you will be comforted concerning Jerusalem. Then you will see, and your heart will be glad. Like grass you will receive new strength, right down to your bones. Then the LORD’s hand will be known to his servants, but his fury to his enemies.”
 
Isaiah’s ministry spanned close to 60 years, and it began in the years when the northern Kingdom of Israel still existed.  But that kingdom was tottering and ready to fall, because her people had forsaken the Lord.  Isaiah lived to see that fall in 722 BC, when the Assyrians swept into Israel and took the people into captivity.  
 
But Isaiah lived through much more than that!  About 20 years after the fall of Israel, Assyrian armies invaded the southern kingdom of Judah.  They sieged Jerusalem.  God’s people needed a miracle to survive.  Together with King Hezekiah, Isaiah prayed for that miracle, and God sent it.  An angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night!  The siege was over!  (Isaiah 37:36-37; see also 2 Kings 19:35-36 and 2 Chronicles 32:21)
 
Yet Isaiah also foresaw that the days for the southern kingdom of Judah were numbered. The Prophet warned good king Hezekiah, “The days are coming when whatever is in your house―everything that your fathers have stored up until today―will be carried away to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says the LORD.”  (Isaiah 39:6) Since God’s own people had come to believe that national security and economic prosperity were the most important possessions in the world, Isaiah had to tell them these things would be taken away from them.  Their nation would be broken, plundered, and carried into captivity.
 
But exile in Babylon wouldn’t be the end of Judah nor the end of God’s people!  Isaiah raises a banner of hope when he urges, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and celebrate with her, all you who love her. Share her joy with her, all you who have been mourning over her.”    Isaiah sees tears of sorrow replaced with tears of joy!  Why?  “You will be nursed. You will be carried on her side, and you will be bounced on her knees.” Isaiah sees weary pilgrims—moms. dads, and babes in arms--coming back home.  They come back to Jerusalem. 
 
And the people of Judah did just that.  After some 70 years, Cyrus and the Persians toppled the Babylonians.  And one of the first things Cyrus did was issue a proclamation allowing the Jewish people to return to their homeland.  He even opened his treasuries to help pay to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.  (See Ezra and Nehemiah).  It was a miracle.
 
But that fact of history only paved the way for a far grander miracle.  One made possible by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit through the Good News about Jesus, God’s Son!  For you see, Isaiah joins other prophets (Micah, Joel) in using the title “Jerusalem” as a synonym for God’s people, believers!  In the New Testament, St. Paul cements this connection into place for us in his letter to the Galatians, the latter part of the fourth chapter.  There St. Paul uses an allegory to teach us that the new “Jerusalem” is much more than a place on the map.  Rather, it is God’s people.  It is God’s Church blessed to live under God’s Gospel.  And ultimately it will be God’s Church gathered triumphantly in heaven (as a number of references from Hebrews and the book of Revelation also make crystal clear)!
 
So in the glorious conclusion of Isaiah’s great Gospel, the prophet looks ahead and he sees that time when “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs” heard the Apostles declaring the wonders of God!  (Acts 2:9-11) 3,000 were baptized on that day of Pentecost and brought home to Jerusalem, God’s Church. 
 
Since that day, God’s people have followed the Lord’s directive to take the Gospel out from Jerusalem, into Judea and Samaria, and to the “ends of the earth.”   (Acts 1:8) Through the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, countless lost souls have found blessings which only the new Jerusalem, God’s Church has to offer.
 
What are those blessings?  Let’s focus on just one. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and celebrate with her, all you who love her. . .Yes, this is what the LORD says. I am ready to extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.”  Jerusalem, God’s Church, will be inundated with a river of peace, a river that flows steady and strong, fresh and pure, continually renewed by the Lord. 
 
“Peace like a river!”  This is a peace with God which only God’s Son can provide, as Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.”  (John 14:27)   Jesus went to his cross and shouldered every last ounce of God’s wrath and punishment to buy us this peace!   
 
“Peace like a river!”  See your worst sin--together with all your sins--washed away in the flood of Christ’s blood, in the river of God’s grace!  Then drink in the comfort and joy Isaiah guarantees us. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.  When you see this, your heart will rejoice.”   There is no greater comfort than knowing your sins are forgiven through the work of Jesus. There’s no greater joy than knowing that heaven waits for us because of Jesus.  And there’s no greater privilege than sharing this Good News of God’s forgiveness with a neighbor or friend.
 
