Psalm 9 - Hannah Wasn't Drunk

Hannah couldn't get pregnant.  Her husband had two wives.  Peninnah got pregnant at the drop of a hat, but their husband didn't love her like he loved Hannah.  Knowing this, Peninnah made life miserable for Hannah, flaunting her children, especially the sons, in front of her, fueling the barren woman's feelings of inadequacy.  So Hannah took it to God.  A thing she did every year at the temple in Shiloh.  I Samuel picks up her story at the temple when Hannah is crying out her affliction to God.  She was whispering her desperation to the Lord, tears pouring down her cheeks.  The priest, Eli, thought she was drunk!  But her prayer, accompanied with her bitter crying, was: 
O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life."

God heard, did not forget her pain and gave her a son, Samuel, whom she did give back to Him.  Imagine the joy of finally having her prayer answered and her pain and shame wiped away.  What would your heart be saying?  Here, in part, is what she said to God:
My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in the Lord.  My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in Your salvation.  There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides You.  There is no rock like our God.  Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

What does your heart cry out to the Lord for?  I have some very desperate prayers that I have been praying for quite a long time now.  Sometimes I wake in the night and do exactly what Hannah did.  I cannot wake the household with loud weeping, so I mouth my heart and wet my pillow with tears to a God who I know does not forget my cries.  Waiting for the answers.  Still.  But I know He hears. 

David put it this way in Psalm 9:  ...He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.  Be gracious to me, O Lord.  See my affliction from those who hate me, O You Who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all Your praises ...that in the gates of Jerusalem I may rejoice in Your salvation.
Notice the two gates?  Affliction takes us to the gates of death but answered prayer transports us to a place where we find the biggest audience we can to shout out how wonderful our God is.  Affliction doesn't have to be physical.  It can be spiritual or emotional.  Our souls can die as surely as our bodies.  Think Zoloft.  So David's plea is, if you save me from the gates of hell, I'll have the opportunity to tell my city - everyone - how amazing is your rescue.  He will not forget your cry.  Remember:  He will never fail or us forsake us.

I keep at it.  This praying for things that have not yet manifested.  Though my heart feels afflicted for those for whom I pray, it is not from a physical enemy, but a liar who will tell me that God doesn't hear me and doesn't care...or worse, He doesn't even exist.  So, don't think you don't have a Peninnah in your life who gets pleasure from your distress.  Don't agree with the lies!  For there is no Rock like our God!  If He was faithful to hear Hannah, He will hear you, too! Listen to what our God promises:

But Zion said: "The Lord has forsaken me.  The Lord has forgotten me"
Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you!  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands."

Hold that nail-scarred hand today.

Psalm 9 - It's Okay if He Gets Mad!

Can God get really mad?  Is that okay with you?  I know some read the Bible and have great difficulty with the wrath of God.  They see Him as this angry old curmudgeon waving a hammer just waiting for the first mistake of the day so He can bludgeon someone into subservience.  This, from people who do not know His heart, however.  Think about what God sees!  I wonder how He lets us go on at all.  From His perspective, seeing everything all at once and perceiving the flow of all history at a glance, how does He stomach us?  Lying, murder, rape, abuse, indifference, pride, stealing and the blatant worship of anything that is not the God of all.  Genocide, infanticide, wars and tyranny.  Why has He held back?

When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before You.  For you have maintained my cause.  You have sat on the throne judging righteously.  You have rebuked the nations.  You have destroyed the wicked.  You have blotted out their name forever and ever.  The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins. (vs. 3-6)  How it must thrill the heart of God to see even one of us who really wants to know Him.  We do not have to be perfect.  The old law demanded it.  The new covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus, demands our hearts.  If we understand that God became flesh and lived among us, dying in our place (John 1) then we can forever give up the beef that He is a mean old God who wants to make us miserable.  That would be ridiculous at best, blasphemy at its worst.  God loved us so much He became one of us.  Stop a minute, because we get used to this and forget the magnitude of it.  Would you die for you?

Here is what God says about His vengeance in the song of Moses, read by the prophet as he handed the reins of power to Joshua.  Vengeance is Mine, and retribution....for the Lord will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants when He sees their strength is gone....See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me.  It is I Who put to death and give life...and there is no one who can deliver from My hand. (Deuteronomy 32)  This is Someone I want on my side. 

You want to know how it all ends?  The Judge, you know, will one day hold court.  And it will be fair.  Whether you like it or not, He has the right to decide our eternal fate.  He has made every possible provision for us to be eternally with Him.  So how can we judge Him for what is the ultimate fate of man, thinking Him to be narrow and unfair?   Here it is from Revelation 20 and 21:

 Then I saw a great white throne and Him Who sat upon it, from Whose presence earth and heaven fled away...I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up their dead which were in them.  They were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire...and if anyone's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will no longer be any death.  There will no longer be any crying or mourning or pain.....he who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his/her God and they will be my sons and daughters.  But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all  liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone."

God wants to go back to His plan in the garden.  To walk among us.  He made provision for that.  The Book of Life.  It is the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice, who is worthy to open it (Revelation 5) because it is He who bought our right to have our names written in it.  That is all He really wants.  Yahweh does not enjoy our punishment.  He enjoys our fellowship.  If we refuse His way of salvation from our rebellion, doesn't He have the right to judge us unworthy of His company? 

Psalm 9 - He's Not Letting Go

The Lord defends those who suffer;  He defends them in times of trouble.  Those who know the Lord, trust Him because He will not leave those who come to Him. (vs.9-10) 

Ever thought you really knew someone and then they disappointed you?  Even abandoned you?  Ever been that person yourself?  We are dust, but He is not.  The more we know Him....not just know of Him...the more we can trust Him in everything.  It is a matter of walking with Him and taking baby steps.  We begin to trust with little things.  I call that A.  We are scared to death because, really, what if He does not come through?  Whew.  He does.  On to B.  The further down the road we go in this walk, the more likely it is that we trust Him.  We have learned His ways.  We discern His heart.  We hear His word.  We know our Father.  Even when we walk into something that makes no sense to us, we learn to wait to see what He will do.  He is a place of safety even in the storm.

But this thing about never leaving us.   How can that be?  We are accustomed to the evanescence of life.  People come and go.  David says that we trust Him because He won't leave us.  There it is.  He is stuck like glue to those who love Him, even as we love Him imperfectly.  John the apostle wrote in I John 4:   Where God's love is there is no fear because God's perfect love drives out fear. 

Afraid God won't come through?  Fearful that He won't take care of all the things that keep you awake at night?  Then it sounds like you don't understand how much you are loved.  How perfectly you are cared for.  I know I forget at four a.m. when my eyes are wide open and I am wondering how some thing will all work out.  In a study of the New Testament gospels I recently did, it was amazing to me how many times Jesus said:  "Don't be afraid."  He was always saying that.  Why?  Because love trusts love. 

I know.  I know.  You have trusted before and you got burned.  Me, too.  And, I have burned a few others, too.  Hope you have not.  But God knows our hearts and He is bigger than our hearts.  He made them.  Our path was created by Him for us.  He knows the way.  Take His hand.  Relax.  We are loved.

Want to know how much?  So what can we say?  If God is for us, who can defeat us?  He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all....Can anything separate us from the love of Christ?  Can troubles or problems or suffering or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death?...In all these things we are more than conquerors through God Who showed His love for us.  Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nor anything else in the world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8)

Feel loved yet?  One more promise from the God Who made you.  I will never fail ( Hebrew: raphah - relax, cease, desist, become disheartened, let you drop, abandon, be lazy with) you or forsake (Hebrew: azab - let loose of) you.  Do not be afraid.  He will always be there and He's not letting go.

Psalm 9 - Scram!

There are many distinct advantages to knowing the King.  The most important might be that He is on your side.  His judgments are skewed toward your vindication because you pay homage to Him when your enemies do not.  Our particular King, Yahweh, the Sovereign over everything, knows everyone's heart and everyone's path.  Vindication is, therefore, supremely just when He decides what to do. 

