Tag: Praise

Know God, Not Just About Him

Scripture

Psalm 119:52-59 says, “When I think of Your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember Your name in the night, O Lord, and keep Your law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts. The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep Your words. I entreat Your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies.”

The Psalmist is not just watching a child of God from the balcony. He is the child of God. He is the traveler. He is affected. He is comforted. He is not a casual observer.

In his sojourning, the Psalmist is troubled by evil. Life is a “disappointing and unpleasant business” (says J.I. Packer) without the comfort of hope in the Lord. When all seems dark, God’s Word is our refuge and sustainer. God’s Word becomes the song that uplifts the heart and reminds us of Who He is and who we are in Him. We are His children, His saints, His followers. We are different because we know Him personally, not just about Him. We are not “balconeers” looking on, but we are travelers changed by our growing knowledge in Him and before Him.

Indeed, this blessing has fallen to me! What I know about God isn’t paralyzed, it has changed me. I came down from the balcony. I know God. Knowledge of Him has become a matter for my meditation before God. I’m a participant. I’m in the middle of it. I know Him. The Lord is truly my portion. I am transformed and increasingly I want to keep His words. I pray for His favor and grace. I turn toward Him and away from my sinful ways again and again. God is not someone else’s song. He is my song. I turn my feet to His testimonies.

I take comfort! I am a traveler, not a balconeer.

Yes or No Questions

Scripture

I am a retired high school mathematics teacher and a great lover-of-order. I like yes or no questions that have no nuances, no gray areas. Questions that are not really up for discussion. True/false. Right/wrong.

Psalm 77 may look at first like a discussion, but I have walked with the Lord for long enough to know that the Psalm writer Asaph’s invitation is to enter the true/false realm. I am invited to affirm the yeses and nos in my life of faith. Even when God is silent, even when I am greatly troubled and losing sleep, even when waiting on God seems excruciating, I am invited to gaze thoughtfully at God’s work and character…

Let’s start with the “Nos.” Psalm 77:7-9 (NIV) says, “Will the Lord reject forever? (No) Will He never show His favor again? (No) Has His unfailing love vanished forever? (No) Has His promise failed for all time? (No) Has God forgotten to be merciful? (No) Has He in anger withheld His compassion? (No) Maybe rhetorical. Maybe not.

For me these are not timidly spoken “Nos.” They are emphatic “Nos.” These are the “Nos” that lead me to contemplate the “Yeses.” In the remainder of Psalm 77 (v10-20), I remember that God is the Most High Who does miracles and mighty deeds. Amen. Bringing about my salvation was miracle #1! Amen. He is Holy, great, powerful. He has moved mountains in my life, surrounded me with friends, transformed my anxious thoughts, kept me steady in times of turmoil, helped me to see loss as gain, helped me to see His Kingdom spreading on earth, helped me to apply His Word, helped me to help others. Amen.

Because of the “Nos,” He shows me His welcome, His favor, His unfailing love, His kept promises, His mercy, His compassion. Psalm 77:20 says, “You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” I remember how God faithfully led His people like a flock by Moses and Aaron. He still leads today. He is the Good Shepherd.

2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

Good Waiting

Scripture

I recently heard this quote: “Hard is hard, but hard is not bad.” One of the hardest things in life is waiting. Waiting for the stop light to change. Waiting for the winter to pass. Waiting for an intended outcome. Waiting for healing from surgery. Waiting for an ache to stop. Waiting on the Lord for next steps…

Waiting is not bad. One of my favorite books is THE HEART OF A SERVANT LEADER by C. John Miller. It is a compilation of pastoral letters that “Jack” wrote encouraging Christian leaders to fulfill their primary role to be servants. And often, that role involves remembering that God’s plan is bigger than whatever pain comes into our lives. The call of God is for us to stand by in childlike trust, knowing that waiting produces godly character. Psalm 25:21 says, “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.”

I’ve always been most distressed when I am “rushing” in my spirit, not just my body. Wrapped up in squeezing the blood out of time. Full of myself, thinking I can get so much done and that I must. Creating my own overwhelming dance card. Filling up every minute to a frenzy. It may not look like it on the outside, but it is crushing on the inside. And why?

As I overload the schedule and rely on my own strength and competence, I forget that God is in charge. I forget to care for others in the wake of my self-focus. I miss out on joy and freedom in Christ. I make my own prison trying to force things to happen. Yet, when I recognize the God Who is working His often unseen plan through my energies, thoughts, decisions, and circumstances, then I can stop rushing and do some good waiting.

C. John Miller says: “Praise grows out of God-given perception of reality, a seeing that God is infinitely good and infinitely good to me in Jesus Christ in every circumstance. To have that kind of praise, you need to take time, to wait upon the Lord in prayer and meditate upon His greatness and grace and the might of His kingdom…Praise Christ because He has worked to give you a self-forgetting love” for those strugglers whose paths intersect with yours. In the same letter to a struggling missionary, he says, “…The Spirit may be released in a new way when work is done with less haste and pressure.”

James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Good waiting isn’t meant to bring life to a screeching halt. God will reveal His providential will of control in hindsight. We will look back and see that God was always applying His purposes to the story of our lives. His movement will always be in the background in ways we cannot see in the present. However, we are still called to make responsible decisions, remembering that there is good sense in making wise adult choices while having the faith as small as a mustard seed at the same time. This is not about idleness, but about living fully. Live fully by dedicating your life plans to a Sovereign God Who can be trusted to guide you in these. And be intentional about leaving room in your heart and mind for prayerful waiting on God in the midst.

Psalm 39:7 says, “And now Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.”

Photo credit: Ro Seaman