Privileged to Serve, 
Rev. Glenn Schwanke

It hadn’t happened for 43 years, an attempted assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate. Not since March, 1981, when John Hinckley, Jr., shot President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., in 1981.
 
Saturday’s violence at a rally for former president Donald Trump in Butler, PA, shocked and saddened our nation. Perhaps this will this move people on every side of the political divide to resolve, “This has got to stop!”
 
My hope: Yes. The probability of increased civility and decreased hostility? Highly unlikely.
 
Evidence? It began minutes after the attack. “It’s the Left’s fault! It’s the Right! It’s the Democrats! It’s the Republicans! It’s the bluster and blather and vitriol vomited by candidates and their proxies! It’s the Media’s fault!”
 
This, unfortunately, is the way of sinful people. Read through 2 Kings 14-15 and you’ll find several assassinations among the kings of Israel as the nation spiraled toward annihilation by the Assyrians.
 
A cursory glance at the history of the Roman Empire reveals no less than 33 (!) assassinations and executions of the most powerful men on the planet, including Julius Caesar (“Et tu, Brute?”).
 
But America is different, right? Right? Sadly, no. People are people, which means sinners are going to do what sinners do. It starts with thinking and ends with doing. When sinful thoughts are given expression in words and actions, tension erupts. Violence can and does happen. It will happen.
 
So, what now? It was Abraham Lincoln, himself a victim of assassination who said, quoting Jesus, “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”
 
Question: does merely saying/posting/protesting, “This has got to stop!” bring gun violence (which has skyrocketed in recent years) to an end? No. It will happen again. And again. And again. Until Jesus says, “Enough!” and brings all of this to a blessed end.
 
Politics matters. The subject of politics is consequential It is important. But kings and presidents can’t save us. In fact, they ultimately don’t “rule” over us. There is a Prince of Peace and King of Kings who does rule and guide and lead. When things seem shaky, when both sides of the political aisle wail, “democracy itself is at stake,” what are we to think? What are we to do?
 
The prophet Isaiah lived at a challenging time in Israel’s history, in fact, during much of the span of assassinations in 2 Kings 14-15. Things were unsettled, uncertain. Isaiah saw an amazing vision:
 
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. 3 One called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!’” (Isaiah 6:1-3)
 
It’s the same today. The Lord is sitting on his throne, which is higher than any throne and more important than any “Resolute Desk” in the White House.
 
David expressed this as well: “When the foundations are being torn down, what can the righteous do? (Answer: Remember this…) The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his throne in heaven.” (Psalm 11:3,4)
 
In today’s divisive climate, what’s possible? Some change for the better and increased civility, perhaps. Things will never be perfect; they can’t be, this side of heaven. But it starts with the people of God. As far as it is possible with us, let’s turn down the temperature (Romans 12:18).
 
Fix your eyes on Jesus, feed faith with the Word, send fear and doubt packing.

• I believe that when the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46), God is still there, in control, in charge.
• I believe that when tsunamis roar and earthquakes shake, when hurricanes devastate and fires devour property and people, when terrorists attack and violence strikes, God is still there, in control, in charge, his purposes – though often a mystery to us – firmly in place.
• I believe that when cancer strikes, when illness and disease remain, God is still there, in charge, in control, holding us in the palm of his hand.
• I believe that when the foundations are being destroyed, when everything is falling apart, when life as we know it is upended…““The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his throne in heaven.”
• I believe that the light of Christ must shine through his people. Be the light. “Let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

 
Lord, have mercy.
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand

There’s something special about our childhood home. 
 
It’s been a few years since I slowly drove past our old family farm at 8331 English Lake Road, Manitowoc, WI.  It’s been decades since I walked around the yard, inspected the barn and out-buildings, or peaked inside the old farm house, including the upstairs bedroom that was mine, way back when I was a student at Northwestern College, Watertown WI. 
 
I haven’t been on the property or in the house since 1982, the year my Mom sold the house and farm and moved into Manitowoc.
 
