Crutch...or Craving?

 People are incurably religious. Even the most ardent atheist will acknowledge this fact when he charts humanity both historically and geographically. Wherever people dwell, religion springs up like weeds in a garden, impossible to fully eradicate. Atheists such as Freud and Nietzsche faced this fact squarely in the 19th Century and concluded that religion was the product of those who feared things in nature that threatened their lives. 

These fearful people would “invent” spiritual beings dwelling in, or with power over, such things as disease, drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and so on. They would try to plead with or appease such spirits in order to find protection for themselves. They invented “heaven” and “hell” to act as ultimate reward or punishment for people’s moral and immoral behavior, motivating one another to act in beneficial ways for the good of the community.

Various competing religious systems have led to conflict among people for millennia. This fact has been a boon to advocates of atheism, who usually blame religion for most of the wars and other degradations of mankind that have occurred. And it is certainly true that when a religion obtains enough adherents to become too powerful, it can also become oppressive of individual freedom, as well as a persecutor of weaker religious systems.

The problem with this view of religion in general is, in my opinion, that it defines religion much too narrowly.

Primarily, it assumes a very dim view of what it means to be human in the first place. The psychological need in us to “invent” spirits that can help us control nature is itself a mere surmise by the atheist who seeks to deny any deity’s existence. But when I observe people around me, the motivation I see operating in them is seldom a fear or phobia that some natural disaster might hurt them. Rather, they are motivated by the desire to devote themselves to a great ideal. A hunger for meaning and significance.

The typical man or woman wants to matter…matter to someone or something beyond himself or herself. People are survivors. They are good at dealing with threats to their existence. They hide, they build shelters, they migrate, they congregate, they enter into contracts and covenants, they put up armed defenses. But deep inside, each person wants to be valued as an individual—valued by a valuer that really MATTERS.

Simply put, where is the need to protect oneself from nature coming from? Why the desire to extend one’s life and safety, if not to become significant in some way? If I have no meaning or value, why go on living in the first place? If life itself is nothing more than a blind struggle for survival, then “all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:1).

I am born into a family and a community that expects certain things from me. I am expected to behave properly, learn things, do chores, practice a trade, fit in to prescribed roles and systems, add value to the group. But if that is all I am here for: to meet the expectations of the collective, then what am I, really? Just a cog in a machine?

The human spirit rejects that kind of paltry answer to the question of “why?” And that spirit of unrest is what truly leads to the religious impulse in man. The hunt for ultimate meaning beyond the material world. We know in our hearts that we are made for MORE. And if my place within the collective cannot supply what I know I am made for, Who can?

Can I look to my heroes? Even my “super-heroes”? Somebody with more strength, more smarts, more success, more celebrity, more money, more influence? Some idol carved out of stone, wood, metal or plastic? Some drugged-out guru who got a hallucinogenic vision? Some scientist who comes up with a new formula or computer model or A.I.?

If there’s anybody out there who can unravel the mystery of my significance, here I am. Show me if and how and why I even matter in this world! That is the pure human spirit that motivates the NEED for religious answers.

And there is, thankfully, a BOOK. A human book authored by the CREATOR of humans. A wonderful, flawless, fascinating, profitable, essential book with all the answers we longing humans are craving.

MNA 8/14/2023

 

Psalm 119 Stanza 7

 Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Stanza Seven

Zayin: My hope is secure in Him who remembers His word to His servant.

49. Remember the word to Your servant / Upon which You have caused me to hope.

50. This is my comfort in my affliction, / For Your word has given me life.

51. The proud have me in great derision, / Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.

52. I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, / and have comforted myself.

53. Indignation has taken hold of me / Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.

54. Your statutes have been my songs / In the house of my pilgrimage.

55. I remember Your name in the night, O Lord, / And I keep Your law.

56. This has become mine / Because I kept Your precepts.

Today I want to teach on a special theme that we find in King David’s “Psalm of Psalms” ---Psalm 119. As we’ve learned in previous lessons, every stanza of this Hebrew poem contains eight verses, each one of which begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We’ve come to the seventh stanza, beginning with the seventh letter: called Zayin, which sounds like our letter “Z.”