When my enemies retreat, they stumble and perish before You.  For You have upheld my just cause.  You are seated on Your throne as a righteous judge. (vs. 3-4)  I was speaking with a young woman a few days ago who said she has no enemies so the verses that speak of evil against her don't really seem to apply.  I know that in this age we do not go out hand to hand and beat each other up on a daily basis.  There is not a season when the kings go out to war as they did in David's day.  But make no mistake.  We have an enemy lurking about looking for a good meal.  And, though I don't feel I have a human enemy trying to devise evil against me today, I know I am at war with the agreements with the enemy of my soul, with addictions, attitudes, generational curses, and the very demons from hell that would destroy me (John 10).  They are not front and center in my mind today because I know who fights my battles with me....and I know He wins.

As I was thinking about this psalm today I could not help but go to Deuteronomy 28.  There is a list of blessings for those who follow the Lord:  All these blessing will come and overtake you because you obey the Lord your God:  You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.  Your descendants will be blessed and your land's produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.  Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you.  They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions. 

I love the picture of the army marching on me coming from hell to destroy me, like ants in a line.  But the Lord so defeats them that they run scared in every direction in an effort just to get away from me as fast as they can. 

How victorious am I going to be today?  How much time am I going to spend in bitterness against someone who has viciously hurt me?  Am I going to waste emotional and spiritual energy trying to devise payback?  I hope that I will trust my God, the King, to judge between me and my enemy.  Let unforgiveness go.  Let the Judge vindicate me.  Remember that He sits on His throne and upholds my cause if it is just. Remember that He sits on His throne and lets me know if I am wrong, not just that I have been wronged.  I will allow Him to vindicate or correct today because this Judge is always right.

Psalm 9 - From the Heart

I will thank Yahweh with all my heart; I will declare His wonderful works. (vs.1)

I start off every day with thanksgiving.  Really.  Before I even get out of bed. The moment my eyes open on the day my heart is speaking thanks. For sleep.  It is often hard to come by for me.  For new knees. My old ones wore out early. For my family, home, possessions, work.  And, most of all, that I am a child of God privileged to pray to Him. 

Some days don't go so well after that.  I won't lie about this.  But thanksgiving  is also a matter of the will.  I will thank Yahweh with all my heart.  I make a choice to do so.  Even when the day turns south and I don't get it. 

When Bill and I were first married, we heard a teaching from the book of First Thessalonians (5:18):
Give thanks for everything because this is God's will for you in Christ.  For everything?  Really?  Having taken the teaching to heart, we began practicing it.  Then God gave us a pretty good test.  We were moving temporarily to California from Texas and had packed the little Mustang Mach I (that's a car, by the way, not a horse) with all the good stuff we did not trust to the Greyhound bus that rolled across the miles to North Hollywood and our apartment.  My wedding trousseau, good dishes, sewing machine, Bill's camera...all in the back of the red muscle car parked in front of Bill's parents' home. 

As we were preparing to leave the next morning, Bill went to the car to retrieve his camera.  He came back in a few minutes later and asked me if we unpacked the car the night before.  Silly question.  No. Back out he went to the see if his eyes had betrayed him.  Nope.  "I think someone stole everything from the car last night," he said rather stridently to me, his bride.  Having to verify, I ran to the scene of the crime. Yep. All gone.  My clothes most importantly.  All I had left were the clothes I had worn the day before.

What to do.  We decided to go upstairs to our bedroom, get down on our knees and thank God for what had just happened.  We willed ourselves to do so.  Following this was a pretty strange conversation with Bill's mom who was beside herself with rage.  Bill kept saying that God must have some reason for this and that just made her more furious.  Why would God want to take all the new stuff away from a young married couple?  Why would He deny Kay the clothes from her back?  Who was this God?

Good questions.  I don't know if God had any further reason for the theft than that particular conversation with Bill's mom.  She graciously took me to the mall and purchased for me a couple of dresses and a black polyester bell-bottomed outfit that can be seen in every picture we took on our drive to California.  What it did for our hearts was the most important thing.  It caused us to focus on His sovereignty, even over our stuff.  If He saw fit to empty our car for the trip, okay.  We truly had peace that His will was done.  We had each other and a fun trip ahead.  I might be nearly naked in California, but, hey, it's warm there.

Admittedly, I have not always since that time been so ready with a high five to God for things that go awry.  But I have to always come to that.  With all my heart.  Because my heart has the choice to accuse God or trust Him.  I am His kid.  He is always looking out for me and watching over me.  So I try not to worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, I let my requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4)   Thanksgiving before we see what is going on is faith.  And without faith it is not possible to please God.  I wanna make Him pat me on the head.

Psalm 8 - Throwing the Name Around

Some people are famous for being famous.  Others for their accomplishments.  Many for their families.  Paris Hilton would be just another skinny pretty blond except that she is a Hilton.  Her family name gives her not only money, but some authority, especially to buy things like a pink Bentley.  The advantages of being a wealthy, powerful Hilton are far-reaching.  If an earthly name carries so much weight, what then can be accomplished with the name of God?

If we are God's children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. (Romans 8) We are the adopted children of God.  We are beloved, covered with a shield of favor, remember? We inherit all that Jesus inherits. "Until now," Jesus said, "you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive so that your joy may be full". (John 16). The Father wants joyful kids who can come freely to Him to ask anything of Him.  He wants to thrill us.  You can throw His name around if you belong to Him....just make sure you are His kid.

What happens when someone just uses the name.  An imposter?  What if, for your own benefit or fame, you pretend to be a child of God.  I wouldn't do that if I were you.  In Acts 19 there is a story of the kids of a local Jewish exorcist, Sceva, who thought they would use the Name to have a little fun with a demon possessed man.  The man was huge and his size was useful to the demons who controlled him.  These seven brothers who came upon him decided to try something new. They called out:  "By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!"

The evil spirit in the man yelled back at them:  "I know about Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you?"

The large man rushed the brothers, beat them all up, tearing off their clothes in the process.  They ran for their lives, bloody and naked.

The name of the One Who made us is powerful.  He has brought us into His family and given us the advantages that come with His Name.  Revelation 3 tells us that one day, when we enter eternity as his sisters and brothers, Jesus will present us to the Father as "those who belong to Me." That is the most important part of knowing Him.  That we are His.  The family name rests on us as does the responsibility of carrying it well - and humbly.  Once we know what it cost to bring us together with Christ, I doubt we will bandy the name around with aplomb.  We are adopted.  Chosen out of another family with a lesser title to be royalty.  The very last book of the Bible tells us what we inherit.  They will see His face, and His name will be written on their foreheads....and they will rule as royalty forever.

Psalm 8 - What's in a Name?

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! (vs.1).....So God raised Him to the highest place.  God made His name greater than every other name so that every knee will bow to the name of Jesus - everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2)

What is in that name?  Why is it greater than every other name?  Think about it.  As a guilty, confessed criminal on death row I sit awaiting the justice that is my punishment. Death. Eternally.  My many sins have been discovered - the covert and overt ones - and I stand before the judge without excuse.  What can I say when he replays the video of my life with its blatant disregard for the law?  Ooops?  Shouldn't have done that?  More than likely I would fall on my face and asked for mercy - a mercy which he cannot find given my behavior.  I am lost.  I am doomed forever by my own sins.

Then a miracle happens.  Someone walks into my prison and agrees to take my place.  Die the bloody death I deserve.  Only one thing I need to do.  Remember His Name.  Jesus.  Because it will be important.  If I wear it, it will change my life.  I watch as they take Him to the death chamber in my place.  Hear Him scream out in my pain.  Listen as He is ridiculed and beaten, stabbed and spit upon.  Watch Him as in death He calls out my forgiveness and restoration.  See His Father, not mine, turn from the ignominy of this death because He cannot look on sin.  I cry out in despair that I have let Him take my place until He appears to me, risen and whole and glorified.  He says:  Now, ask anything in My name.

