So why have I kept my heart pure? Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong? I have suffered all day long. I have been punished every morning. God, if I had decided to talk like this, I would have let Your people down.
I tried to understand all this, but it was too hard for me to see until I went into the temple of God. Then I understood what will happen to them. (Verses 13-17)
Since life is difficult and presents quandaries often too deep to answer easily, there are some things best pondered before uttered. There have been very trying times during the forty plus years Bill and I have been married. We moved from one state to another when we had two daughters under the age of three. I didn't sit them down during the long months when Bill lived in Georgia and I stayed back in Texas to sell the house and tell my daughters about my struggle with the Lord over what proved to be a very trying ordeal. "Now, girls, Mommy is wondering what the Lord is doing in this situation. I got into the closet last night and cried my eyes out in frustration." Yes. That helps.
Later on, when my father was arrested, there were three children under the age of nine. I didn't say: "Granddaddy, whom you adore, was caught in a car with a thirteen-year-old." Too much even for me. It was years later, when they individually asked what had happened, that we told them.
Some things, to my shame, they walked through with me because they lived with me. Even then, though, the deepest woundings and scariest doubts, I kept to myself or blubbered to God. Why? I didn't want to destroy their faith. Didn't want to let them down. And I didn't want to impeach others in front of my children. There is enough in this world for them to doubt on their own without my jaded misrepresentation of what is going on with God's sovereign will and my journey. Some things I take to God in private. I don't want to talk smack about Him and have it perceived as truth. My Father can handle my deepest doubts and fears, others perhaps cannot.
It is our sense of entitlement that often gets us into trouble when we think about what God owes us. I mean, look, there are those who make movies about Him being ridiculous or laugh at those of us with faith as if we are the craziest people on earth. We only know what they think about us because these people are rich and famous enough to have a platform. How is that fair? Shouldn't we who love God be the rich ones? The famous? That's the argument here. Why do bad things happen to good people while the haughty, self-satisfied go on to greater riches? This question, the psalmist knew, was the kind of query not posed to anyone but God. The only One who can answer such a question is God Himself so airing this grievance with other Christians just makes them feel rotten, too.
The psalmist went to church. Got alone with God. "Why, Lord?" Let it all out. Literally, the Bible says, "I turned my gaze toward" God. We are often looking in the wrong direction for the answer to life. Entitlement is all about self. What is owed me. Slippery slope stuff. Especially when I understand how big my God is and how little I am. Contentment will never be found in the junk we own or the fame we acquire. As a matter of fact, that might be the most empty kind of life to live. There are not enough designer jeans or private jets, fancy restaurants and martini bars, luxury homes and global vacations to fill the vacuum in the heart of man. Cram as much down in there as you wish, but that place is made for God and only He can satiate its cravings. That is what God showed the psalmist. Those who rely on anything else but God don't end well even if we think they live well. Check their closets with hundreds of pairs of shoes and their bank accounts with millions - billions, maybe - of dollars. Good for them. On this earth. What we have in God cannot be purchased. It is free. Available to rich and poor alike. But if we have all the money in the world and don't take the proffered gift of God, we lose. In the end we are all alike except for that one thing. No rich and poor in death. Shoes gather dust in the closet. Money is spent by the heirs. Earth and its glories a vapor. Our sense of our own entitlement crumbles in the face of the Judge before Whom we will all stand to give an account.
God's answer to the psalmist? I am Your worth. I give your life value. In their chasing after the wind, they have picked up their feet and are carried along by its whim. But you? You are the precious child of the One Who owns and created everything. What is it you need? I will provide. By My strong right hand out of My abundance. If you have Me, you inherit all that is Mine, now and forever. True riches in this life and in the one to come.
