Praising and Blessing

At the prompting of a brother in Christ yesterday I read Psalm 135:1-3:  "Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; praise Him, O you servants of the LORD! ² You who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God, ³ Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant."  This passage is full of praise and acknowledges the worthiness of the Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth.  That God would dwell in a house in Jerusalem where He placed His name is amazing, but even more stunning is God allowed men to enter and serve Him.  No house can contain the infinite, eternal I AM, the one true God who is good and glorious.

The psalmists bids us praise the LORD because He is LORD!  He chose Israel to be His special people and bids all sinners to come to Him and find eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God.  We were blind, lame, and deserving of hell yet God has shown compassion and mercy on us by His grace to make our hearts His dwelling place:  the habitation of the Holy Spirit.  Those who desire blessings from the LORD ought to realise in Himself God is greater than all temporal riches, health, and earthly prosperity.  He is most worthy to be praised and receive glory from all His creation.

I find compelling the transition from praising to blessing in Psalm 135.  To praise is to shine, glorify, to make a boast, to boldly proclaim, and the psalmist begins with praising God.  Psalm 135:19-21 concludes, "Bless the LORD, O house of Israel! Bless the LORD, O house of Aaron!  ²⁰ Bless the LORD, O house of Levi! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD! ²¹ Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, Who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD!  It is as if from the sheer weight of God's goodness, holiness, and power, the psalmist went from standing to falling to his knees, overcome by our awesome God.  To bless is defined in the Strong's Concordance "to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), praise, salute."  It is fitting we willingly kneel in adoration before the God who calls and enables us to stand in His presence, to be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might.

Praising and blessing God is a reward in itself because He is worthy of all glory and honour.  He is the LORD and we are His willing servants.  We did not choose Him but He chose us out of the riches of His grace.  Whether we stand, walk, or run let us bless the LORD at all times with His praise in our hearts.

All Our Springs in Jesus

Psalm 87:7 has been in my mind of late and says, "Both the singers and the players on instruments say, "All my springs are in you."  The context of the song of the singers and musicians is Zion is a source of blessing because of God's presence there.  God is the sole source of life in heaven and earth, and He is man's only provider of salvation, contentment, and rest for eternity.

The Gihon spring is a natural water source in Jerusalem.  On a couple of occasions I have enjoyed treking through "Hezekiah's Tunnel" located underneath the city of David.  It is important to note the Psalmist said, "All my springs are in you" and not "...from you."  A spring of water flowing from underground can cover a great distance and the water downstream can be polluted or stagnate in pools.  It is true all the blessings we enjoy in life come from God, yet they are only realised when we are in Him through faith.  Even believers at times value what we receive from God more than His presence and who we are in Him.  The picture of water flowing from the rock in the wilderness was a great picture of God's presence, refreshing and satisfying those who partake of Him by grace.

Though God's people affirmed all their springs were in Him, due to their folly they sought to satisfy their thirst elsewhere.  The prophet said in Jeremiah 2:11-13:  "Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit. ¹² Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be very desolate," says the LORD. ¹³ "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water."  The irony is thick here:  the heathen in countries around Israel were loyal to their powerless idols yet God's people forsook the Living God!  Imagine choosing broken, leaking cisterns which collected muddy run-off water over the LORD who is the fountain of living waters.  Let us not for a moment think we are spiritually superior than these who changed their Glory for what did not profit, for we have all been guilty of the same.  If we are not guilty than we are righteous in ourselves and have no need for repentance, forgiveness, or salvation.

Once Jesus entered Samaria and asked a woman who came to draw water from the well for a drink.  She initially balked at His request as Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.  Her curiosity was piqued when He could supply her with living water.  John 4:13-14 reads, "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  The woman was thinking only about H²O but Jesus was speaking of spiritual water supplied by the Holy Spirit.  She preferred living water (fresh, moving water) over stagnant water in a well to temporarily quench her thirst, and the Living Water Jesus promised is infinitely superior, springing up into eternal life.  All our springs are in Jesus:  the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Are you thirsty today?  Jesus bids all who thirst to come unto Him and drink.  John 7:37-39 reads, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."  After Jesus died on the cross He rose from the dead glorified.  He ascended into the heavens and has sent the Holy Spirit to supply us with Living Water so we might be the source through whom others taste and see that God is good.  Our hearts once hard as stone can become fountains of living water which supply eternal life to all who trust in Jesus and are born again by faith in Him.

The Power of the Word

"The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD. ²⁹ "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

Jeremiah 23:28-29

These were key verses from the sermon preached today at Calvary Chapel Sydney.  The supremacy of God's word over the imaginations, ideas, and dreams of men is without question.  The irony is we can give great credence to the claims of people who claim to speak for God without comparing their words with the scripture once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).  This chapter reveals many priests and prophets in Israel who claimed to have received revelations from God spoke falsehoods from their own hearts.  Compared to the nutritious grain of God's Word their words were worthless as dry and dusty chaff.

Those who have God's word ought to speak it faithfully, and when received in believing hearts God's word grows and produces spiritual fruit in our lives.  The chaff is nothing to the wheat and even a slight breeze will cause it to blow away and be lost forever.  There are many books in Christian bookshops which are useful to convey spiritual truth, but they can only do so by revelations from God's word.  A lot of books and DVD's available today are nothing more than chaff, glitter that sparkles, dazzling the eyes but cannot meet our real spiritual need.  A person can fill their belly with chaff but ultimately will starve because their dietary needs remain unmet.

Verse 29 is a glorious truth:  God's word is like a fire, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.  It is not the passion of the preacher in the pulpit or his hammering on a point which affects any change in men:  it is the divine work of God's word which accomplishes dynamic, transformational change.  God's word consumes like chaff the empty dreams, deceit, and lies of men.  The scripture can crack the hardest heart and break the stubborn will of those with ears to hear.  It is not the pounding of a pulpit which impacts listeners but the still, small voice of God which speaks in the pages of the Bible.  God sets our hearts aflame with shame of our sin to purify us and breaks us so we might be healed and restored to fellowship with Him through repentance.

Moving Day

Over the past week my family and I have moved into a new house down the road.  Our prayers to own a house in Sydney have been answered by our gracious and generous God who has fulfilled His promise to establish us in Australia.  Like Joshua affirmed, not one word has failed from God's promises to His people and we are thankful and grateful for His faithful provision.

The days this week ran together as we rose early and stayed up late packing, moving, arranging, and organising in the new house and cleaning the house we vacated.  My thoughts have been as scattered as the books, boxes, and furniture around the house and the chaotic mess around me.  I have been easily distracted by jobs unfinished and I forgot as soon as I remembered.  A couple of maxims have been confirmed during this move, and one of these is it is better to be done than perfect.  Striving for perfection from the onset leads to analysis paralysis or sets up an impossible standard to meet.  Better to be satisfied with your best effort given the circumstances rather than giving up or procrastinating and accomplishing nothing.

As we moved furniture and boxes into the new house, I learned new doesn't mean perfect.  One might assume a new house is free from defects or flaws but this is an unrealistic expectation.  We have found several flaws in the design and workmanship the professional builders ignored or missed, and this should be expected because no one is perfect.  Our second day of living in the house I dug tools out of boxes to fix a fitting on our rainwater tank that had been dripping for months.  The inspector we hired wrote reports of defects and commented on the poor quality of aspects of construction and thankfully none of them are serious.

The concept of new not being perfect reminds me of our lives after we come to Jesus in faith.  After being born again the Holy Spirit regenerates us through the Gospel and makes us new creations.  Not one person who is made new is instantly made perfect.  As long as we live in these bodies we will fall short of perfection.  We retain deeply flawed in our ways of thinking and feelings can lead us to stray from Christ.  Moving into a new house means carrying a lot of your old stuff (and junk!) from the old house into the new one, and we can bring sinful habits into the new relationship we have with God.  We are wise to make the most of the new start God gives us initially (and every day) to keep our minds and hearts clean of rubbish and filth.

Praise the LORD for the opportunity for relationship God extends by grace to all.  Knowing Him is better than a new house which will grow old, fade, gather dust, and require expensive maintenance.  Even now Jesus is preparing a place for us to live together with Him forever, and as suitable as this new house is I am really looking forward to moving day with Him.