Wouldn't I remember that name forever?  He stepped into my punishment - Jesus - taking my place and substituting His name for mine.  He saved my life!  Wouldn't you remember the name of the person who saved yours?  He saved ALL of us!  His name is the most wonderful ever spoken because He, the God of the created universe, whose words spoke it into being, took on my sinful life, paid the penalty for it, and brought me into His family so that I now wear the family crest.  With His name on it.  I can go to His Father and mine and ask anything in His name.  Jesus is salvation's name.   Any wonder it is powerful to heal, save, and restore?

Peter and John came across a lame beggar one day shortly after Pentecost.  Jesus had told them to speak in His name, so when the beggar asked for alms, the two men said they had no money, but what they did have they would give.  "In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, get up and walk!"  They seized the man's right hand and pulled him up. Leaping, he stood upright and began to walk around.  He went straight to church and could not stop praising God in front of all the religious folks.  The religious folks had some trouble with this whole Jesus rising from the dead scenario, so they arrested Peter and John and threw them into prison. This was the same group who had killed Jesus earlier, so the fact that He was still causing trouble was upsetting, to say the least.  Putting Peter and John in the center as they circled around them, their question was: "By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?"

Here is their stunning answer:  " Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead - by this name this man stands here before you in good health.....and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

O Lord, my Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8- Hold Your Hand, Father!

Lord, Your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth!  It brings You praise in heaven above.  You have taught children and babies to sing praises to You because of Your enemies.
(vs. 1-2) 

I held a baby girl last night.  She is three months old, and she thinks the faces I make are funny. Her mother trusted her into my arms, and she is young enough that she was unafraid of me.  After I fed her, she fell blissfully asleep, worried about nothing more significant than whether her belly was full and her diaper dry.  My little bundle was just content to be held by someone with at least a faint idea of what she was doing.  It made me think of Psalm 131, and now I steal my own thunder as eventually I will have to spend a week on this small psalm, dissecting it, but here it is in part:

Lord, my heart is not proud; I don't look down on others.  I don't do great things, and I can't do miracles.  But I am calm and quiet, like a baby with its mother.  I am at peace, like a baby with its mother.

This is how I am supposed to live my life.  At peace like a baby with its mother.  I am, after all, a child of God.  I have been born again, not with amniotic waters, but by the Spirit Who made a brand new woman out of me.  I will never be as smart as my dad.  I will never grow to be as tall as He is or as wise.  I will always be childlike until the day I know as I am known.  As such, I should simply rest in His arms and trust they are secure.

My youngest grandson had a difficult time controlling his emotions when he was in his two's.  He just could not calm down.  One day while I was riding in the car with him and my daughter, something really ticked him off.  Strapped into his carseat, screaming his frustration to the air blowing into his open window, he barely heard the remonstration of his mother to "Calm down!"  He tried.  He sucked it up, but it was just so hard to gain control.  Then he sobbed: "Hold you hand, Mommy!  Hold you hand!"  Mommy reached back behind her and offered her hand to her sobbing boy. As he gripped it he calmed himself.  Just something about that touch.  The strength of a mommy-hand offering assistance in a task he could not accomplish without it. 

That is how we should be.  When things are too much for us, we cry out:  "Hold Your hand, Father!  Hold Your hand."  Remember those fingers that created the universe?  Where then could He not take us when our fingers are intertwined with His?  In his high priestly prayer before the crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples that we who know Him can ask the Father in Christ's name for anything because the Father Himself loves you. (John 16) 

Trying to perceive spiritual things with your intellect is often frustrating.  God says He is Spirit and those who worship Him will worship Him with their spirit. (John 4)  Again, it is our heart, our core, that God is aching for.  Jesus prayed in Matthew 11:  "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the people who are wise and smart.  But You have shown them to those who are like little children.  Yes, Father, this is what you really wanted.  What He really wants?  Little children.  Who adore their Father.  Who trust him like a nursing baby trusts her mother. That doesn't mean we have to blow our brains out to be Christians because there is plenty for our understanding to seek in our quest for knowledge of God.  But knowledge of God is not enough.  Just knowing about Him does not change us.  Becoming a little child....being born again into His family...that is where we get our spiritual DNA. 

The true children of God are those who let God's Spirit lead them.  The Spirit we received does not make us slaves again to fear; it makes us children of God.  With that Spirit we cry out "Father!"
(Romans 8)  Hold You hand!

Psalm 8 - Dominion

Dominion is one of those words that you think you can define until someone asks you what it means.  To rule, I would say, but that doesn't really cover it all.  So I looked it up both in the Hebrew of its context in Psalm 8 and in the plain old dictionary.  Synonyms:  rule, authority, control, dominance, domination, grasp, mastery, grip, command, jurisdiction, power, sovereignty, sway, ascendancy, preeminence, primacy, supremacy.  Whew!  Even the dictionary could not pin it down to just a couple of words.  Psalm 8 tells us that God has crowned us with glory and majesty and given us dominion over the works of His hands.  Hands here comes from the Hebrew word that denotes power or strength.  He gave us authority over the work of His strength or strong hands. Thinking about that this morning. 

God created everything, then us.  He set us in the midst and said:  "This is yours to rule."  Of all His creations, we are front and center.  Crowned!  Majestic and glorious.  Feeling it?  I have not brushed my teeth yet this morning, so glorious is not the word I would use for my straying hair, unwashed face and coffee breath.  It is in us that God breathed His breath.  It is to us He sent the Holy Spirit to make His home in us.  We are responsible for the earth's upkeep.  We rule it with "supremacy." 

There are two reactions to this knowledge.  #1.  Oh, my God! I cannot be expected to take care of all of that!  #2.  Where do I start?   A third reaction is David's.  Why would God use man when he is so small in the great scheme of things?  What is my place in all of this?

You wear a crown today.  It drips majesty and glory.  Kabowd.  Weightiness.  Splendor.  You are the supreme creation and you are made to rule.  Are you?  We need to know this about ourselves so that we are not swept away in this world into the sea of humanity with lost purpose.  We live with a "weightiness" because we are designed by God to do something no one else but we can do.  I have not been called to be the President of the United States (yet) or head of the U.N.  But I do have things under my control, not the least of which is how I control myself.  Before me today is a new set of challenges over which I have supremacy, rule, authority and power.  I want to wear my "crown" with dignity and rule with wisdom in the realm in which my God has set me.  You have made him a little lower than God, and have crowned him with glory and majesty. (vs.5)

Psalm 8 - We Are More Than Ants

Have you heard God's coming down to man as a man compared to us looking down on an ant hill and having enough compassion on the ants to become one?  I understand the metaphor - man has a bird's eye view of the ants, something like God has a bird's eye view of us.  Or not.  But why are people important to You?  Why do You care about humans?  You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.  You put them in charge of everything you have made.  You put all things under their control:  all the sheep, the cattle and the wild animals, the birds of the sky, the fish in the sea and everything under the water. (vs. 4-8)  Clearly we were created separate from the other animals.  God did not look at us as we look at ants, but more as we look at our children.  The Godhead created us to be like God.  First He created the other animals, then God said: "Let Us make man in Our image and likeness.  And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth..." (Genesis 1)  The Father, who conceived the thought of the us, the Son, the Logos or Word of God, spoke us into being, and the Spirit was the power to make it happen.  In that image we are made.  Thought.  Words.  Power and dominion.  Remember God actually walked beside and communicated with man and woman back then.  That is always what He wanted.  Still wants.  Children.  Not ants...lesser little minions that He feels sorry for.  Always He has wanted to be with us. That is why He made us like Him.

Does God even care about me?  That is the question I hear most often.  Job was upset that God cared so much. Wished God would take His attention elsewhere for a bit so he could just catch a breath.  Why do You make people so important and give them so much attention?  You examine them every morning and test them every moment?  Will You never look away from me or leave me alone long enough to swallow? (Job 7: 17-19)  But God did care about him.  Showed him off to the universe as an example of a faithful man.  Because God was watching him, Satan could only go so far before God restored to Job twice as much as he had lost.  And Job, like you and me, just a speck smaller than a grain of sand yet noticed and watched over by the Almighty Creator of everything.  The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, watching both good and evil. (Proverbs 5) He is active in this universe of His from the day we are born. You made my whole being; You formed me in my mother's womb.  I praise You because You made me in an amazing and wonderful way. (Psalm 139) The Hebrew for formed is actually embroidered in my mother's body.  A work of art. 