The letter Zayin and the number 7 are both important in Hebrew thought, and I believe they have an importance to believers in our day as well. When God created the universe, He finished His work of creation on the sixth day. That was the day the Lord God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let him have dominion over” all the earth. Last time we read and learned about the letter Waw, the sixth letter, which represents man. 

In my study, I discovered that the letter Zayin is formed by taking the letter Waw and adding a stroke to the top of that letter, giving it a kind of crown. So the seventh Hebrew letter represents a kind of CROWNED MAN, or KING. And in the story of creation, what happened on the seventh DAY? That was the day God rested and called that day HOLY in a special way. The Sabbath day became the day of the week to rest from normal labor in order to worship the King of Creation. Of course, after Jesus rose from the dead, the Christian day of worship became the first day of the week. Jesus is the “crowned Man” who became the King of kings when He ascended into heaven!

Hebrew teachers have also taught that seven is important because it stands for the coming Kingdom of the Messiah: The seventh thousand years of human history. And what are Christians now waiting for? The return of King Jesus to judge mankind and create a new heaven and new earth where his people will reign with Him forever and ever! So, the seventh letter in Hebrew can make us think not only of our Lord and King, the crowned “Son of Man,” but also of his second coming to the earth. 

Also, the name Zayin has two meanings in Hebrew: SWORD and SUSTENANCE. Actually the letter resembles a sword, with a blade going up and down, and a handle at the top. These two meanings go together in a unique way, for the sword has often been used throughout history to make people feel secure, able to feed and protect their families and their crops. When Jesus comes back to earth, he will not be coming as the suffering Servant, like before. He will come as a righteous, avenging Judge, with the sharp sword that will bring the godless nations to an end!

We find great comfort and hope in the word that comes from our Savior’s mouth, both in the knowledge of who He is, and in the promises He has made to those who willingly serve Him. In this seventh stanza, we find our hope is secure in the one who remembers His word to his servants.

The author of the psalm, almost certainly David, begins the stanza by asking the Lord Himself to “remember the word to Your servant upon which You have caused me to hope” (v.49) Psalm 119 explores every aspect of God’s word, calling it His “law,” His “judgments,” His “statutes,” His “testimonies,” His “precepts,” and many other names. God’s word is precious to the psalmist, as it ought to be for you and me. We look at the vast beauty of the world and the universe, and might marvel at the supreme Being who could bring all these things into existence…

But we would have no cause for HOPE unless this supreme Creator chose to speak to us in words we could understand. In Psalm 19, David also praises Yahweh both for His revelation to us through the things He has made…and through His “perfect” law—His word by which He gives life to the soul. God’s word, David says, “revives the soul…makes wise the simple…gives joy to the heart…gives light to the eyes…endures forever…is altogether righteous…more precious than much pure gold…sweeter than honey…and a pathway to a great reward.”

Our Bible is a gift from God that is full of HOPE. God cared enough for sinful people to share His word with us. And from the very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned, God’s sentence against them included words of hope: “I will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s seed and her Seed. He will crush the serpent’s head, and his heel will only be bruised.” This was the first prophetic “good news” that one day, our Savior-King would come. This gracious promise would have been enough to give Adam’s offspring hope for the future.

But God’s word continued to be spoken over the centuries leading up to the advent of Jesus Christ. Because of our sin natures, most of the time we denied or rejected His word, disobeyed His laws, resisted His commandments, rebelled against His leadership. But David gives his sovereign God the credit for CAUSING him to find his hope in God’s word.

 

On our own, we reach out and grasp at other things to hope in: our money, our relationships, our good name, our good works, our political party, our nation, our social status, and many others. Many of those things look stable enough to hope in, but, unlike the word of God, all these temporal things will one day fail us. They will all pass away. It is up to God to change our hearts and minds so that we “wake up” from the false hopes of this world.

