Posted on

Blessable

Read Psalm 15

Featured Verse: Psalm 15:1

“LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?”

What is it that makes us blessable?  We utter the phrase, “God bless you” without much thought to what makes us blessable, so just what is the life God blesses? Are the blessings of God automatic, or are they conditional?  Seriously, how do we get into the blessing zone of God’s overflowing and generous favor?

David couldn’t have spelled it out any clearer than in Psalm 15:  It is the life of integrity!  The person of complete integrity, which I realize, in the truest sense is redundant—spiritual, relational, financial, moral, intellectual, physical integrity—is the one upon whom God’s favor, power and provision will rest.

Now integrity is a word that gets thrown around a great deal these days—and that’s part of the problem:  It get’s thrown around instead of lived out.  So just what is integrity?  I think the simplest and best definition I know is this: The congruence of what you believe with how you behave.  For the Christian, it is the marriage of Biblical values, principles and world-view with our moment-by-moment attitudes and actions.  In short, it is to practice what we preach at all times and under every circumstance.

David provides some very specific areas of integrity that are absolutely critical to living under the blessing of God:

Moral Purity:  “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous.” (Psalm 15:2)

Compassionate Honesty:  “…who speaks the truth from his heart.” (Psalm 15:2)

Rejection of Destructive Opinion:  “…and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman.” (Psalm 15:3)

Revulsion of Evil People:  “…who despises a vile man.” (Psalm 15:4)

Promotion of Good People:  “…but honors those who fear the LORD.” (Psalm 15:4)

Ruthless Trustworthiness:  “…who keeps his oath when it hurts.” (Psalm 15:4)

Risky Generosity:  “…who lends his money without usury.” (Psalm 15:5)

Rigid Honor:  “…and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.” (Psalm 15:5)

Any person who lives organically, unbendingly and consistently this way will find themselves living, as Psalm 15:5 concludes, in the stability and security of the palm of the Heavenly Father’s hand:  “He who does these things will never be shaken.”

The tides of an increasingly nasty culture and the natural drift of our own falleness will make living out this kind integrity extremely difficult.  We will have to fight opposite currents every day, if not every moment of our lives.  But such a well-lived life will be worth it along the way and at the end of our journey.  It is the only way to live—because it is the life God blesses!

“Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.”  ~Oswald Chambers

Posted on

If You’re Having a Really Rotten Day…

Read Psalm 22

Featured Verse: Psalm 22:1 (MSG)

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

To say that King David, the sweet singer of Israel, had some pretty bad days during his earthly journey would be a tremendous understatement. Think about what David endured: He had to dodge the spear of his insane father-in-law, King Saul. He lived as a fugitive for several years, moving from place to place, hiding from the law in dank, dark caves, barely escaping death on several occasions.  His wife was taken from him and given to another man.  He was forced to flee the city he loved in humiliating fashion because of a coup, led by his own son. People he trusted betrayed him. He buried several of his sons—every parent’s worst nightmare. As a consequence of his own public moral failings, his family disintegrated before his very eyes.  Yeah, David had some Category 5 days in his life.

Yet I have a feeling that the depth of despair you read in this psalm was a bit exaggerated.  We do that, too, sometimes. When we’re going through a painful experience, we often use hyperbolic language to describe our emotions: “I just want to die…I’ll never get over this…this pain is too great to bear…I am all alone.” It is a universally accepted practice to communicate the depth of our feelings by this sort of exaggeration.

But think about this: In this psalm, David was not just speaking on a personal level about having a really rotten day, he was also speaking prophetically.  The Spirit of God inspired David to write of a time when Jesus, the Son of David, would have a really rotten day hanging on a cross as God’s sacrifice for our sins.

You see, Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin, bearing both the sin of the entire world as well as the wrath of God on that old rugged cross. We will never in a billion years be able to understand the horrible, unbearable pain—not just the physical pain—but the spiritual pain of the sinless One taking on sin and having the Father turn his back on the Son because God’s holy eyes could not gaze upon the sin his Son had become in that moment. That is why Jesus fulfilled David’s prophetic utterance in Matthew 27:46 when he, too, cried out,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

I have had a few really rotten days in my life—and I’ll have a few more before my journey is over—but I am so grateful that Jesus endured the “mother of all bad days” so I wouldn’t have to know a really rotten eternity.  He did that for me—and you, too!  So the next time you are having a really awful, horrible, rotten day, take a moment to rejoice that even though your day is not so great, you will never really know a really rotten eternity, thanks to Jesus.