So what is man that God cares about Him?  Feeling small today?  Insignificant?  You are infinitely important to the One Who made You in His own image.  He gave you dominion on this earth.  The crowning glory of His creation.  More spectacular than the stars and moon.  Infused with the potential of God Himself.  The Spirit that powered through the creation process lives in you, if you know Christ.  That has always been the plan - Christ in you.  Given the mind of Christ.  Clothed in His righteousness - not yours. A triunity of power that can show the world what our Father is like.  You are not an ant.....not even close!  You are a daughter of God, designed from the beginning with purpose by a Father Who watches over your life, even when you don't particularly want Him to.  The planets are for you to marvel at, the animal kingdom for you to tame, the mountains for you to climb, the rivers to give you drink, the plants to give you food, and the very breath of God to fill your lungs.  What are you that God would think of you?  His baby girl....His baby boy. The eyes of your Father are always on you.

Psalm 8 - Wow!

When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have established, what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that You care about them? (vs. 3-4)

Earth is a very small planet in an enormous solar system that moves at a speed of 134 miles per second through space.  We are so small as to be all but lost in the Milky Way which is comprised of 200 billion stars and is just one of 125 billion galaxies that we can see.  Six billion of the stars in the Milky Way have planetary systems like ours.  Andromeda is the closest galaxy and is a million, milllion, million miles away. Traveling at the speed of light, it would take two million years to get there.  We don't know what is beyond Andromeda. Our earth is spinning around its axis at 1040 miles per hour.  Earth rotates around its sun at 670,000 miles per hour taking one year.  The solar system of which our earth is a part revolves around the galaxy at 550,000 miles per hour.  The four and a half billion year old solar system has made only eighteen revolutions around the galaxy since it was created. 

There is so much to wonder about when you look up.  Order never comes from chaos.  It is the other way around. Order points to a mind.  A plan.  So the big bang, if there was one, had mighty fingers placing all the components of the universe in order, moving steadily around, in, and among each other in the same patterns for billions of years and in a vastness that we will probably never quite grasp as the universe ever expands.  Can anyone say "Wow!" with me?  We are spinning around right now at phenomenal speed, yet our feet stay on the ground, water stays in place instead of spilling out into space. I don't feel like I am traveling at a speed of 1000 miles per hour, do you? 

Earth is smaller than a grain of sand in our own solar system.  No one would even see us when looking at the Milky Way.  Yet, He sees.  If earth is smaller than a grain of sand, how big am I?  What am I that He would consider me?  It makes ridiculous the prancing and posturing of man in his claims that there is no god, no creator whose mind exceeds what man's mind can come up with as much as creation exceeds what we can fathom. It is the work of Christ, this universe.  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in Him all things in heaven and earth were created, things visible and invisible - all things have been created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1: 15-16)  They were His fingers placing the heavens in order.

And if that were not enough, scientists now know the Earth hums.  Really.  It makes music.  Sings, so to speak, in constant, rhythmic melody.  Want to make fun of Job now?   God answers Job's pleas for a face to face talk by beginning with these words:  Where were you when I laid the foundations for the Earth?  Tell me if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements - surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?  On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?  (Job 38).   The looping magnetic fields along our sun's outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to instruments such as a guitar or a pipe organ.  Our ears cannot hear it, but new scientific instruments have picked up the actual melodic music of the planets.  

So sing with me the praises of our God, Who, though we cannot see has left the work of His fingers for us to understand just a little of the greatness of His mind.  Let us sing with our Earth the praises of our creator God Who created us, too, with purpose and design to live on this spinning planet in this rotating solar system in this vast universe of billions and billions of stars.  Romans 1:  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world, His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made. So, they are without excuse....

Then God said,  "Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night.  These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days and years. They will be in the sky to give light to the earth."  And it happened.  So God made the two large lights.  He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night.  He also made the stars.  God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth.....God saw all these things that they were good.

Psalm 7 - Skeptical?

Today at the pier in Huntington Beach, California, where I live, a group of atheists are going to tear out pages from the Bible and pontificate on the absurdity of the scriptures they defile.  Okay.  They have a right to do that.  However, in so doing, they set themselves up to be smarter than God in picking and choosing what is good in the Good Book from what they don't like.  They are called the Backyard Skeptics and tout the slogan:  Atheism is philanthropy without mythology, peace without superstition.  They don't believe that prayer works or that religion adds anything except a sense of false hope. The Bible is wrong...or more importantly, irrelevant, so tearing it up in public is an exciting, even exhilarating, show of bravado in the cause for proving that God is our imaginary friend.

This was interesting to me in light of this week's psalm.  To be an atheist is, I say again, an untenable position for you have to know everything there is to know - be a god yourself - to know there is no god.  A-theism really means "without god."  That they are. That they can profess and tear up the Bible all they want, throwing the pages in His face as they take each out of context, laughing at the words that speak of ancient rules and regulations.  They will be handing out the Thomas Jefferson Bible...he tore out the pages he did not like from the New Testament, culling 1100 pages into 86.  I am surprised there were that many he could find nothing offensive on.  Once you start telling God what you will accept and what you will not, why not give it just one thing that He must do for you in order for you to let Him be God.  Make God bow to you.

Funny, you know, there is just one thing that God has pared it all down to.  He threw out the rules with their heavy burden, designed to show us that we cannot keep them.  We want a system of tenets because that seems easier than following this holy, mighty, untamed God day to day in relationship, but that is what He wants.  He never wanted the law.  We did.  So He came to fulfill it.  So tear up the pages of the old law!  Go ahead!  Because the one thing He wants from us is to accept the sacrifice of His Only Son...That's it.  The entire Bible is about that one thing.  He did not do what was right toward us who want to tell Him, even today, what we will and will not accept from His hand.  He did what was merciful.  To make light of a God who does not have to answer one prayer of ours - ever - is the height of ignorance!  He owes us nothing!  He has already made the ultimate sacrifice for us, so if we have hope, it is because He gave it to us.  We do not deserve it.  If there is a God, He gets to decide what to do with us because He made us!  That seems to be what these people are most upset about.  If you make God a myth, you do not have to be accountable to Him.

I would not want to be standing and looking at the vastness of the ocean that I so love laughing at the creator God today.  I would not want to be shaking my fist at the heavens and telling God He does not exist.  To be unsure of it, I understand.  To doubt.  I get that.  But to set myself up as one who is so smart that she knows there is no god and make it my personal mission to thwart the faith of others, that is an ominous position that would strike fear in me.

 Oh, God, who does what is right, be merciful to us when we are foolish enough to believe You do not see us when we laugh at You.  I know You will be at the pier today.  Have mercy, please.

Psalm 7 - The Song of Moses

I praise the Lord because He does what is right.  I sing praises to the Lord Most High. (vs 17).  With these words, David ends his psalm.  Isn't this really the end of all we can say?  Our sovereign God does what is right, whether we like it or not, whether we understand it or not, whether we agree or not.  Only the God Most High, so much higher than we, has a bird's eye view of all the span of history.  He does not see time as it unfolds, but He sees all time at a glance.  He lives out of time and space, having created it for us.  Our fighting against it is ridiculous, our moving within it is salvation and purpose.  Don't wag your finger in the face of God telling Him He is not doing things right in your life.  Instead, surrender to the One Who has a dream for you that He has dreamed from before the beginning of time.  What could be better than that?  It will make your heart sing.

Praise prepares us for heaven.  I know.  My kids have said when they were younger that being in heaven sounds boring.  Just floating around playing harps and singing for...for...well, for forever!  They wanted it to end before it even began!  Though we don't know all that God has planned for us, we have pictures of it from His Word.  There is food.  There is purpose and peace.  There are gardens and a beautiful river.  Streets glow like transparent gold and precious jewels glint in the golden rays of light created by the God of heaven, as He is all the light needed.  Millions of angels dwell there, and they are constantly singing and praising the One Who sits on the throne. Their thunderous voices pulsate as the strains of their song wafts through the air.  Thunder and lightnings emanate from the throne which is bathed in emerald light. The Lamb Who was slain from the foundations of the world, our Jesus, sits on the throne.  He is the culmination of all history as God planned it - the very heart of God made manifest to us. 

Central to everything is the Most High God.  The judge.  He is interested in only one thing as we stand before Him on that day.  What did we do with Jesus?  The Lamb.  Our sacrifice.  His heart.  Because in His great mercy, God became man and dwelt among us.  If we shunned that death, we are doomed.  God in this act of self-sacrifice did not do what was just - He did what was merciful.  He made us right by taking on our punishment.  So, with David, we can sing praises to the God who does what is right - the God who makes things right.  He wields the rod of justice only against those who stubbornly refuse Him.

Those in heaven, with harps given them by God, will sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb:
You do great and wonderful things, Lord God Almighty.  Everything the Lord does is right and true, King of the nations.  Everyone will respect You, Lord, and will honor You. Only You are holy. All the nations will come and worship You because the right things You have done are now made known.(Revelation 15)  On the day when I know even as I am known, maybe I won't even care to understand all I cannot fathom now because He will be there, wrapped in emerald splendor, thundering His love for me.

Psalm 7 - A Little Piece of Robe

Psalm 7 is a shiggaion.  Yes, I wondered about that word, too.  It is derived from the word that means either to err or to wonder.  It can also mean wild or ecstatic.  A shiggaion is a highly emotional poem meant to stir up the emotions.  Think of David singing this psalm.  Here is the story behind it.

King Saul has been jealous of David since Samuel declared he would replace Saul as king.  So, even though David has been a part of the king's household and best friends with Jonathan, the king's son, Saul wants to kill David, thwarting God's plan for both of their lives.  David was not only mighty in the killing of Goliath, but has outnumbered the king in his conquests ever since.  So the story of the shiggaion unfolds from the day that David and his strongmen are in a cave in En-gedi when Saul, who has been told where David is, arrives with three thousand men to kill him.  Certainly not a fair man-a-man fight!  Alas, Saul has to go to the restroom, and turns into the very cave where David and his men are living.  The men are ecstatic!  They urge David to kill Saul and take the throne today!  David sneaks up on Saul....get the picture, because Saul is on the toilet, so to speak.....and, sword in hand, David cuts off a piece of Saul's robe then creeps back to his men.  Incredulous, David's mighty men are nonplussed that he comes back with a bit of royal apparel instead of the head of the man in the head.  David's reaction: Guilt.  Guilt that he even cut off a piece of the robe of the man God had appointed as king.

So, David runs out of the cave after Saul.  Listen to what he calls out to his king:  "My lord, the king!"  When Saul looked back, David bowed his face to the ground and honored him.  David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of those who say 'David seeks to do you harm'?  This very day you have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you....See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.  I have not sinned against you though you are hunting me to take my life. May the Lord judge between me and you!  May the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you....Against whom has the king of Israel come out?  Whom do you pursue?  A dead dog? A single flea?  May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between you and me.  May He see to it , and plead my cause and vindicate me against you."

I am amazed by the power of what David said to King Saul.  So was Saul.  He limped away with his three thousand men carrying home the affirmation that David was indeed the "better man" for having spared his life.  Saul's goose was cooked because David got out of the way and let God deal directly with his enemy.  That is scary.....for Saul.  And the king knew it.  David had seen the King squatting in a cave at a most vulnerable moment and had done the honorable thing.  How do you think Saul told his troops about that?  They knew he had gone to the cave to "relieve himself" and come out a bit short of a robe with his enemy calling after him then falling prostrate in honor of the king's position. Once again David had humiliated Saul.  That might have been worse than death, for this young shepherd-turned-warrior had a call on his life that King Saul could not fight.  It is the ultimate vanity to kick against what God has planned. 

The call on your own life will save you from the enemy, too.  Called to be a child of God, protected with the shield of favor.  That is why you do not have to exact revenge.  Get out of the way because God knows everything, including hearts, and His judgments are right.  As Jonathan Edwards said, it is a dangerous thing to fall into the hands of an angry God, and injustice makes Him angry. 

Psalm 7 - What Goes Around.....

Has your best friend said this to you?  Don't worry.  What goes around comes around.  Mine has.  It is more than karma, you know. David tells us this in Psalm 7:  There are people who think up evil and plan trouble and tell lies.  They dig a hole to trap others, but they will fall into it themselves.  They will get themselves into trouble; the violence they cause will hurt only themselves. 

I like the picture this paints.  Let's call her Sally Jean.  She is mean and spiteful.  Why doesn't matter so much in this scenario, so don't ask.  It is her great joy to destroy so she finds a road you might travel down today and goes before you with her shovel.  As the sweat pours down her lovely face, she digs her heart out so that when you walk by unaware you will fall in and be trapped.  She got you!  She got you good!  You did get tripped up by her evil scheme, but you did not fall in.  You have a God who saved you from the pit.  But Sally Jean, in her reeling backward from the surprise of your salvation, found herself falling deeply into the mess she made.  Maybe not today, but unless she changes her heart, she will be eating the dirt of her own destruction.

God protects me like a shield (David loves this image). He saves those whose hearts are right.  God judges by what is right, and God is always living in indignation, ready to punish the wicked. IF they do not change their lives, God will sharpen his sword; He will string His bow and take aim.  I love that big IF from this psalm.  He waits, our God, for the IF.  He lives in indignation and why wouldn't He.  Take a look at Sally Jean (her legs are waving in the air as she struggles in her pit) and wonder at her heart.  She wanted you dead!  She plans evil all the time.  She deserves to get what she dishes out!  But God will save her IF she will call out to Him.  Chances are she won't, but I hope I am praying for her.  Aren't you?

Jesus tells us not to judge others or we will be judged with the same measuring line. (Matthew 7:1)  So what do we do with Sally Jean?  We know what she does.  We cannot help that.  We are indignant, too, that she would treat others with such cruel intentions.  But it is not ours to send her to hell for it.  We are wiser about her, but we leave her punishment to Him who knows our hearts. Because if she changes, if she gets tired of the pit before God gets tired of her squirming, scheming life, she will be our sister for all eternity.

Psalm 7 - Here Comes the Judge

The woman is trembling before the judge as she rises for her verdict.  He is sitting, robed in his long black garments, his eyes taking her in as she stands vulnerable before him.  All he has is the evidence against her.  He has legal precedence to which he can refer.  But he was not there when she committed her crime.  He did not see her do it.  And she has not confessed - told all to the court.  She must abide by the sentence the judge hands down regardless of why she thinks she does not deserve so harsh a judgment.

One day we will all stand up and face the Judge.  Only this Judge was there at every turn of our lives and He not only saw our actions, He saw our hearts.  This Judge knows our minds - what we were thinking when we did what we did.  It is our heart this Judge has been interested in all along.  He knows it better than we do.

It is to Him that David appeals in Psalm 7. In verse 6, David pleads with God to "Get up!  Stand up from Your throne and declare a righteous judgment!"  Get up and demand fairness. Gather the nations around You and rule them from above....God, You Who do what is right.  You know our minds and hearts.  Stop those wicked actions done by wicked people, and help those who do what is right. 

There are those who think God's place as judge is heavy-handed and overbearing.  Yet these same people cry for justice when they see the oppressed.  There is evil in this world.  Look now at Somalia and Darfur.  Look back at Hitler.  Horrible things have even been done in the name of Christ, but not with His approval. We all have an idea of what justice looks like.  God is Justice.  We only understand it because of Him. But the most impressive thing about God's justice is that He prefers mercy.  So much so that He came as sacrifice for all of our wrongs so that He could judge us right.  Heavy-handed?  Cruel?  Let that argument die here.  He died for us while we were still sinning.

In the Psalms, judging is most often used to cry out to God for salvation for those oppressed by the wicked who are defined as those who have willfully turned away from God.  It is wanting God to put things right again.  When the wicked rule, things go terribly out of kilter.  Only God can judge them rightly and destroy their works.  And He should, says David, because they kill the innocent.

Here is what the Lord says about this from the book of Jeremiah:
A curse is placed on those who trust other people, who depend on humans for strength, who have stopped trusting the Lord. They are like a bush in a desert that grows in a land where no one lives, a hot and dry land with bad soil.  They don't know the good things God can give. But the person who trusts the Lord will be blessed.  The Lord will show them that He can be trusted.  He will be strong like a tree planted near water that sends its roots by a stream. It is not afraid when the days are hot; its leaves are always green.....More than anything else, a person's mind is evil and cannot be healed.  No one truly understands it.  BUT, I, the Lord, look into a person's heart and test the mind.  So I decide what each one deserves.  I can give each one the right payment for what he does.

The Judge does not curse the person who walks away from Him.  Her life is cursed because she has cut herself off from her Source.  She stopped wanting to live by the stream.  Therefore, she lives in a desert of her own making and she is left alone in a barren place.  God wants to show that He can be trusted to look at our hearts and judge them fairly because He knows them.  It is our hearts He wants now and has wanted always.  Remember when Samuel was looking at all the sons of Jesse trying to discover which one would be the next king?  He looked at the handsome Eliab and was wowed by his kingly appearance.  But God said no. "Man looks on the outward appearance.  I look on the heart."  It was a teenaged shepherd boy that God had his eye on.  A kid with a heart after God's.  That is all this judge wants.  A heart that yearns to know Him.  Your life will not be perfect.  But Your God is.  Let Him show you that He can be trusted to make you like a tree planted in a lush forest near a stream of living water.

Psalm 7 - Like a Lion

Psalm 7 is a song of David sung to the Lord about his enemy, Cush, who was from the Jewish tribe of Benjamin.  That is about all we know here.  The tribe of Benjamin was King Saul's tribe, so perhaps this relative of the former king was chasing after David relentlessly.  David's reaction:  Lord, my God, I trust in You for protection.  Save me and rescue me from those who are chasing me.  Otherwise, like a lion they will tear me apart.  They will rip me to pieces, and no one can save me. (vs 1-2)

Ever felt ripped to pieces?  Ever had someone come at you with the intent to destroy your reputation or even your life?  On the day after the ten year anniversary of 9/11, it seems appropriate to speak of our enemy and his defeat.  David's enemy, and ours, is out to kill us...not simply bite us on the hand.  Defense is the proper reaction to the onslaught of attacks that are inevitable for a Christian.  Be alert and self-controlled. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him!!! Standing firm in your faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings. (I Peter 5:8)

Hope you aren't laughing, thinking how silly the talk about the devil is.  He is as real as Al Qaeda and just as determined to ruin you.  The thief comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10)  What happens to the warrior who doesn't see the battle?  She is cut down before she has even raised her sword.  Maybe things aren't always what they seem.  Perhaps the enemy is greater than the woman next door who gossips about you incessantly or the woman who stole your husband.  Your enemy aims for the heart because once you lose your hope in God, the devil can take you almost anywhere. Doesn't even need to physically kill you because you are dead inside already.  Be alert. 

Our enemy doesn't seem to really be a lion.  He is like a lion, growling and ominous, coming our way to scare us into submission lest he eat us alive.  But being like a lion is not being one.  The thrilling thing about being a Christian is that we can stand our ground because in our lives this enemy has already been defeated.  We just need to know that.  Would you be so afraid of a lion without any teeth?  Our enemy is not a cartoon lion.  He is real.  But he is powerless when we are armed.  At His cross, Jesus ended the rule of Satan over those who believe.  He canceled the debt which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world they were powerless. (Colossians 2: 14-15)

So, put on the whole armor of God so that you CAN fight against the devil's evil tricks because our fight is not against people on this earth but against the rulers and authorities and powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.  Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight,  you will still be standing! (Ephesians 6)

Psalm 6 - My Life Is Not My Own

Psalm 6 is one of six that are described as penitential....David knew, in other words, that he brought his troubles on himself and he is begging God to restore him to the close relationship he used to have....before he sinned and made God angry.  Sin separates us from God.  Have you ever felt what that is like?  I have.  It is miserable to feel the gut-wrenching ramifications of your own willful choices.  And I was a Christian when I sinned thus.  A child of a Father who was not going to let me get away with it.  Lots of tears.  Curled up in a fetal ball of pain wrenching out my repentance.  Best never to go there, but if you have, you know that the Father will let you feel the full force of it so that you never want to make that choice again.  Tough love.  Why?

Your life is not your own.  That's why.  You were bought with a price.  You are loved too much and your destiny too priceless to let you take it to some gutter and squander it.  Rescue can feel like hate when you don't want it.  When you don't know you are running as fast as you can to the edge of a cliff that will kill you and someone spoils your fun, it makes you mad.  I think I have been spared more trips over the edge than I even know about. 

But David is in mourning over his sin.  His relationship with his God is so important that he laments over the separation from Him as he would mourn the loss of a lover.  When his God has restored David, he knows the mouths of his enemies will be shut.  What have they been saying?  "I thought he was a Christian!  Ha!  Look what he did."  That is probably why God is so angry, too.   We have dragged His Name into our mess.  It cannot be helped because we bear His name.  Nothing for us and David but to get up, trust in the goodness of God, and try again to wear His glory better, walking forward on wobbly feet and uncertain ground toward all God dreamed for us before He made the world.  That is what we walked (ran) away from in our willfullness....His thrilling plans for our lives.  So, get up and get back to the joy of discovery.  Then your enemy will be routed.

Jeremiah prayed (ch. 10):  I know, Lord, that a man's life is not his own;  it is not for man to direct his steps.  Correct me, Lord, but only with justice  - not in Your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.
Of course, God's anger could blow us up.  He is God!  But His hope is to correct us, not destroy us.  He loves us enough to stand in our way when we wander aimlessly or run willfully in the wrong direction.  I often pray:  "Lord, do not let me get away with anything that makes You angry.  Stop me quickly."  You see, I hated the cringing season of repentance and never want to be on that bed of pain again.  My other prayer:  "Never let me forget what that feels like."  I know in His correction there is also direction because in our lives there is only PLAN A.

Psalm 6 - Future Rescue

David believes God has heard his cries even before God actually answers his prayers!  Now that is a novel idea, huh?  That we would have enough faith after our crying out to God to pronounce to our enemies..."LOOK OUT!"  My bed is soaked with tears, my eyes are sore and tired from my sobbing, my bones ache from anxiety, but I have prayed and I have been heard and my God will answer.

Away from me all you who do evil, for the Lord has  heard my weeping.  The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.  All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame. (vs. 8-10)  David did not call on God in hope that He exists.  This was not a foxhole prayer, though our God hears those, too.  This anxious prayer of David was delivered to the sovereign God of everything by a man who knew the heart of his Creator.  It is quite simple actually:  I have prayed.  God has heard.  God has sent the answer. 

This is God's message, the God who made the earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God:  "Call to me and I will answer you.  I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own." (Jeremiah 33:3)   This is a promise you can take to the bank.  You call.  He answers.  So simple a child can understand.  Yet so complex.  He will tell us things we could not possibly understand lest He reveals them to us.  The sovereign God reaches to us in  order to have a conversation with us about life.  Can you sit still for that?  Can you wait throught the how long? of your prayers to hear Him talk to you about what He is doing? 

Remember Daniel (Daniel 10) had prayed for understanding, but his answer was delayed.  He waited three weeks while a heavenly battled ensued over his request.  An angel ultimately enters Daniel's room, touches him, and his presence is so radiant that it sends Daniel, shaking from terror, to his hands and knees.  The first words out of the mouth of that angel, though, are:  "Daniel, God loves  you very much."   Even now that makes me tear up.  Daniel's prayer was not answered immediately, so God first and foremost wants His child to know that it is not because he is not loved.  There are other things going on that Daniel cannot see.  "Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them, " the angel continued. 