So, why does David tell the Lord to “remember the word to Your servant”? Is he fearful that His all-knowing God will somehow FORGET what He has said, what He has promised? No. Rather, he is simply praying back to the Lord what He has promised to do. Again and again in the years prior to David’s reign, God promised His people that He would “remember His covenant” with them and would not utterly destroy them, even when they failed to remain faithful. God not only remembers what He has promised. He actually brings it to mind and faithfully ACTS upon it.

Notice that in the other verses of the stanza, David speaks of himself as being in “affliction,” “in great derision” by the proud, needing to be “comforted,” feeling “indignation” at the wicked, and so on. In times like those, we are often tempted to feel the OPPOSITE of hope, which is DESPAIR—the desire to just “give up” and succumb to total helplessness. Become a victim of others, or of circumstances.

David’s message to us at such moments would be: “Don’t give up!” “Don’t see yourself as a helpless victim!” “You DO have hope!” “You have the true, faithful word of your faithful Father in heaven!”

In affliction, first of all (v. 50), God’s word comforts us because it is a source of LIFE. Affliction would include anything that happens that seems to oppose, attack, or threaten us with harm. Job was one who was afflicted by Satan himself. Job’s wealth, health and family were all taken away from him, and all this happened with the permission of his loving Father! But again and again, in the story of Job, we find him reminding himself of God’s righteous character and his hope of being blessed in the end. Satan would gladly have killed this righteous man, but God had commanded the devil to take away many things from Job, but to “spare his life.” And in the end, God commended Job to the world for his steadfast faith. This should comfort us with the lesson that as long as God gives us LIFE, He is our hope.

After affliction, David mentions DERISION. To deride something is to say it is stupid or without any value. Proud people in King David’s life accused him of being worthless and foolish because he kept trusting in Yahweh—a God he could not see. Christians today are ridiculed as well, and because of that they are tempted to compromise the truth of God’s word. For example, the world says that creating the world in six days cannot be true, that it is a foolish notion! But that is what the Bible, God’s word, tells us. Who are we to believe? The theories of scientists…or the testimony of the true God? David refused to “turn aside” from God’s law, even when proud and wicked men held him in “great derision.”

Next, in verse 52, he tells his audience that he has found COMFORT by remembering the judgments of his God. Here again is David’s hope. He has a positive outlook for the future by gazing into the past and realizing that God has not only spoken His word, but has also openly acted upon it! Think of the way God sent a world-wide flood upon the earth in the days of Noah. And the confusion of languages He performed at the tower of Babel to judge the rebellious city builders. And the fire and brimstone poured forth on Sodom and Gomorrah. And the ten plagues God sent to judge Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He is a loving God, true. But He is not a God to trifle with. He will judge all who oppose Him. He will act in His wrath against those who hold his people in derision. In this, we can have hope.

Is it ever right to be ANGRY? David felt an indignation taking hold of him because of the wicked who forsake the law of Yahweh. There is indeed a proper, righteous, necessary kind of anger. A holy anger. Anger against sin. Against injustice. Against those who injure and slander and kill other people. We are justified in having anger at the things that oppose and ignore and break the laws of our good God. The New Testament tells us to “be angry and sin not.” Jesus felt and expressed great anger at the sellers and money changers in the temple: He drove them out with a whip made of cords! He called them robbers and accused them of turning His Father’s house into a common market. Anger must exist for those who believe in true, godly LOVE. If we long for God’s love to prevail, it must displease us when anyone displays a lack of love, by turning away from the commands of the Creator.

In verse 54, the psalmist speaks of his “pilgrimage.” A pilgrim is one who is traveling far from his real home. Along the way, the pilgrim may find many houses in which to stay for a night or two. But his longing is always to one day return home where he truly belongs. And the hope for that return may be a cause for him to sing familiar songs that make him remember his home. To David, his love for God and his hope to meet Him face to face in an ETERNAL home…that love and hope bring him a joy that must express itself in SONG. Music has always been a characteristic of God’s people. A way of giving thanks, of expressing praise, of adoring the awesome One who created and provides for all our needs! Putting God’s word to MUSIC is a beautiful way to learn, meditate on, and rejoice in God’s truth.