The teachings of the Lord are perfect. They give new strength. The rules of the Lord can be trusted. They make plain people wise. The orders of the Lord are right. They make people happy. The commands of the Lord are pure. They light up the way. Respect for the Lord is good. It will last forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are completely right. They are worth more than gold, even the purest gold. Psalm 19
I tried to understand all this, but it was too hard for me to see until I went into the temple of God. Then I understood what will happen to them. (Verses 13-17)
Since life is difficult and presents quandaries often too deep to answer easily, there are some things best pondered before uttered. There have been very trying times during the forty plus years Bill and I have been married. We moved from one state to another when we had two daughters under the age of three. I didn't sit them down during the long months when Bill lived in Georgia and I stayed back in Texas to sell the house and tell my daughters about my struggle with the Lord over what proved to be a very trying ordeal. "Now, girls, Mommy is wondering what the Lord is doing in this situation. I got into the closet last night and cried my eyes out in frustration." Yes. That helps.
Later on, when my father was arrested, there were three children under the age of nine. I didn't say: "Granddaddy, whom you adore, was caught in a car with a thirteen-year-old." Too much even for me. It was years later, when they individually asked what had happened, that we told them.
Some things, to my shame, they walked through with me because they lived with me. Even then, though, the deepest woundings and scariest doubts, I kept to myself or blubbered to God. Why? I didn't want to destroy their faith. Didn't want to let them down. And I didn't want to impeach others in front of my children. There is enough in this world for them to doubt on their own without my jaded misrepresentation of what is going on with God's sovereign will and my journey. Some things I take to God in private. I don't want to talk smack about Him and have it perceived as truth. My Father can handle my deepest doubts and fears, others perhaps cannot.
It is our sense of entitlement that often gets us into trouble when we think about what God owes us. I mean, look, there are those who make movies about Him being ridiculous or laugh at those of us with faith as if we are the craziest people on earth. We only know what they think about us because these people are rich and famous enough to have a platform. How is that fair? Shouldn't we who love God be the rich ones? The famous? That's the argument here. Why do bad things happen to good people while the haughty, self-satisfied go on to greater riches? This question, the psalmist knew, was the kind of query not posed to anyone but God. The only One who can answer such a question is God Himself so airing this grievance with other Christians just makes them feel rotten, too.
The psalmist went to church. Got alone with God. "Why, Lord?" Let it all out. Literally, the Bible says, "I turned my gaze toward" God. We are often looking in the wrong direction for the answer to life. Entitlement is all about self. What is owed me. Slippery slope stuff. Especially when I understand how big my God is and how little I am. Contentment will never be found in the junk we own or the fame we acquire. As a matter of fact, that might be the most empty kind of life to live. There are not enough designer jeans or private jets, fancy restaurants and martini bars, luxury homes and global vacations to fill the vacuum in the heart of man. Cram as much down in there as you wish, but that place is made for God and only He can satiate its cravings. That is what God showed the psalmist. Those who rely on anything else but God don't end well even if we think they live well. Check their closets with hundreds of pairs of shoes and their bank accounts with millions - billions, maybe - of dollars. Good for them. On this earth. What we have in God cannot be purchased. It is free. Available to rich and poor alike. But if we have all the money in the world and don't take the proffered gift of God, we lose. In the end we are all alike except for that one thing. No rich and poor in death. Shoes gather dust in the closet. Money is spent by the heirs. Earth and its glories a vapor. Our sense of our own entitlement crumbles in the face of the Judge before Whom we will all stand to give an account.
God's answer to the psalmist? I am Your worth. I give your life value. In their chasing after the wind, they have picked up their feet and are carried along by its whim. But you? You are the precious child of the One Who owns and created everything. What is it you need? I will provide. By My strong right hand out of My abundance. If you have Me, you inherit all that is Mine, now and forever. True riches in this life and in the one to come.
The teachings of the Lord are perfect. They give new strength. The rules of the Lord can be trusted. They make plain people wise. The orders of the Lord are right. They make people happy. The commands of the Lord are pure. They light up the way. Respect for the Lord is good. It will last forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are completely right. They are worth more than gold, even the purest gold. Psalm 19
No comments:
Post a Comment