Maybe you have not had an angel tap you on the shoulder with the answers to your prayers recently.  But make no mistake about it, your prayers are heard by a Father who can turn your mourning into dancing and give you comfort and joy instead of sorrow (Jeremian 31).  Jesus told his disciples right before he died on the cross that He will not have to ask the Father for us since the Father Himself loves us because we have loved Jesus and believed He came from God.   Prayer not immediately answered is not a sign that God does not love you or that there is no God anyway.  Don't let the enemy tell you those lies.  Know you are heard by a Father who loves you very much and that your answer is on the way.  Walk in the confidence that the Almighty God can fight everything in heaven and on earth to get your answer to you!

Psalm 6 - Dead People Don't Talk

I am always a little surprised at how frankly David speaks with his God.  Turn, O Lord, deliver my life.  Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.  For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol who will give you praise? (vs. 4-5)  David seems to be trying to picture a corpse rising up in the congregation of the saints to extol the greatness of God.  That would certainly turn heads at the next funeral, but we all know the dead, in their uninhabited bodies, do not speak.  It is this logic David uses with God.  If You allow me to die now, I cannot praise You for the answer You could give me if You saved me.  I could not say to everyone: "Look at how great is my God's loving kindness toward me!"  So, don't save me because I deserve it - save me because Your steadfast love is beyond describing.

Perhaps David caused his own misery.  Maybe his own sin put him in the position of needing a savior.  Can God be counted upon to rescue us even when we don't deserve it?  Think about it.  Here is a better question:  Do we ever deserve it ?  Even if in this particular instance David was guilty of a specific sin, there were times in his past that he was imperfect and yet unpunished.  God does not always save us from the ramifications of our terrible choices, but His love always causes His heart to open to the voice of a repentant child, restoring us to our relationship with Him. 

The absolutely breathtaking thing about our God is that He does not exact perfection from us before He loves and accepts us.  This is counter to what many Christians have been brought up to believe and certainly counterintuitive to those who reject the message of Christ. It is that very love and acceptance that leads us to seek forgiveness and try to please the heart of our Father. Contrary to popular belief, God is not in His heaven eyeing the world for the opportunity to bomb the best sinner out of existence like a heavenly game of Angry Birds.  He actually loves His creation and longs for the opportunity to rescue us from our own ways. 

Consider this verse from Romans 5:  ....but God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.   Not cleaned up sinners.  Just plain sinners.  Not even looking for a Savior.  God planned our salvation before we knew we needed it.  That is how thrilling He is.  Knowing we could not keep the commandments, He came to be the sacrifice whose blood covered all sins for all time.  Perhaps, as Paul says in Romans 5, we would die for a good person.  Christ died for the worst of us, too.

David is, of course, correct when he says we cannot open our mouths to praise Him as our casket hangs suspended over the open grave beneath.  That is too late to let people on this earth know of the wonder of forgiveness.  Today is a good day for that.  While you have breath.  Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord! (Psalm 150)

Psalm 6 - How long?

My soul is struck with terror, but You, Oh, Lord - how long? (v.3)..

Waiting.  Is it okay to tap your foot while you wait on God?  Not tapping in impertinence but just for something to do in the often quiet period of waiting for His answer.  I know that is better than going ahead with my own plans.  I have done that with very unfortunate results.  But there are just some times when, like David,  we cry out to God and in the midst of it cannot think of anything else to say but "How long?"  I can hear the desperation in his voice.  He is terrified of the onslaught that is rolling downhill toward him and, well, he keeps praying this prayer, so, where is God?  How long is this going to take?  God, my God, are you listening?

I wish I knew why God makes us wait sometimes.  I mean, I understand that since He has the full picture He knows past, present and future all at once.  Time is not progressing for Him, but He sees it all at once.  He is, after all, the God who was, who is and who is to come.  Knowledge of His prescience should give us confidence that all will be well, but most often it makes us wonder why He feels the need to test our metal. 

Waiting refines us.  Just think about it.  Here in Southern California, we wait on traffic and deal with our own road rage.  Why does waiting make us rage?  Because we have no control.  Ouch.  We want to tell God what to do to fix our situation and when, which is always now.  The biggest messes of my life have come about because I went on without God.  Trust me.  You would rather wait on Him.  And wait on Him for His plan, which almost always looks a whole lot different from yours.

Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up with wings like eagles.  They shall run and not be weary.  They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40)  This seems counterintuitive.  Waiting renews our strength.  It makes most of us angry.  But what if we waited without expectation?  What if we went before the Lord without our own preconceived plans about how He was going to make things work out?  What if we just said:  "My God shall supply all my needs through His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" and meant it with no strings attached?

I love the story of the wedding at Cana.  The hosts run out of wine for the wedding guests.  Embarrassing.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, gets wind of it and tells Jesus the predicament.  Then she tells the servants to do "whatever He tells you to."  Not giving her son some advice.  Not telling the disciples to go down to Albertson's and pick up some wine.  No preconceived ideas about how her son, The Christ, will accomplish great wine where there is none.  Just - "Do what He tells you to do."  It worked out great!  Best wine of the wedding.  Made from water in ceremonial washing jars.  Who would have thought?

Waiting today?  Maybe even in your anguish?  Hold on.  Hold on tight.  Wait without specific expectation because in His answer, God will blow your mind.  He will thrill you and you will feel you have mounted up with the eagles and are soaring above the circumstances.  This is not euphemistic.  I believe it!  You are not in God's waiting room for nothing. 

Psalm 6 - Is It My Fault?

Have you ever been through a crisis and thought:  "God must be punishing me" ?  I have.....  and I am in good company.  Remember Job's three friends?  Their best counsel was that he had sinned and brought all the agony of his present situation upon himself as judgment.  Most of the time, I do not need my friends to condemn me because I do just fine all by myself.  If I expect the Lord to treat me well because of my absolute obedience and unquestionable spiritual perfection, I am not only delusional, but lost.  I always go before the Lord in my imperfection.  David's cry in Psalm 6: 1-3 is that God not punish him for his sins.
Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger; do not discipline me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking; my whole being is shaken with terror.  And You, Lord - how long?

Two of my best friends died of breast cancer and in my final conversations with them, the lingering question was, of course, why.  What had they done to deserve cancer and the subsequent ravaging of their bodies?  It took me years to settle this question for myself - why did they die so young and leave families behind?  I knew, of course, it was not for their sinfulness else I would have been annihilated alongside them.  It was because "our times are in His hands."  "Precious to the Lord are the death of the saints..." because they go home.  The cancer now eating through the marrow of her bones, one of those friends kept saying: "I did not think it would take this long to die."  And You, Lord - how long? When will this be over?

So why, then, does David cry out for the Lord not to punish him in His anger?  Obviously we want the Lord to wait until He is not so hot about our sin before He decides what to do about it.  Remember the Lord allowed David to choose his own punishment once (2 Samuel 24)?  David had sinned against the Lord by taking a census of the people in direct disobedience and had prayed that the Lord would take away his guilt. Angry, God sent the prophet Gad to articulate the choices David had:  three years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plagues.  David's reply: "I have great anxiety.  Please, let us fall into the Lord's hands because His mercies are great, but don't let me fall into human hands."  As always, David counted upon the graciousness of His God.

When the world falls down around us, perhaps we should not be so quick to ask why.  To assume we have so displeased a raging God that catastrophe has befallen us.  Even if that is true, we have a God who "removes our sins as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more" when we confess them to Him.  Romans 8: Therefore, no condemnation exists for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Great news!  I have Jesus to thank for that!  I cannot approach God in my own righteousness, but I have ready access to Him because Jesus is my great high priest. 

So even if I think I must put my hands in front of my face and shield myself from the wrath of God, my best defense against the wrongs I have committed is to trust in the great benevolence of a God who did not even spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all.

