When was it that you were most aware of the nearness of God? Was it at the place of celebration…when you just landed that new client or when you sank the “hole in one that had eluded you all your life? Was it when you received all good feedback during your physical examination? Or, perhaps, was it in the valley of life? In the throes of trying, testing, and troubling times?
Psalm 42 is a beloved and rich text. However, I wonder if we find ourselves reading it like “busy Americans,” grabbing a “bumper sticker” phrase and moving on.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
What a great statement…” God, I long for you in the same way that a deer longs for water.” Granted, the daily concerns of a deer in the wild are considerably different than our own. Something to eat, something to drink, and a place to rest top the list of average daily concerns. Of course, avoiding predators, including those in “blaze orange” sitting quietly in a stand overlooking an opening with scattered corn on the ground, is always in season. So, what makes a deer pant for water…and what is causing David to long for God…His person and presence, not merely His provision, in the same way?
It’s trouble. The deer doesn’t long for water while standing beside the lake. The deer doesn’t even consider tomorrow’s meal while standing in a field of suitable food. It is in the arid realities of trouble that we sense our need for good and long for His presence the most. Notice with me:
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Psalm 42:2-3, NASB95
O my God, my soul is in despair within me…
Psalm 42:6, NASB95
9I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?
Psalm 42:9-11, NASB95
In the despair of tears, in the crushing weight of struggles and oppression, and in the crosshairs of discouraging accusations…that the Psalmist, David, cries out to God.
Now David is no stranger to God. He is no twice-a-month church attendee who answers every question in his small group with “Jesus, God, and the Bible.” Yet, the weightiness of his troubles drives him to the very doorstep of the throne room with a longing cry for God’s attention.
By the way, that is the prescribed response. When trouble arises, God calls us to run to Him! How does he do so? After all, there must be some direction more than the boasting of a religious platitude…
David rehearses to himself the times when God met him. While worshipping in the assembly of the saints (Ps 42:4). David remembers the evidence of God’s fulfilled promises and the vastness of His glory (Ps 42:6). David preaches to his own soul the truth of God’s character (Ps 42:5b, 8, 11b).
David sees the Lord as His rock…the solid and immovable foundation on which to stand and to which he is to tether his life. He sees God in this way because of His experience, but he realizes it afresh in his troubles (Ps 42:9a).
We often want to avoid troubles…but they are such precious instruments that take us to the place of despair that we would not choose for ourselves. It is in that place that we find the delight of the Divine, the peace of God’s presence, and the hope of His healing.
CH Spurgeon said, “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.” May we do likewise as we learn to thank God for the triumph that comes through the troubling times of life.
This morning, I read from a great collection of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision. This statement resonated in my heart…
Help me to be in reality before thee, as in appearance I am before men, to be religious before I profess religion, to leave the world before I enter the church…
The Valley of Vision, 21
Some years back, a popular saying among some in “church circles” was, “It is not about religion, but a relationship.” While coming from a place of good motives, I think this particular “bumper sticker” statement is unhelpful. More to come on that and a few other unhelpful statements in a coming article.
According to Webster:
Religion: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; the service and worship of God…
Religious: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity. Merriam-Webster.
Now let’s modify the prayer slightly with these considerations in mind:
Help me to be the same before you as I appear before men, to be devoted to you before I profess to others to be your follower…
I cannot think of anyone who would resist the sentiment of this prayer. After all, it speaks of being consistent rather than duplicitous; being devoted rather than merely adhering to a defined code of conduct; working from our faith rather than working for it (See Phil 2:12 for more on this).
Now, in a way that only the Lord can and for His own purposes…notice how Paul addressed this in my reading from Romans 9.
30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not bedisappointed.”
Romans 9:30–33, NASB95
Paul said to the church in Rome that outsiders (Gentiles) attained their righteousness by faith, whereas insiders (Israel) sought to fulfill the requirements of the Law to attain righteousness. One (Israel) sought to serve God for their faith, whereas the other (Gentiles) served God from a position of acceptability by faith through Jesus Christ. Israel made their “Messiah” the proper conduct of life, while the believers trusted a Messiah and then lived in a manner that reflected Him as they followed. Do you recognize the difference?
No matter how hard you work toward righteousness, you will never obtain it. However, when you run to Jesus, recognize Him as your only valid hope of right standing before God, and live your life accordingly, you experience righteousness by faith.
The choice is not merely an exercise in semantics. It is faith. Will you trust Jesus to give you what you could not work for, or will you work for what you cannot attain apart from Jesus?
In this section of Romans, Paul gives an analogy of marital faithfulness to clarify our relationship to the Law as believers who are saved by grace. He says unequivocally that the Law is dead, and we are now irrevocably joined to the covenant of grace. He further states that this new life of grace is the only way we may bear fruit for God.
4Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Romans 7:4, NASB95
Of course, he sets up the argument by discussing the Law and its teaching on adultery.
1Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3So then, if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Romans 7:1-3, NASB95
These four verses illuminate the fact that if we are to marry grace, the Law must be dead to us. What is the relationship to the Law? In the Old Testament Law, God’s people were chosen by Him and called by His name. He entered a covenant with them where, as a condition of the covenant, their blessing demanded their obedience to God’s commands. While mine is an imperfect analogy, think of this covenant like your employment agreement. You are given a job and as a result, you must fulfill certain expectations. If you do not fulfill your responsibilities, your employer may not fulfill his.