Yet all these decades later, I think about the home where I grew up.  I hold in my heart so many fond memories of that place, and a few very sad ones as well.  So when I’m in the Manitowoc area again, I imagine I will drive past the property very slowly.  Maybe I’ll even take the time to turn onto the gravel driveway, hop out of my car, and head up to the front door.  There I will knock.  And the perplexed current owner will ask, “Who are you?”  “I’m Glenn Schwanke.  My family and I used to live here a long time ago.”  Maybe they will even invite me in and let me reminisce a bit and look around.
 
There is something very special about our heavenly home.   
 
Over the years, I’ve served a number of believers on their death-bed.  And I’ve heard them say, “I want to go home.”  On her last full day on this earth, my wife, Terry, said it, too—over and over and over again. But neither my wife, nor any of those other believers on their death-beds were referring to their childhood homes.  Instead, they were all praying for their heavenly home. 
 
It’s often the same for you and me, isn’t it?  As we get older, at times we yearn for our heavenly home far more than the home where we grew up.  Why?  Isn’t it because we learned about our heavenly home “from infancy”?  (2 Timothy 3:15) Are our earliest memories about being wedged between parents on a church pew so we wouldn’t fidget? Or maybe we were seated in a Christian Day School where we learned to shout in our loudest voice, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life!”  (John 3:16) 
 
As our lives fast-forward, decade after decade, those childhood memories remain vivid, as if they happened yesterday.  But our bodies tell us a different story.  Bad backs, knees, worn-out hips, pacemakers, cataracts, hearing loss, chronic pain.   As we slow down and wear out, our heavenly home seems all the more inviting, doesn’t it?  Especially when we remember our Lord’s promise, “Look, I am making everything new!”  (Revelation 21:5) 
 
But it’s not just the aches and pains, is it?  It’s the heartache we feel when we get bogged down by our daily news-feed.  “Children’s hospital hit as Russian strikes kill dozens in Ukraine.”  “Chicago reels from violent holiday weekend.  More than 100 shot, 19 fatally.”   “Unimaginable destruction after strike on Gaza camp.”  Not that any of this bad news should surprise us!  After all our Savior warned, “Because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.”  (Matthew 24:12)  
 
And yet sometimes world-weariness can dog our steps, especially when we’re the ones standing next to the graveside because it’s our parent, our spouse, our sibling, or our child who is being buried.  We may have those days when we confess with Paul, ““I have the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”  (Philippians 1:23) 
 
But when a catastrophe suddenly snuffs out the lives of multiple family members, like the Airbnb fire in Necedah on June 30th?  That tragic fire claimed the lives of WELS missionary Steve Witte, his two daughters, Charis Kuehl and Lydia Witte; and three granddaughters, Stella Kuehl, Lena Henselin and Merci Henselin.  A tragedy like this can cause some angry finger-pointing at God coupled with the question, “Why?”
 
There is something special about coming to our church home. 
 
It’s not for you and me to know precisely why our loving Lord allowed this tragedy to happen.   As the Lord once observed through his prophet Isaiah, “Certainly my plans are not your plans, and your ways are not my ways, declares the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than your plans.”  (Isaiah 55:8-9)  
 
But this much we can know!  In the moment of their death, Steve, Charis, Lydia, Stella, Lena and Merci were whisked safely to their heavenly home, just like my wife and all those others I’ve been privileged to serve on their death beds.  When a child of God closes his/her eyes in the sleep of death, they will open them again to see the Lord!  (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)  And never again will they suffer.  Never again will they hurt.  Never again will they weep.   (Revelation 21:4)
 
And this much we can know! Through the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the Witte, Kuehl, and Hansel families will be comforted in their church homes by the funeral services.  Services like the one whose video link I’m adding at the end of this Wednesday encouragement.  Services like the one that is being held at Trinity today for Margaret (Peggy) Jane Schuenemann.  (This will also be live-streamed and available through Trinity’s website.)  Through Bible readings, hymns, liturgy and sermon, all who attend will hear the guarantee of our Savior, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.”  (John 11:25-26)
 
And perhaps, perhaps, someone will attend the service or watch the live-stream who is not a believer in Jesus.  Someone filled with questions, bogged down by world-weariness, and ready to explode with anger.  Wouldn’t it be something if the Spirit used the Gospel proclaimed to whisper into that person’s heart and mind and create the first flickers of faith?
 