Psalm 6 - Tired of Crying

Every day she cries her heart out.  It is hard for her to even get out of bed in the morning.  Her loss seems almost too great to bear.  The aching has become physical - a constant spasm of her soul. A throbbing in her heavy head that lingers on her pillow. The searing brightness of the morning sun streaming through her window is a mockery of the darkness of her circumstances.  What enemy has laid her so low?  I don't know.  Death?  Betrayal?  The awful repercussions of her own choices?  When she tries to breathe, the pressure of the semi lying cold and heavy on her chest allows only shallow wisps of air to navigate the narrow pathways to her lungs.  "Oh, God!" she wails with what energy she can muster.  Then tears again.

David understands:  I am tired of crying to you.  Every night my bed is wet with tears; my bed is soaked from my crying.  My eyes are weak from so much crying; they are weak from crying about my enemies. (Psalm 6: 6-7)  Interestingly, the psalm was to be played on stringed instruments.  Can you hear the violins whining out his sorrow?  Wish I knew the melody whose strains expressed the great misery of the man.  His enemies were certainly fierce.  Could they hear him from his room, weeping and inconsolable? 

I just talked to a friend who recently lost her father.  This was not her first loss.  A sister-in-law in a fiery crash along with her husband and a son;  a brother-in-law who took the lives of his entire family. Now this.  She gets out of bed every day because she has to, but her refuge is her bathroom where she puts a bath towel to her face and screams her grief into its terry softness until the anguish subsides a bit.  Then she wipes her face and opens the door back into her life.  She is still here.  She still has a life to live with and for others, so she cannot implode though her soul is deflated - exhausted and emptied in this season.  My friend is not alone in her place of respite.  He is there and He knows her heart. You have an account of my troubles.  Put my tears in Your bottle.  Are they not in Your book? (Psalm 56:8)

Hope is what we have when we know Him and yet have sorrow.  And purpose, though we are tossed about by the raging seas over which we have little or no control.  He is in our boat.  He will see us through.  So different from those who have no anchor for their lives.  Hosea 7 describes their circumstances: " I would save them, but they speak lies against Me.  They do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their beds of pain." 

Our tears are not in vain.  They are bottled and precious to the Lord to Whom we cry out.  Our troubles are not borne in a vacuum.  We will get up from our bed of pain and live because He lives.  And, on a better day, we will help our sisters rise to meet the sun because we have remained.

Psalm 5 - Boasting

.....may those who love Your name boast about You...(Psalm 5: 11)

Go ahead!  Brag!  You have a lot to boast about if you know Him.  Think about all the things you can say about this Father of yours.  The Most High God.  Sovereign over everything we know about and all we cannot even fathom.  So powerful that He makes something out of nothing...just look at my life if you doubt that.  The Source of Everything, He holds everything together.  Our God knows all.  His loving kindness never ends and His mercy is so great that it includes me.  My protector, my song, my banner, my hope, my glory, my salvation, my King and Lord.  I will run out of room and still not have said enough to scratch the surface of Jahweh, my Abba.

Before the foundations of the world He chose me to be his child.  By faith I have been saved, and that faith did not even come from me, so I would not boast. (Ephesians 2)....except in Him.  Even the faith to believe Him came from Him.  A gift.  He is generous to give the Holy Spirit so that I can receive the very mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2).  Because God had a dream for me (and you) when He made us, He is faithful to bring it about (Philippians 2).  He goes before me in battle and it is His to win (I Samuel 17). I hide in Him because He is a strong tower I can run into (Proverbs 18).  My God is my teacher (Isaiah 30) and He holds my hand (Isaiah 40).

"I am the beginning and the end.  I am the only God.  Who is a god like me?  That god should come and prove it.  Let him come and explain all that has happened since I set up the ancient people.  He should also tell what will happen in the future.  Don't be afraid!   Don't worry!  I have always told you what will happen.  You are my witnesses.   There is no other God but me.  I know of no other Rock;  I am the only One."

So, you see, I am quite a braggard.  I love to talk about my Father because He is more than awesome!  He loves me!  Isn't that amazing?  I get to know the Creator of all that there is on an intimate level because He wants me to know Him.  My heart is singing right now just thinking about my Abba.  Sing with me.

Psalm 5 - My Shield of Favor

But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.  For you bless the righteous, Oh, Lord; you cover them with favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5: 11-12)

See the warrior standing bravely in battle, sword drawn and shield up?  See her winning?  Crushing those who crash into her, jousting safely behind her shield?  She is trusting in that shield to buffer the enemy.  Watch this warrior because she will be the last woman standing.  Why?  There is a force field about her that cannot be penetrated, and it is favor.  "This one you cannot touch,"  says the Lord, her shield.  "This one loves Me - exults in Me.  I cover her with protection."   And the warrior?  Sometimes she stands through the battle, weary and uncertain, and is amazed that her enemies are vanquished and she protected.  "Praise my God!" she shouts.  "He got me through!"  And that is music to His ears. 

Ever needed just to run to someone who could make it all go away?  Ever needed arms around you and the comfort of the rhythym of a beating heart against your own?  I have ached for that in a way that no human could really satisfy.  Another person cannot "make it all better."  Only God can.  I need His arms when the battle is raging and the enemy in hot pursuit.  Psalm 91 speaks again of refuge in God:

Those who go to the Most High God for safety will be protected by the Almighty.  I will say to the Lord,   "You are my place of safety and protection.  You are my God, and I trust You."  God will save you from hidden traps and from deadly diseases.  He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you can hide.  His truth will be your  shield and protection.

So, I will say to my God today:  "You are the only One I need to protect me and make me wise enough to see the hidden traps in my path.  I will run like a chick to its mother into the protection of Your open wings today, covered by Your feathers from deadly diseases and harmful choices.  I want to know You in such a way that Your truth is in the marrow of my bones - that it is an inherent part of my defense every moment of every day.  Though it makes no sense, given my fallen nature, I welcome the shield of your favor over me; in fact, I cannot live without your blessing spoken over my life.  I rejoice in You, my sovereign, holy, loving Father, and with my life I will seek to exult you to the world."

Psalm 5 - Testing the Heart

Today I am thinking I don't really know anyone like the people David describes in Psalm 5 when he says: My enemies' mouths do not tell the truth; in their hearts they want to destroy others.  Their throats are like open graves; they use their tongues to tell lies.  God, declare them guilty!  Let them fall into their own traps. Send them away because their sins are many; they have turned against You."

Proverbs 26:28 says:  Liars hate the people they hurt.  Hmmm.  Ever been lied to?  Ever lied? Ouch. Maybe the reason it is so egregious to God is that is plays out just like hate.  Why would you lie?  Usually to cover your own rear end.  Then you are telling the person confronting you that she is too stupid to know the truth and was really wrong to trust you in the first place.  Telling the truth can be hard when it is an admission of guilt, so you would rather the other person look bad and not you. 

But what about lying when it is NOT about guilt?  When it is for selfish gain?  Lying to set a trap for someone.  That is the one I have a harder time with.  Surely that is evil.  A demonic Ponzi scheme that sets someone up so the liar gains while everyone else loses.  Do I know people like that?  Maybe.  That is the trouble with deceit.  It is deceiving.  We fall into their schemes like one would fall into an open grave....they push us into their decay.  If they cannot be honest with man, they will not be honest with God.  Their rebellion makes them vulnerable to judgement - not ours, but God's. 

If someone in his/her heart wants to destroy others how will I discern this?  How do I keep away from these people?  I think maybe they aren't always so slick, like the used car salesman who would sell you a lemon just to get it off the lot and make a commission.  You might expect that.  But when you have been taken by someone you trust, that makes you cynical because it hurts.  Liars keep us off-balance because we expect people to tell us the truth.  It is treacherous to be involved with them because the motive of a perpetual liar is our destruction to their gain.

 

Be careful of flattery, then.  Mawkish words that lure you into a connection with a deceiver.  Choose carefully those you draw into your heart's inner circle.  Don't give too much away too quickly, before you have tested the fruit of their lives.  And ask the Father to give you a discerning heart like His so that you do not become the butterfly trapped in the widow's web.  The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. (Proverbs 17:3).