Now, at the end of this stanza, night has fallen. Perhaps David is recalling a night when he was in a temporary dwelling far from his home, singing his songs softly to the Lord as he drifted off to sleep. His final waking thought was the NAME of his God: YAHWEH. The great I AM. The God who ever keeps His covenant promises to His people, and the special promises to King David himself. He says that his thoughts are of God’s name because “I keep Your law.” In verse 56: “This has become mine because I kept your precepts.” God’s rules and his teachings are so precious to him that he KEEPS them, he holds them close. He treasures them like gold and silver. They give him a secure hope that money can never buy. His good, loving God has spoken good, loving WORDS.

My prayer, friends, is that you and I will cherish, love, trust, and hope in “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” even as our Lord Jesus did when facing His enemy Satan. Remember how kind and gracious God was to send his only Son from heaven to die on the cross for poor, wretched, hopeless sinners like you and me. He has been, is, and always will be, true to His word, remember and act upon all His promises. We can place our hope and trust in Christ, the Crowned Man who now rules in glory, and will soon come back to make all things new!

Amen

Close...Close Enough?

In earlier articles, I’ve written about the Christian’s reluctance to name the name of Jesus Christ in his daily conversations, and even, at times, in his prayers. Astonishing as it may be, we are often ashamed to be known as a heartfelt follower and disciple of our one and only Savior.

Recently I watched a film presentation that I found both challenging and troubling. It concerned a fictional small town in Texas called Promise, where a husband and wife were mourning for a child who had died, and where the residents had been suffering from a severe drought for a number of years.

Mysteriously, a young boy about ten years of age wanders into this town, claiming to have come on a mission from God. This lad brings with him some sweet words of encouragement, some remarkable signs and wonders such as healings and prophecies about coming rainfalls, etc. He is even present when a girl who dies from an overdose is brought back to life. He also gives a ministry to the grieving mom. She agrees to make prayer mats for all the residents of the town, because the boy tells her that they all need to begin talking to God.

Toward the end of the movie, Gabe (the little boy) ministers to a dying doctor, who was the attending physician when the couple’s child passed away. The doctor says how unworthy he feels to leave this earth and get into heaven, but Gabe assures him that he is worthy, thanks to the blood of Christ. Then the doctor smiles, begins glowing with a heavenly light, and finally dies.

Throughout his ministry in the small town of Promise, Gabe claims that he is only a messenger, with no inherent power of his own. Then, at a town meeting where the folks are remembering the departed physician, Gabe finally reveals himself to be the angel Gabriel, complete with huge, spreading wings, causing everyone to respond with awe.

Now, obviously, this movie was a parable, designed to communicate the value of faith, hope and love, primarily to audiences who already have a basic belief in “God.” For that purpose, I found it entertaining and effective, keeping my interest and making me wonder who or what the boy Gabe would turn out to be. The fact that this character eventually used the term “the blood of Christ” with the dying doctor was reassuring, for I had feared that the making of the prayer mats was some obscure reference to Islam. Up to that point in the story, the “God” Gabe was serving was something of a puzzle.

So much of our media today portrays faith in God as a kind of panacea, that is, a cure-all for the troubles, pains, disappointments and fears that plague us as human beings. God is so good and so loving, we are told, that He cares about our dying loved ones, about our crops that need rain so desperately, about our dangers and afflictions. But it troubles me that so many of the viewing public, especially people who only attend church occasionally and read their Bibles only sporadically, may be forgetting that it’s not enough to “come close” when it comes to trusting “God.”

The true God–the only God who deserves our trust, the only God who EXISTS–is not only perfectly GOOD. He is also perfectly holy and just, and He hates our sins so much that He sent His beloved, eternal Son to suffer the judgment of HELL on the cruel cross. This God who is the ultimate Reality, determines reality for all those He has created. He has revealed this reality in a Book that tells the ultimate truth. He has revealed the reality of who He is in His Son who IS ultimate Truth: the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again!

