Concluding with Praise

Before going to bed recently I have been reading through the Psalms.  I always try to take note of the brief explanation provided before each Psalm.  It struck me how many Psalms were inspired during troubling times.  In situations when might write in a journal to vent, post our status on social media for sympathy, or call the police to respond to an emergency, David wrote songs of praise to God.  Selah - think upon this!  These passages flow with worship, seeking God, and praise.  Though troubles may have moved David to write, he did not remain troubled because of His glorious God.

• Psalm 3 was written "when David fled from Absalom his son."  He concluded in Psalm 3:8, "Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah"
• Psalm 7 was what David sang unto to the LORD "concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite" - and they were not kind words.  The last verse of this Psalm?  Psalm 7:17 reads, "I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High."
• Psalm 34 was written when David "changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed."  David feared for his life in this occasion!  He finished the song concluding of God's grace in Psalm 34:22:  "The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned."
• Psalm 52 was penned after "Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech."  This resulted in the slaughter of the priests in Nob, and David freely took the blame for this incident upon himself to Abiathar in 1 Samuel 22, the son of the slain high priest who escaped with the ephod,  He ended Psalm 52 with verse 9:  "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. ⁹  I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good."
• Psalm 54 was in response to David being betrayed by the Ziphims who "said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?"  He wrote in Psalm 54:6-7:  "I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good. ⁷  For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies."

May all our troubles, like many David endured, move us to praise and glorify God for His goodness towards us.  David was quick to bring his petitions of deliverance before God, but his praise of God is evidence he trusted and believed God would preserve and help him.  Thank the LORD for His faithfulness to us and may our lives be a testimony of His praise and worship forever.

Trust God (and His Plan)

God called and enabled Moses to lead His people out of bondage in Egypt.  After Moses returned to Egypt armed with three miraculous signs which confirmed God's promise of deliverance, the people believed and worshipped the LORD.  They were convinced of God's power and rejoiced He had visited His people.  Any day now they would be free!

The Hebrews were all for freedom from bondage.  There was one looming problem however:  Pharaoh was not.  He was not at all impressed when Moses appeared before him and scorned his God.  He was incensed anyone would even suggest the idea of the Hebrews leaving their tasks for a day!  He accused the people of idleness, refused to provide straw for bricks, and told the taskmasters to kept the production quota the same.  The people worked feverishly, trying to gather up stubble and make enough bricks to meet Pharaoh's demand.  When they failed, they were beaten.  They felt cheated, trapped in an impossible cycle.  The people complained about this treatment to Moses:  what sort of deliverance was this?  In their mind Moses was killing them, not saving them!

Exodus 5:22-23 describes the response of Moses:  "So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? ²³  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all."  Moses agreed with the assessment of the people.  They hadn't signed up for such trouble!  They expected God would miraculously and quickly bring them out of Egypt as He promised them.  What they didn't understand at the time was God's promised deliverance involved a process.  Perhaps they assumed because of God's great power He would save them quickly without a struggle.  But it would prove to be a fight waged within their own hearts and minds:  would they continue to trust God and the wisdom of His plan through the process, or would they lose heart and give place to fear and doubt?

The decision to repent and trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour also results in opposition and renewed aggression by all which held us captive in sin.  This spiritual and largely inner battle will continue to occur throughout our earthly pilgrimage.  In choosing to obey God the results may seem disastrous and we think, "I didn't sign up for this!  Why doesn't God just do it?  Why does it have to be so painful and impossible?"  If we want deliverance and salvation, we must submit to God's process and plan.  He will continue to be faithful and with every temptation will make a way of escape so we will be able to bear it.  Moses nor the Hebrews could deliver themselves, and God would reveal His power over His enemies and His protection and provision for His people as time wore on.  Slowly Pharaoh's resolve crumbled, and the faith of God's people grew exponentially.

Allow me to conclude with a quote from an address I read by Spurgeon titled, "On Returning to the Renovated Tabernacle:"

"My friends, beloved of my soul, more dear than ever as years roll on, I do not ask trouble for any of you; but if there be no other way of renovating your spirits, you may on your own account cheerfully welcome the severest trials, when sent by heaven, to visit your house.  Come they will, whether we welcome them or no, for the promise is sure to all the seed, "In the world ye shall have tribulation."  Let us most devoutly praise God that he does not consult our whims, or our fancies, as to how he should deal with us; we have a Father who does not spare the rod for our crying, knowing better than we do what is good for us.  He does not ask us in which path we will go; he directs our steps according to his own wisdom, and not according to our folly.  Surely we poor shortsighted creatures can even now feel that it is good for us to have infallible wisdom to direct us, and that it is our duty to give up our unbelief, and all our questionings, and submit ourselves absolutely to the will of the unerring Father.  All our misery springs out of our self-will.  Self-love is the nest out of which the hornets fly in their armies; would to God it were utterly destroyed.  If self-will were slain, sorrow would lose its sting.  The daily cross in itself is not heavy - as Jesus' yoke, it is easy; but self-will makes our shoulders raw, and then the cross becomes very heavy to bear." (Spurgeon, C. H. C.H. Spurgeon's works as published in his monthly magazine The sword and the trowel. Vol. 1. Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1975. Print. pg. 321.)

