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A Divine Beat-Down

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 70
Focus: Psalm 70:5

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”

Good vs. evil…the force vs. the dark side…the white hats vs. the black hats—it’s not just the theme of most every Hollywood movie, it’s a cosmic reality. C.S. Lewis said,

“There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.”

And you are ground zero in that cosmic conflict. You belong to God, and therefore, Satan hates you. And those who don’t belong to God, those who, in reality, are in the camp of darkness, don’t care a whole lot for you either. They would love to see you fail, and fall, and bring disrepute to the name of God. That might sound a little pessimistic, but it’s true, so get used to it.

David was writing about people like that in this brief psalm. They weren’t too thrilled with David, and whatever the king’s dire circumstances at this time were, these folks thought they had him dead to rights. They were hoping for a very big and very public failure so they could say, “Aha! See, we told you he would crash and burn. Serves him right!”

Knowing their evil intent, David cried out to God for an immediate intervention: “Please, God, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me…please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay.” (Psalm 70:1,5) And he pleaded for a dramatic rescue from these ne’er-do-wells: “Let them be horrified by their shame, for they said, ‘Aha! We’ve got him now!'” (Psalm 70:3)

But did you notice that he didn’t just want to squeak by on this one? He wanted an undeniable victory? He was hoping for a Divine beat-down on his enemies. He prayed for a deliverance that would cause his enemies to shut their traps and hang their heads in shame: “May those who try to kill me be humiliated and put to shame. May those who take delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace.” (Psalm 70:2) He wanted his rescue to be so undeniably a God-thing that it would become a cause for the righteous to lift their heads with holy pride: “But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, ‘God is great!’” (Psalm 70:4)

Do you ever feel that way? I’m sure you do, but you probably think it is a bit spiritually unseemly to have those kinds of thoughts. Yet is it such a bad thing, in light of the cosmic conflict for our eternal destiny, that we should want a clear and unmistakable trouncing of the Enemy and his friends?

Listen, if the man after God’s own heart felt that way—and the Holy Spirit saw fit to include David’s holy taunt in the Holy Writ (actually, it wasn’t the first time David prayed this—see also Psalm 40:13-17), I have a feeling that you can go ahead and do a little spiritual trash talking in your prayers, too.

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“The world is a den of murderers, subject to the devil. If we desire to live on earth, we must be content to be guests in it, and to lie in an inn where the host is a rascal, whose house has over the door this sign or shield, ‘For murder and lies.’” (Martin Luther)

 

Making Life Work: Next time you are talking to God, go ahead and ask him to give Satan a very public beat down on your behalf. And when it happens, I’ll cheer with you!

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Dark Night, Bright Tomorrow

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 69
Focus: Psalm 69:5,13

You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you…But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.

We’re not sure what the source of David’s despair was, but he turned it into a lament; a plaintiff prayer to God for deliverance and vindication. Whatever was going on, this psalm represents David’s dark night of the soul.

Interestingly, several New Testament writers prophetically applied much of Psalm 69 to Jesus. Jesus, too, had a dark night of the soul as he carried the sins of the entire world in his sinless body to Calvary. The difference between Jesus and David was that Jesus was without sin and undeserving of that suffering, while David was quite sinful, and much deserving—as he, himself, recognized.

You will notice in the title that David wrote this psalm to be sung to the tune of “Lilies.” What you may not realize is that another song was written to the same tune, Psalm 45. That song, however, is quite celebratory, extolling King David as handsome, strong, victorious, just, and whose reign will endure.

How true to life is that! One moment you are riding high, and the next, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. People who once adored you now want to string you up. It happened to David, it happened to Jesus, and it will likely happen to you. You, too, will have a dark night of the soul.

During that dark night, you will likely begin to focus on your own imperfections as the source of your dire straits. And likely, you will be partially correct. Your specific mistakes and your general state of sinfulness often opens the door to difficult and disastrous events. But what you can take from David is that he didn’t let that stop him from courageously coming to God and seeking deliverance.

He recognized his own folly (Psalm 69:5), but he knew that his wrong didn’t make the disproportionate response of the evildoers who pounced on him right (Psalm 69:4,22-28). He also recognized that getting a hearing from the Almighty didn’t require sinless perfection; it required authentic repentance and courageous contrition. So in spite of his folly, he appealed to the love and mercy of God (Psalm 69:16) to turn his dark night into a bright tomorrow.

For David and for you, God is the God of salvation. His specialty is saving the imperfect. You would never know God as the God of salvation if you didn’t need saving. The fact is, you need saving from your sins—which he has done. And you will need saving from the effects of sin—yours, and others—every once in a while. That’s just life.

So just remember that when you are in the middle of your dark night and it looks like the day will never come, God is still the God of salvation for imperfect people like you, so cry out to him. David didn’t exhaust the Divine supply of love and mercy; there’s plenty left for you.

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“Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.” (John Chrysostom)

 

Making Life Work: The God of your salvation still specializes in turning dark nights of the soul into better tomorrows.

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Forever, And Right Now

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 68
Focus: Psalm 68:19

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

Honestly, it took me a while to “get” this psalm. Not only did I have to read it through a couple of times, once I was within the psalm, I had to stop and restart several more times just to figure out what David was trying to say. I now have greater sympathy for those of you who are daily readers of this blog.

My conclusion: This is a great psalm! David is tracing the glorious history of God and his people from their mighty and miraculous deliverance from Egyptian slavery to the enthronement of God’s presence in the sanctuary in Jerusalem. By the way, that history covers several hundred years—years of ups and downs—but through it all, God showed himself to be glorious and most gracious to his people. All along the way, God always cared for his people and at the end of the day, led them inexorably toward a preordained victorious conclusion.

The testimony of history, then, is that the Lord alone is a great and gracious God. Therefore, we should always cast our lot with him, for in the long run, he always wins, and so do his people. When in doubt, put faith in the God of history rather than fear in the difficulty of today and the uncertainty of tomorrow. God is the God of forever!

Most of us, however, though we might appreciate the importance of history, are more focused on what is facing us today. And the question that always arises is if God is great and gracious for me today. And the answer to that concern is yes. That’s why, after praising God for his mighty and miraculous work throughout Israel’s history, David then says, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” He is not only the God of forever, he is the God of right now.

You see, history is simply a series of daily experiences. String enough daily events together, and you’ve got history. God’s historical track record is comprised of revelations of his mighty and miraculous character as well as demonstrations of his great and gracious work in the daily lives of people like you and me. And since God is always true to his character; since he is always faithful to his covenant, you can trust that he will bear your needs today and lead you inexorably to a foreordained victorious conclusion, too.

What is the takeaway from this psalm? Simply this: How God proved himself to his people, Israel, yesterday, he will prove himself to you today. He has the history to back that claim up.

He is the God of forever, and right now!

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Fear says, “God may fail me!” Faith knows He keeps His word. Hitherto the Lord hath helped us; Doubting now would be absurd. Dismiss your doubts and feeling, stand still, and see it through. The God who fed Elijah, will do the same for you!” (Anonymous)

 

Making Life Work: If God is the God of forever, and right now, how should that change your perspective on whatever you are facing right now? In light of the fact that he is, declare your trust in him!

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Audacious Expectations

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 67
Focus: Psalm 67:1-2

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

I never feel selfish for asking God to bless my family, my church and me! In fact, I think it is a highly spiritual thing to do. How is that? The second verse of this psalm provides the key: I want Divine blessing so that people will look at me and see God’s hand. I want them to see God’s favor in my life and be attracted to the God of my salvation.

Now if that is going to happen, then I cannot ask for selfish blessings. I cannot misspend God’s graces in foolish ways. I cannot ask for stuff that I will spend on my own humanistic desires. My motives, plans, hopes and dreams need to be sanctified, which means that I need to delight myself in the Lord first if I am to expect that he will grant me the desires of my heart. (Psalm 37:4)

That really puts the onus on me, doesn’t it, to clean up my desires. But if I can live with the purest of intentions—if I can live with a kingdom-mindset—then I can expect God’s extraordinary grace, his undeserved blessing, and the favor of his face shining down upon me every day of my life.

Now that’s the way I want to live. I want to be living proof to this lost world of a loving God. So I am going to pray this prayer today: “God, bless me a lot! May I know your grace in new ways. Let the bright glory of your favor cause my life to shine so much that others will see me and be attracted to you!”

And I am audacious enough to expect that God will do that for me!

By the way, there was another Old Testament character who dared to pray that way: Jabez. You can find his short story in I Chronicles 4:9-10. He dared to ask God for the moon, so to speak, and guess what? He got it. I love the profound simplicity of the last line of that story: “And God granted his request.”

Ask God for the moon…and the earth, too! Perhaps God will grant your request and you’ll be the next Jabez story—unless I beat you to it!

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“Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.” (A.B. Simpson)

 

Making Life Work: You want to be blessed. So do I. But why? What is your motive? I would suggest that before a prayer for blessing, you first offer God a prayer of repentance. Ask him to cleanse your heart, to transform your mind, and to give you a vision for his kingdom. In fact, you may just want to pray the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Let God set your life straight, then ask away!

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Refined

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 66
Focus: Psalm 66:10,12

For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver… but you brought us to a place of abundance.

What is the difficulty you are going through at this moment in your life? My prayer is that God will use this trial to develop deeper character in you.

I realize that trials aren’t much fun. But I also know that God uses problems and pain in our lives to do some of his best work. James 1:2-4 says, “Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”

The psalmist saw the difficult situations God allowed Israel to endure in that light. I pray that you, too, will see your trying situation, above all else, as the work of the Great Refiner to bring about his pure character in you.

I came across this story of how a silversmith described the process of purifying silver. I hope it gives you a whole new perspective:

The silversmith said, “To refine the silver, I sit with my eyes steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining is exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured. I never take my eye off of the silver in the furnace. I don’t want to take it out too early, because if I take it out too early, it won’t be purified. But I don’t want to leave it in too long, because if I leave it in too long, it will be injured. When the silver is in the fire, I focus. I don’t let anything distract me. I let nothing take my focus off the silver. I watch the silver carefully, waiting for the right moment to take it out.”

The silversmith was asked, “How do you know when it is the right moment?”

And he said, “I know the silver is pure when I can see my face reflected in it.”

In the Old Testament book of Malachi, God describes himself as a refiner and purifier of silver. What a awesome picture of God, the great silversmith and you, the silver. You are never left in the refiner’s fire too long, or taken out too soon…but are always under the watchful eye of the one who fully understands the refining process. And when, as a result of the fire, your life reflects the image of Christ, you will be ready… purified like pure silver.

Hang in there, you’re going to really shine when this is all said and done.

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“God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” (C.S. Lewis)

 

Making Life Work: If you are going through a difficult season that has no end in sight, practice the spiritual discipline of “hanging in there.”  It doesn’t sound like very much fun, but what option do you have?  Actually, it is the best option you have, since to express trust in God’s  lovingkindness is an act of faith that initiatives God’s favor.  As God’s Word promise, those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame.

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He’s All Ears

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 65
Focus: Psalm 65:2-4

O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come… Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!

What would you do if you worshipped a god who never heard your prayers? Or if you believed in no god at all? How sad, scary, and frustrating that would be! And yet billions of people on this planet live that way.

Over the years it has been my privilege to travel to a lot of places engaging in missions work, and one of the sobering things I witness wherever I go is a profound sadness and emptiness in the souls of people who don’t know our God.

In the former Soviet Union, I’ve talked with people who had been indoctrinated their entire lives with the communist propaganda that God didn’t exist. That Soviet system promised the Russian people everything, but in the end, it not only didn’t deliver, it actually robbed their souls of the joy, peace and hope that comes only from being connected to the Creator. What I saw in their eyes was a bleak reminder of what happens to the human spirit when you take God out of the picture.

Russia isn’t the only place where that happens. I’ve witnessed desperate Hindus in Sri Lanka making sacrifices of food to their gods, while their emaciated children played in a sewage-infested stream nearby. I’ve seen devout Catholics in Central America pouring out their hearts to icons, and animists in Africa worshipping snakes, while neither walked away from their respective religious rites with any sense that their prayers had been heard. And every single day here in America, people worship their stuff, yet they crave more, since in reality they are giving their worship to a god that cannot hear.

But we have a God who hears us when we pray! And like the psalmist said, how blessed are we that God has chosen us as his people, has given us the awesome privilege to come into his courts, and has invited us to pour out our hearts to him. And he hears us!

He hears our pleas for forgiveness—and answers: “When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.” (Psalm 65:3)

He hears our prayers for provision—and answers: “We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.” (Psalm 65:4)

He hears our requests for intervention—and answers: “You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.” (Psalm 65:5)

And even when we don’t ask, he still fuels this global ecosystem with what it requires to keep us alive: “You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it…You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.” (Psalm 65:9,11)

How blessed we are—God hears us when we pray. As the Apostle John said, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (I John 5:14-15)

How blessed, indeed, that we are His, and He is ours!

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“If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing; it is an infinitely foolish thing.” (Phillip Brooks)

 

Making Life Work: What do you need to ask God for. I would do it, if I were you.  Like, right now!

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Complain Mode

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 64
Focus: Psalm 64:1

Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint.

One of my favorite stories is of the monk who joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first ten years, the abbot called him in and asked, “Do you have anything to say?”

The monk replied, “Food bad.”

After another ten years, the monk again had an opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, “Bed hard.”

Then at the end of thirty years, once again the monk was called before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he broke his silence and blurted out, “I quit.”

The angry abbot shot back, “It doesn’t surprise me a bit. You’ve done nothing but complain ever since you got here.”

Great story. Like the abbot, I’m not a big fan of complaining, or complainers. My unspoken response to those who complain is what a friend once said to me when I was complaining: “Build a bridge and get over it.” Once in a while I will actually say that if I feel a jolt like that would be good for the griper.

Most of the time, we are instructed by God’s Word not to complain. Paul said to the Philippians, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” (Philippians 2:14-15)

Yet there is a form of complaint that is not only acceptable, it is actually therapeutic. David did it in this psalm; David does it a lot in the psalms: He gripes to God. The whining and griping we voice, for the most part, grates on people who have to listen to us. It does us no good—even if they give in to what we want, they have been pushed down the path to a negative opinion of us. But when we pour out our complaint to God, things happen.

What things? One, we get out what, by and large, shouldn’t be bottled up inside. Two, voicing our upset gives us a chance to evaluate whether we should really be upset or not. Three, we put what we can’t control in the hands of the One who is in control of all things. And four, as we are asking God to change the circumstances we are griping about, God does something better—he changes us.

“The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities. Bring down your soul, or rather, bring it up to receive God’s will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations, and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it.” (Horace Bushnell)

As you read this psalm, you will notice that while David starts off with whining (Psalm 64:1-7), he ends up worshiping (Psalm 64:9-10). That is usually what happens when you follow the psalmist’s plan for problem-solving. And anytime you end up worshiping, you are in a good place.

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“Don’t pray for rain if you are going to complain about the mud.”

 

Making Life Work: King David started with whining and end up worshipping. If you have something in your life that’s the source of griping, whether it is worth griping about or not, take it to God. And make sure that you worship him after your done voicing your complaint.