God warns us in His book that if we go on resisting His truth–truth about who He is…truth about who WE are…truth about the judgment awaiting sinners…truth about the only Savior from sin–then there will come a day when that truth will be taken away from us. And we will then be left with the watered-down half-truths of wandering, wishful storytellers who may occasionally “come close” to eternal life…

But not close enough to save anybody.

MNA

4/26/2023

As She Walked Away

Somehow I could tell she wasn’t acting

as she turned her face into the camera and 

a liquid glimmer caught light number two,

the one that Jerry set just so, to angle

feathery gold fringes of the hairdo

she arranged to get the night before.

Could she sense the extra pause? I faltered

with the dialogue, lines over-practiced

in between sips of neglected brandy

cross-legged on my sectional settee.

Late distraction when I heard her breathing

over in the corner, closed eyes smiling.

That was when I had to ditch my doubting

and admit my acting had to shut down

soon as this unending shoot wrapped up,

then I would tell her of the other writer

and the script my brain scanned unrelenting,

in between the wooden words we quoted.

Finally, our speeches were expiring

and the hip director beckoned blithely

for the cameraman to zoom in slow,

very slow, so slow as we sat clutching

for that final shot, then as we parted, 

she was magic as she walked away.

MNA

4/6/2023

Deep Dive into Jesus

 

Jesus Christ is the most revered, the most respected, the most pivotal Person who ever lived. But He is also the most reviled, the most controversial, the most misunderstood, it seems to me. His entrance onto the stage of history changed everything, and yet, people still do all they can to explain away, deny, or resist the Savior’s influence.

To believers, Jesus Christ means salvation from all that is wrong with this world, and from all that is wrong with ourselves, as well as all that is wrong between us and our Creator. His humble birth, His sinless life, His atoning death, His victorious resurrection, and His promise of forgiveness and eternal life all make Him one of a kind.

So…I have to ask myself: Why am I so often ashamed of Jesus Christ?

If I truly, totally, savingly trust in Him as my Savior, Lord and King, then why is His name so seldom found on my lips, in my conversations, sometimes even in my prayers? Is it just that there is a pervasive anti-religious sentiment in our culture permeating the air all around me? Is it merely because of our pluralistic philosophical bent I’ve been steeped in here in the American “melting pot”?

If I had a machine in my possession that could completely do away with war, disease, hatred, greed, crime, poverty…and I was too ashamed to tell people about it–tell everybody I knew–wouldn’t you call me a fool…an insane monster…to keep quiet about it? Is my thinking so twisted and clouded and cowardly, that I tend to keep the truth of Jesus Christ to myself?

For the past year or so, I’ve been listening to a certain podcast on the internet that focuses on one of my favorite TV shows from back in the 1960s. It happens to be a very unique series that was adventurous, fun and thought-provoking. For its time, it was quite controversial in many ways. This podcast features two men in their 40s who were analyzing the series episode by episode, doing what they referred to as a “deep dive” into the writing, the characters, the direction, the messages, and the lasting impact of that TV program. Both hosts on the podcast confessed that they were so obsessed with the show, they considered it a major influence in their lives.

They also confessed that, when they were in their teens, their devotion to this particular show had been ridiculed by their peers, and they had both suffered from a kind of “geek shame” over their obsession, and secretly wondered if there was something wrong with them deep down. In their minds, while they loved this TV series immensely, they still felt alone and isolated in their devotion to it. But their love for the show persisted over the years, and when they finally met one another and discovered how they shared this obsession, they were eager to explore the show from a more analytical standpoint, digging into how it was written, how the characters were developed, etc.

One of the results was that they came to realize how absurd it was for them to have been ashamed of their obsession. The more they did their “deep dives” into each of the episodes, the more reasons they found to be proud of their original devotion to the series, its excellence, its ideals, its sense of adventure, its prophetic outlook toward the future. As they describe this growing realization, it almost comes across like a religious epiphany or a life manifesto.