Concerning Questions

The good deeds of some men are plainly seen and other good works follow later.  May God see fit to greatly use the godly influence of His followers during their pilgrimage and beyond.  By virtue of age a book is not necessarily better, yet I appreciate when I read words written hundreds of years ago which are perfectly relevant to me and others today.  Time has changed but man remains the same, for man's nature and thirst for knowledge goes back to the beginning.  This drive to discover has many good points, but there can be a sinister side as well.  When it comes to searching out spiritual truth, much time and effort can be wasted straining gnats while swallowing camels.  The theoretical can be more attractive than the practical.  In a quest to search out obscure truths God in His wisdom has hidden, we can ignore the personal implications of what God has plainly said.  We all have to know what is in the locked chest, whether it is intended for our possession or not.

Consider what Henry Smith, the 16th century "silver-tongued preacher" had to say on this subject:

"It is not necessary to know that which God hath not revealed; and the well of God's secrets is so deep that no bucket of man can sound it; therefore we must row in shallow waters, because our boats are light, and small, and soon overturned...Let men desire knowledge of God as Solomon did; but not desire knowledge as Eve did.  For these aspiring wits fall again like Babel, and run into doubts, while they seek for resolutions...Curious questions and vain speculations are like a plume of feathers, which some will give anything for, and some will give nothing for.  Paul rebuked them which troubled their heads about genealogies; how would he reprove men and women of our days, if he did see how they busy their heads about vain questions, tracing upon the pinnacles, where they may fall, while they might walk upon the pavement without danger!  Some have a great deal more desire to learn where hell is, than to know any way how they may escape it; to hear what God did purpose before the world began, rather than to learn what he will do when the world is ended; to understand whether they shall know one another in heaven, than to know whether they belong to heaven.  This rock hath made many shipwrecks, that men search mysteries before they know principles; like the Bethshemites, which were not content to see the ark, but they must pry into it, and finger it.  Commonly the simplest men busy their heads about the highest matters; so that if they meet with a rough and crabbed question like a knob in the tree, and while they hack and hew at it with their own wits to make it plain, their saw sticks fast in the cleft, and cannot get out again; at last in wrath they become like malcontents with God, as though the Scripture were not perfect, and either fall into despair, or into contempt of all.  Therefore it is good to leave off learning where God hath left off teaching; for they which have an ear where God hath no tongue, hearken not unto God, but to the tempter, as Eve did to the serpent." (Spurgeon, C. H. C.H. Spurgeon's works as published in his monthly magazine The sword and the trowel. Vol. 1. Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1975. Print. pages 202-203)

God be praised, for even when we ask the wrong questions God graciously answers with Himself.  God's aim is not to keep men ignorant, for Jesus is wisdom for us.  How can we know if the questions which puzzle us are "vain speculations" which have no practical use?  I answer with another question:  do you so value God's revelation of Himself and His commands that you labour to walk according to them?  When we put into practice what we already know, God will reveal Himself to you in ways you cannot imagine now.  He will open your eyes and transform your heart.  The first time when God revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush Moses averted his eyes because he was afraid to look at God (Ex. 3:6).  After obeying God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, when Moses communed with God face to face as a man speaks to a friend he asked, "Please, show me your glory." (Ex. 33:18)  Moses was satisfied, even though God withheld him from seeing all.

Are you willing to accept there is much about God and the Bible we will never understand?  Some content themselves with saying, "We'll never know this side of heaven," inferring that in our glorified, eternal state all our questions will be answered.  I believe many burning questions we have today will not be remembered or be relevant in heaven and therefore not asked.  God will answer many honest questions we ask Him, and others are sealed up for another time.  Let us be content in knowing God, for He is the answer we truly seek.    

Stand in Awe

"Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. ⁹  For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast."

Psalm 33:8-9

How good it is to stand in awe of God!  When God says something, it is done.  We are talking about the God who spoke the earth and universe into existence, who imagined life and created it in all its varied forms.  He spoke, and it was done.

There was a centurion who came to Jesus in Capernaum to ask Him to heal his beloved servant.  Jesus agreed immediately, and said He would be glad to go heal him.  The centurion then said something which caused Jesus to marvel in Matthew 8:8:  "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed."  This man perceived the incredible authority Jesus possessed, and with the power of His words alone - like when God said "Let there be light!" and there was light - Jesus could heal his servant.  According to the faith of the man it was done, and that very hour the servant was healed by Jesus.

Do you believe Jesus can just "say the word" and it will be done?  Our trouble comes when we think Jesus ought to speak what we desire this very hour and doubt His authority and power if He does not.  We must remember that our lives are in God's hands, and He will do with us as He sees fit.  God is utterly trustworthy, and we should stand in awe of Him.  As our King He has all authority over us, and as our Father He loves us with an everlasting love.  Let us be obedient to His voice, even as the water separated from the dry land at His word alone.  There was no debate, no discussion, no explanation:  only words coming forth from God.

We want God to speak a word on our behalf, but will we stand to obedience at His word?  Do we regard His word because He is worthy who speaks?