Under the Law, when you failed to fulfill the covenant expectations, you were to go to the Priest and offer a costly sacrifice, prescribed by God in the Law, as atonement for your sin. As you offered it, you sought the Lord’s mercy and prayed for his acceptance of the sacrifice in your place.
Under the covenant that Jesus ushered in, there was only one sufficient sacrifice—Jesus Himself. He satisfied the sacrificial requirement ONCE for ALL people in His death on the cross (Hebrews 10:12). There is no new sacrifice to bring to God to ask for mercy and offer it as a substitute. In place of sacrifice, we are to confess our sins…fully trusting that God is faithful to His declaration that Jesus’ death is a satisfactory and sufficient sacrifice on our behalf and that by our confession (a Greek word that means to “say the same thing as”) God will forgive our sins and fully cleanse us from our unrighteousness. (See 1 John 1:8-9).
The faithful Christian lives according to this covenant declaration. We, as believers, are not perfect. We are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30) but that is an ongoing work that God is doing, and we are cooperating in. It will not be completed until we step into the presence of Christ Himself one day.
It is patently unfaithful to seek God’s favor or mercy by any sacrificial act today. We cannot tip the scales in our favor. We cannot stir up God’s benevolence by good works. We cannot prompt Him to suddenly reconsider our judgment because we did something nice.
So how does a faithful believer live? By glorifying God in the freedoms granted to you in the New Covenant and seeking to magnify that glory as you mirror the heart of Christ in extending His hope in the gospel. We are to undertake the gospel enterprise–proclaiming God’s satisfaction of debt in Jesus to every people, everywhere, until Jesus takes us home. This life of grace living is our exclusive hope. We must not cheat on grace by placing any hope in our good deeds…either in our heads or our hands. To the faithful believer, the Law is dead, and Grace is our new bride.
One of the great privileges, the highpoints on my ministry has been the pleasure of encounters with those when they first encounter the Lord. When they respond to His gracious invitation and He lifts the burdens of failure. When the reality of judgment for their rebellion is not lost but they realize that it was taken on by Another, by the Lord who came to seek and save that which is separated from God.
This privilege is not exclusive to ministry; rather it is the desire of God for all who follow Him…that the lost be saved when His people rehearse the gospel time and time again. As much as I love to share Jesus’ story and love seeing people respond to it, at times the passion wanes. Maybe it is that family member or co-worker who has heard the story a hundred times; or, maybe it is that terribly inconvenient circumstance where sharing the gospel is costly.
There are times when I have to repent before the Lord and seek His help to stir up the passion. A passion that is exhibited by the Apostle Paul.
1I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 9:1-5, NASB95
Paul’s passion was for the Israelites to be saved. Remember now, Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles. Christ set him apart primarily to the nations. [As an aside, I still smile a bit when I remember that Paul had stellar credentials in Judaism and God sent him to the Gentiles, while Peter had limited training in Judaism and God sent him to focus primarily on Jacob’s descendants. I digress.]
Notice Paul’s heart, particularly in verse three where he calls the Holy Spirit to bear witness to the truthfulness of his statement: He would wish himself accursed (i.e. to give up his salvation) if that somehow would lead to the salvation of the Jews. Let that sink in for a moment and reflect on it. Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d wish your life for theirs? Perhaps a family member. Maybe a confidante or a good man. But Paul states this about a people group…the Jewish people…those whose leaders not only rejected Jesus but sought to destroy His followers.
Perhaps, you, like me, need to ask the Lord in faith today to strengthen your passion for your people, your neighbors, and your nation in the same way. Make this the year when you build a bridge left and right of your home and across the street… a bridge for the gospel…whatever the cost.
Someone once said that the key to organizational thriving is to get the Vision “off the wall and down the hall.” This is simply a recognition that there is a difference, at times, between the aspirational and the practical. I was asked recently what kind of team culture I considered conducive to thriving. My response was, in part, to lay out the Five Pillars of Team Culture that I feel are essential: Contagiously Positive, Exceedingly Helpful, Personally Responsible, Relentlessly Improving, and Laser-Focused. The team will thrive if these five characteristics are present in a Team and its members.
Here is the greater question: “Do I really want that?” Some days, if I am honest, I don’t want to be positive. Some days I want to sit alone and whine to myself (and maybe the Lord) …rehearsing every unjust thing that has ever happened. Some days I don’t want to be relentlessly improving. Innovation and reinvention are hard work! Comfortable is more attractive some days. Even if I “say” that I want these characteristics to be true, in my heart… I know that it is not true. So, what does one “do” when you don’t want what you want to want?
That’s the question I took to prayer this morning as I read Psalm 128 and prayed it back to the Lord.
1How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. 2When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. 3Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine Within your house, Your children like olive plants Around your table. 4Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the Lord. 5The Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6Indeed, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 128:1-6, NASB95
Such huge categorical statements of unequivocal truth here. The people who fear the Lord and walk in His ways shall be blessed! The word blessed is the Hebrew, as re, and it means to be fortunate or happy. Our happiness is based on the fact that things will go well with you (v.2), your wife and your children will be blessed and fruitful (v.3), and for many generations (v.6). God will be present in your midst and will bless you and your people, His people, with Peace. This is a HUGE promise! There is no downside at all. So, why do I still resist walking in His ways in fear (Hebrew- ya re, meaning to be afraid, to honor, to reverence, to be in awe)? The answer comes down to trust, I think, and has been the issue since the first couple in the Garden (Gen 3).
So, my prayer this morning is for the Lord to help me to more fully want what I want to want, even when I don’t want it. Perhaps that is your cry before him as well. Grace and Peace.
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