While I listen to this podcast, and the rapturous words of the two guys hosting it, I can’t help but compare their obsession to the other fandoms that exist in our TV and movie-soaked culture today: Lord of the Rings…Marvel characters…Harry Potter…Jane Austen novels and films…the list is endless. Certainly we all have our favorites, our pet obsessions. And then I think…

What do we think of Jesus? How obsessed are we with the Savior? The King whose story wasn’t concocted in the mind of a TV or screen writer, but in the mind of Almighty God? All the heroic and grand ideals you and I meet in our favorite myths and adventure tales pale to nothing in comparison with the eternal God’s plan of redemption that features His one and only Son.

A wonderful book I’ve been reading by teacher and theologian Dr. Michael Bennett is entitled Beginning with Moses: Finding Christ in the Old Testament. Dr. Bennett does a fantastic job as he dives deep into the Scriptures to discover the clues of Jesus’ mission, His offices, His roles, His names, His appearances, His place in prophecy, things that span the entire timeline of this planet…and beyond! As I read this insightful book, my excitement swells considering the total tapestry of the Father’s plan–a plan to rescue and redeem a fallen, helpless, sin-ridden race, all for the sake of His beloved Son. Who could not be moved by the story of a Father who chose to sacrifice His Son for ungrateful sinners such as I?

When I think of this story–this true story, I want to dive deep, deeper, deepest, into the chronicle of God’s truth, God’s holy Scripture. And I want to become so obsessed with the riches of His living Word, His only begotten Son, that His name is continually in my mind, on my heart, falling from my lips. I want everyone to hear of Him, to love Him, to trust Him, to know Him eternally. I want you, my friend, to become part of His story.

MNA (3/21/2023)

Psalm 119 Stanza 6

                       Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Stanza Six

Waw: The Mercies of God’s Salvation Empowering Me to Live Out His Truth

41. Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD—/ Your salvation according to Your word.

42. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, / For I trust in Your word.

43. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, / For I have hoped in Your ordinances.

44. So shall I keep your law continually, / Forever and ever.

45. And I will walk at liberty, / For I seek Your precepts.

46. I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, / And will not be ashamed.

47. And I will delight myself in Your commandments, / Which I love.

48. My hands also I will lift up to your commandments, / Which I love,

And I will meditate on Your statutes.

This poem of King David is without a doubt the Psalm of Psalms! Like no other passage in God’s word, Psalm 119 extols the virtues and the awesome value of the law of God. When the ancient Jews and the early church confessed their love and respect for God’s “law,” they weren’t just speaking of the rules and regulations and commands given to the nation of Israel. They were extolling ALL the words of the sacred Scriptures. All the utterances from the holy mouth of their Lord and King Yahweh.

Long ago, English translators brought the sacred name of God into our language using the title “Jehovah.” This is to many people a more familiar translation than the name Yahweh, but Yahweh is a more direct rendering, as it uses the sounds of the four Hebrew consonants that were given as the Lord’s covenant name: YHWH, a four-letter term that means “I am.” Every time a Hebrew addressed his covenant God using that name, “I AM,” he was reminded of how God revealed Himself to Moses from the burning bush, telling him: “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: I AM has sent me unto you.” David uses this eternal, holy name for God when he begins many of the stanzas of 119.

There is a remarkable contrast between the two stanzas HE and WAW. David’s focus throughout the last stanza HE was on his requests of the Lord for understanding and guidance so that he could resist unrighteous ways and run in the path of God’s commandments. The sixth stanza, however, has a different focus. Stanza WAW begins with one additional request. David includes the word “also” in verse 41, indicating that this request follows the ones he made previously. In effect, he is saying, “O Yahweh, in addition to your wisdom and your guidance, let your MERCIES come to me as well!” And he continues by defining what those mercies mean: “Your salvation according to Your word.”

This is the first of six times the word “salvation” appears in Psalm 119. The use of this word, and the fact it is used as a synonym for the word “mercies,” is very instructive, especially to people who have a love and respect for the laws of God, as David did. We already saw that David admitted that he needed to “cleanse his way.” He saw himself as a young man, a child in need of being taught and guided. He was very aware that he was a sinner in need of salvation, not only from sickness, danger, enemies and calamities, but salvation from the judgment of a holy, perfectly just God. This verse makes it plain that, while he longed for God’s salvation, he didn’t fool himself with the idea that God owed it to him. It is only by the MERCIES of God that any person receives salvation from the Lord.