Privileged to Serve, 
Rev. Glenn Schwanke
​
Witte funeral link:
https://youtube.com/live/gZpwPbeOpEE

Thomas Jefferson’s marvelous Declaration was not the first declaration of independence. Here’s the very first one ever: “I can be like God.” Recognize it? Satan in the Garden of Eden coaching Eve and Adam: Don’t listen to God. You can do your own thing, go your own way. No one can tell you what to do, not even God. You are free. Repeat after me, Eve/Adam. My will be done.
    
That sounded pretty good to them – rather than Thy will/God’s be done, my will be done. It’s all about me – what I want, when, where, how I want.  Everything revolves around my will be done. And when Adam and Eve followed “my will” instead of “thy will,” they chose the opposite of freedom. They chose slavery, slavery to sin and Satan and death. That’s the opposite of independence.
 
Getting my way isn’t freedom, not in God’s eyes. True freedom doesn’t come from a country or a political party or an individual leader. It comes from the truth. In John 8, Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (vv. 31-32)
 
Verse 22 of Lamentations 3 says this quite precisely, “By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail.”  We do not need nor do we want spiritual independence. That’s a one way ticket to hellfire and an eternity apart from God. We depend on God’s mercy. Without it, we are lost. And Jeremiah, the author of this woefully titled book of Lamentations, assures us that the Lord’s mercies never fail. His grace never runs out. Romans 5:20 declares, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
Forget prideful declarations of independence and false freedom. This is our necessary declaration of dependence. It is only “by the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail.” On the day of your baptism, on the day God brought you to faith, he marked you as his own and ever since, you and I have received one blessing after another. Spiritual blessings of repentance and faith. A place of worship where the Word of God is proclaimed faithfully and the Lord’s Supper is received personally for the assurance of forgiveness. Every day, we rejoice in our dependence upon our Savior. Every day is “Happy In Dependence Day!”
 
As we celebrate July 4th, we’re also reminded of God’s grace upon our nation. The Lord has granted the United States of America tremendous blessings. The freedoms and opportunities we have are without parallel in human history. We have freedom to choose from seemingly limitless opportunities for everything from occupation to recreation, from religion to politics. America owes its greatness to God’s guidance and blessing alone. Our nation needs God’s mercy and promises.
 
Not everyone thinks this, of course. There’s a whole lot of anti-God, anti-Christian culture and scheming and mockery out there. Marriage is treated lightly. Gender and sexuality are personal choices, we’re told now, much like shopping online at Amazon – just put your choices in your cart and move on. Life is considered disposable at both its beginning and its end.
 
How do Christians react to all this? How do you react? Well, there are many who feel like we need to protect Jesus. Political candidates and the cancel culture are going all out to destroy the Bible. Wait, what?
 
So…the church has lasted longer than Nero and anyone else who’s tried to destroy it. The New Testament church has lasted for 2000 years. Jesus says it will – by his grace and power – even stand up against the gates of hell – but now in 2024 some politician or the cancel culture or social media trolls are going to destroy the Bible?
 
Is our God that puny, is our God that weak that we’ve got to protect Jesus and his Word from the cancel culture and anti-Christian views? You know what Jesus says to that? “Uh, you do know that I rose from the dead, right? Every star you see – I created them all and placed them all and keep them right where they are. I walked on water. I healed the sick. I raised the dead. I died on the cross. I rose from the dead. I am the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
 
What does our country need more than anything else? Not a certain political party. Not a change in the laws. What do we need? The truth. We need more of God’s Word, more of God’s people sharing the mercy and promises of our gracious, Almighty Lord. That’s what changes hearts. That’s what changes minds. That’s what sets people free.
 
May we continue to live as faithful citizens of two kingdoms: the kingdom of heaven and our earthly home, the United States of America. And may this brief but important Scripture serve as a powerful reminder of the blessing of being in dependence on our Savior: “By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”
(Lamentations 3:22,23)
 
Grateful for Grace,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand