RAW, REAL, REVERENT AND BIBLICAL

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me…I say to God, my rock:  “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”  Psalm 42:7, 9

In Psalm 42, the psalmist gives us a great blueprint on how we are to relate to God.  He shows us that we are to approach Him in a raw and real, yet reverent and biblical way.  First, notice the psalmist acknowledges that God is in control though it feels as if He is absent.  He knows that God is at work in the dark storms of life though it feels as if He is not.  In fact, the psalmist attributes his trials to God.  He says in verse 7, “…your breakers—your waves have gone over me.” 

Scripture is clear that God appoints trials for His people to grow them and mature them and to grow and mature others and that’s clearly the case here.  So the Psalmist has a biblical perspective when it comes to his trials.  However, though the psalmist realizes that God is at work and though he expresses great confidence in Him (vv. 5-6, 11), he is also honest with Him. 

The psalmist basically says in this passage, “I’m going through it—I’m being crushed by the storms of this life and it feels as if you are absent—it feels as if you have forgotten me.”  He’s complaining to God here because it feels as if He is absent.  The psalmist is expressing a real emotion that we all can relate to and notice the honesty in v. 9.  He says, “Why have you forgotten me, God?”  He tells God that it feels as if He has forgotten him.  He says, “God, it feels as if you are out of the picture.”  So we learn here from the psalmist in Psalm 42 that it’s OK to be honest with God when we are in a bad way—it’s OK to be honest with Him in the storms of this life. 

God wants us to come to Him when we are down and out and wants us to be honest with Him and cry out to Him when it feels as if He is removed from us.  If He didn’t, we wouldn’t have Psalm 42.  God does not want us to come to Him with this empty, scripted and disingenuous dialogue that doesn’t reflect how we actually feel.  He wants us to come to Him in a raw and real, yet reverent and scriptural way. 

"Quote" of the Week

“Let your words be the genuine picture of your heart.”  -John Wesley

You have set your glory above the heavens.  Psalm 8:1 

How great is our God?  How magnificent is He?  David gives us the answer here in Psalm 8:1.  He says, “God’s glory is above the heavens.”  His greatness—His glory—His magnificence is far beyond the highest place anyone could imaginably go.  He says, “Think of the highest of highs and God’s glory goes beyond that.”  His glory—His greatness and beauty is beyond the scope of the heavens.  

"Quote" of the Week

"(God's) glory (is) above the heavens: higher than the loftiest part of creation; the clouds are the dust of his feet, and sun, moon, and stars twinkle far below his throne. Even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. His glory cannot be set forth by the whole visible universe, nor even by the solemn pomp of angelic armies; it is above all conception and imagination, for he is God—infinite. Let us above all adore him who is above all."  C.H. Spurgeon

GROUNDED IN THE RIGHT PLACE

(The blessed man) is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Psalm 1:3-4

There are two images used here.  The first is of a tree, and the second is of chaff.  The tree represents the blessed man and the chaff represent the wicked man.  In verse 3, the psalmist says that the blessed man is grounded in the right place—he is planted in a fruitful place.  The psalmist then breaks from the illustration and says, “In all he does he prospers.”  He is making the point that a prosperous life—a blessed, and a happy life has everything to do with where one is grounded.

A prosperous man is not the one walking with the wicked, standing with sinners, and sitting with scoffers (v. 1), but is the man who is grounded in the right place.  And where is that?  The psalmist tell us in Psalm 1:2. 

(The blessed man’s) delight is in the law of the LORD,

In verse 4, the psalmist also gives the fate of the wicked man.  He says,

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Chaff is what is on the outside of grain.  In the first century, when a farmer wanted to separate the chaff from the grain, he would take the grain and crush it and gather it up and throw it in the air, and the grain would remain while the smaller chaff would be carried off by the wind.  So the psalmist says, “The wicked are like chaff driven away by the wind.”  The wicked have no solid and fruitful base and are like fruitless and useless chaff that is driven away by the wind; while the blessed man is like a strong and mighty and fruitful tree that is planted by streams of water that does not have one leaf that withers. 

Jesus uses a similar illustration in Matthew 7:24-27 when he says,      

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

"Quote" of the Week

"‘The law of the Lord’ is the daily bread of the true believer.”  C.H. Spurgeon

This week we started a new study through the book of Psalms.  For an introduction to the study, click HERE and listen to "INTRO TO PSALMS."

"Quote" of the Week

“In the Psalms we look into the heart of all the saints, and we seem to gaze into fair pleasure gardens—into heaven itself, indeed—where blooms in sweet, refreshing, gladdening flowers of holy and happy thoughts about God and all his benefits.”  -Martin Luther

The New Testament teaches that Jesus was entirely free from sin (John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 3:5). This assertion means not only that He never disobeyed His Father, but that He loved God’s law and found whole-hearted joy in keeping it. In fallen human beings there is always some reluctance to obey God, and sometimes resentment amounting to hatred at the claims He makes on us (Rom. 8:7). But Jesus’ moral nature was unfallen, as was Adam’s prior to his sin, and in Jesus there was no prior inclination away from God for Satan to exploit, as there is in us. Jesus loved His Father and His Father’s will with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Heb. 4:15 says that Jesus was “in every respect … tempted as we are,” though without sinning. The temptations we face—temptations to wrongfully indulge natural desires, to evade moral and spiritual issues, to cut moral corners and take easy ways out, to be less than loving and sympathetic to others, to be self-centered and lost in self-pity—all these came upon Jesus, but He yielded to none of them. In Gethsemane and on the Cross He fought temptation and resisted sin to the point of death. Christians must learn from Him to do likewise (Luke 14:25–33; Heb. 12:3–13).

"Quote" of the Week

"For our salvation it was necessary that Jesus be free from sin. He was 'a lamb without blemish or spot,' able to offer His 'precious' blood for us (1 Pet. 1:19). If He had been sinful He would have needed a savior Himself, and His death would not have helped us. Christ obeyed on our behalf the moral commandments applying to all humanity. He also fulfilled all the will of God applying to Him in particular, as the One called to be the Messiah. His perfect obedience qualifies Him to be our all-sufficient Savior."  -R.C. Sproul