Mercy is a quality that places a limit on the carrying out of JUSTICE. It is an act of mercy when a judge sentences a murderer to life in prison instead of the death penalty. It is mercy when a father withholds a spanking from his child because the child has tears in his eyes. It is mercy when a debt is forgiven because I know the person who owes me is having a hard time. And whenever a sinner receives any kind of blessing from God, that blessing is an act of DIVINE mercy. David asks for God’s merciful salvation, “according to [His] word.” It is a promised salvation. He’s asking God to keep His word by rescuing him, even though he knows he doesn’t deserve it!

Then, based on God’s granting this one final request, David gives a list of his noble intentions: a number of commitments or resolutions he wishes to fulfill in response to his God’s saving mercies. In this stanza we get a picture of the redeemed soul’s desires. When a man or woman is genuinely saved by the grace and mercy of God, through faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, that person’s heart is changed. Made willing and eager to think, speak and act in accord with the word of God. He now has a new trust in the character of God: His truth and faithfulness in keeping His promises. His perfect power and wisdom to give her strength and guidance and understanding.

Verse 42 speaks of the saved person’s confidence in answering those who mock and taunt him for his new God-pleasing path of life. “I am simply trusting in the word of my God,” he will say. It doesn’t bother him that those who reproach him talk and act the way he himself once did. He has an answer for them: the very message of salvation that has been shared with himself. It is up to the God of mercies to do His work in the mocker’s own heart, as the child of God shares the truth he’s been given.

Verse 43 expresses a redeemed one’s desire to never speak anything that contradicts God’s truth. The best way she can fulfill that desire is to always have that truth “in her mouth.” Her hope has been placed in the “ordinances” of God—that is, in the revealed expressions of his perfect will: His word. I have recently been impressed, even amazed, hearing the testimony of several women who have committed whole chapters…even whole BOOKS of the Bible to memory, so that God’s word will continually be in their minds, their hearts, and their mouths.

That hope in God’s revealed truth carries over into the following verse. “So shall I keep Your law continually…forever and ever.” Again, here we hear the heart cry of David the psalmist, the “man after God’s own heart.”  The precious, treasured, savored, memorized word of God is his source of hope. It is in that divine truth that he received God’s promises: promises that Yahweh would grant him victory. That He would never leave him. That He would grant an eternal kingdom to one of His descendents: the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s truth in David’s heart and in his mouth, would assure his obedience.

“And I will walk at liberty, / For I seek Your precepts.” Verse 45 continues David’s list of resolutions. The word “liberty,” of course, is a familiar word to Americans. We cherish our liberty as citizens of a largely free society where we can speak, think, worship and travel as we choose. But David is extolling more than just political or social freedom. He is hailing the blessings of SPIRITUAL liberty, where his heart and mind have been set free to walk in the paths of righteousness, rather than remain in bondage to his own sinful flesh and the slavery to Satan that opposes the gracious words of Yahweh. 

Having the written word of God gives us a deep, deep mine of purest gold—His own wisdom and knowledge that He’s seen fit to share with us. Sometimes we must dig into it to find our answers. We must be willing not only to be FED the truth of God, but also to diligently SEEK it, lest our liberty be impeded by the wrong turns we’re liable to take. Careful study of God’s word is never to be seen as a burden or a chore. It is rather a privilege, a journey of joyful discovery, an exercise of our liberty!

How many of us would be prepared to “speak of [God’s] testimonies also before kings” (verse 46)? David was resolved, as one who received Yahweh’s saving mercies, to do just that. Certainly as the ruler of ancient Israel, King David had many opportunities to confer and take counsel with other rulers who surrounded the holy land. His victories in battle had subdued the armies of many nations such as the Philistines, but this also gave him opportunities to testify about the one true and living God who had given him those victories. Naturally he hoped and prayed that Yahweh’s renown would spread and be respected in all the earth, even as the prophet Nathan had predicted (see 2 Samuel 7). When we are knowledgeable about God’s testimonies, we can be confident in the presence of the most imposing leaders. For the wisdom of the Scriptures is far superior to the mere philosophies of human beings. 

Verses 47 and 48 conclude David’s resolution list he wants to fulfill, having received the mercies of salvation, according to the promise of the Lord. He writes: “And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.” When we take delight in something, like the birthday of a loved one, or the victory of a sports team, or the receiving of an award, whatever, that delight often takes over control of our bodies. We might throw up our hands in joyful ecstasy. We might actually jump up and down, even do a little “happy dance!” When is the last time we truly took delight in the commandments of our God? When did we throw up our hands in appreciation for what our Creator has chosen to reveal to us in His word? Without the Bible, we could know nothing of His merciful salvation He provided for mankind through the giving of His only begotten Son, who died on the cross to free us from sin, death, Satan and everlasting suffering in hell.

I want to encourage you, and myself, to take time to meditate on God’s statutes: His uplifted, established word, words that will never be broken, and will never fail. Words that reveal what a great, holy, righteous, mighty, merciful, gracious Creator He is. His justice, His holy hatred of our sin could have caused him to wipe us all out and imprison us in chains of torment forever. But praise Jehovah! Instead He chose to show us the divine smile of His mercy. Have you opened your heart to this God? Has his gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sin become yours? If so, let’s resolve, you and I, to treasure, ponder, study, hope in, speak about, and delight in, the truth of David’s merciful God!

Amen.

MNA

3/6/2023

God's Love Differs from Ours

Yes He is a God of Love.

In fact…God IS Love.

But God’s love is not like ours.

Our love is only a dim shadow of His.

His love is not a reflection of ours.

We cannot love in the divine sense,

until we truly know this loving God.

Until we know the God who is love,

our love will be poor, blind, selfish.

How does His love differ from ours?

God’s love springs from His desire

to extend His own perfect holiness and favor,

shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from eternity.

The loving Trinity chose to create heaven and earth

as the outflowing of their love for one another:

a perfect love that required nothing in return,

but for the creatures to enter into this love,

and enjoy their Creator’s benefits forever.

God made Adam and Eve innocent and upright,

able either to enter into this perfect love,

or to choose a path of disobedience.

Their bad choice set the life course for all of us,

resulting in a race of fallen sinners,

bound only for eternal judgment.

How does His love differ from ours?

God’s love, though unrequited, never gave up

on the fallen, sinful race of humanity.

The sentence of death He gave us was delayed—

ultimately to be paid by a Savior He promised to send.

All who heard and believed in this promised One

would never have to pay the price for their sins.

Down through the ages, the Savior was called by many names:

“Seed of the woman,” “Offspring of Abram,” “Lion of Judah,”

“Shoot of Jesse,” “Son of David,” “Son of Man”...

And, finally, John the forerunner called Him: “The Lamb of God.”

How does His love differ from ours?

God the Son became a Man to show us how:

Jesus gave up the splendor of his divine glory

to take on the creaturely form of the lowliest servant.

He voluntarily submitted to the smallest letter of the law

to reflect and obey the holy character and demands of God.

His love was so obedient that it totally pleased the Father,

and His love for people was accepting of the worst of sinners.

His love for God’s truth made religious hypocrites hate Him.

His love of God’s mercy made penitent lowlifes love Him.

His love of God’s justice made Him die as a cursed man,

as the final sacrificial Substitute for all who trust the Promise.

His love for His people made Him bear all their sins on the cross.

His love for His Father caused Him to be raised to heaven’s throne.

How does His love differ from ours?

God’s love is more than a concept. More than a sentiment.

More than a lenient whim. More than a fawning niceness.

More than a self-serving passion. More than a heroic martyrdom.

God’s love created. It gave us freedom to choose.

God’s love held back His justice from those who sinned.

God’s love promised freedom from the bondage of our sins.

God’s love pursued fallen sinners with truth, goodness, mercy, grace.

God who IS love, became the MAN who is love.

God loved the world by giving His only Son,

so that all who believe in Him shall not perish,

but have everlasting life.

MNA

3/5/2023