Try doing that, and see if your really rotten day isn’t so bad after all.

“Much that worries us beforehand can, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution … Things really are in a better hand than ours.”  ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Posted on

I Don’t Feel Like Going To Church Today

Read Psalm 122

Featured Verse: Psalm 122:1 (MSG)

“When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,” my heart leaped for joy.”

The psalmist was talking about going to church, and unlike an increasing number of “Christians” in America, he was excited.  Among other things, he was looking forward to gathering with God’s people to “give thanks to the name of God,” according to Psalm 122:5 (MSG). That’s just one of the things, albeit a very important thing, that believers are meant to do.

That is a decree, by the way, not an option for when we feel like it. As Eugene Peterson says, “Feelings are important in many areas, but completely unreliable in matters of faith.”  The surest way to “feel like it” is by doing the very thing you don’t feel like doing–in this case, going to church to give thanks.  When we get up and get going to church to give thanks, by faith and in obedience, the result will be that we will develop the best feelings of all: feelings for God!

I am told that the average church-goer in the United States now attends their place of worship just a tick under two times per month.  Somehow I don’t think that would cut it with the psalmist, who centered his life around the house of God, and I know it doesn’t cut it with God.

God loves it when his family stops by for dinner, and he has so ordered it that we should do that on a regular basis. (Hebrews 10:24-25) One could argue that nowhere does the Bible say that has to be every Sunday, but I would counter that with, first of all, the practice of the church from the beginning, which was gathering for praise, thanks, instruction and encouragement, minimally, every week on the first day.  And second of all, those who make that argument have missed the point:  Gladness in going to God’s house.  If you are finding reasons not to go, and justifying those reasons, it is highly likely that your reservoir of gladness is empty.

If that is the case, I would suggest you go to God and ask him to fill your tank.  He is pretty good about doing that.  And if you just don’t feel like going to God, or to church, grab your feelings if you have to and drag them with you. When you do, at some point you will make one of the great discoveries in life, a discovery that great people of faith have known for some time:  You can act your way into feeling much more quickly than you can feel your way into acting.

“The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel.” ~Paul Scherer

Posted on

The Sweet Spot of God’s Will

Read Psalm 21

Featured Verse: Psalm 21:2 (NLT)

“You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips.”

There are some days, or entire seasons of life, when we find ourselves in the sweet spot of God’s will. Everything simply falls into place. The other shoe never drops.  “Stuff” never happens. Rather, blessing after blessing makes for one big fat fantastic experience.

We long for days like that, and sometimes, we get them.  At other times, we must simply walk in faith and obedience—going without knowing, yet trusting in the goodness of a God who “doeth all things well” and has promised to give us the desires of our heart.

In reality, much of David’s life was categorized by going without knowing—he journeyed hundreds of dangerous and depleting episodes in his life with not much more than simple trust and gritty obedience.  From this side of history, we tend to romanticize David’s life as one victory after another with only an occasional challenge.  Not the case!  David’s life was arguably more challenging than yours and mine will ever be. Don’t believe me? Ever have someone try to pin you to a wall with a spear? David did! Ever have to make your home in a cave just to keep one step ahead of your executioner? David did!  Ever have to flee your home because your son and his posses were trying to kill you? I didn’t think so! But David did…and that’s not even the half of it!

The secret of David’s amazing life was simply that he put one footstep of faith in front of the other until he hit “pay-dirt”.  Through defeats, dangers and disasters, he gritted out a long obedience in the same direction, and on each occasion, some sooner, others later, hallelujah, David would find the sweet spot.

Your hope and mine is that this very day will include that sweet spot of God’s will! Who knows if that will be the case?  The thing we do know, however, is that our duty today is to take one footstep of faith at a time and leave the “when,” “where” and “how” of the sweet spot up to God.

Hope today is your day!  If not, see you at the corner of Faith and Trust as we continue the glorious journey.

“To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless Him for miseries is the way to remove them.”  ~William Dyer

Posted on

That Sparkle In Your Eyes

Read Psalm 13

Featured Verse: Psalm 13:3 (NLT)

“Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.”

Do you ever wonder why there are some whose eyes just always seem to sparkle?  Is it because they have such a naturally sunny disposition?  Is it because things are continually going their way?  Is it because they are just so much better at life, or have such a better life, that they outshine the average person?  What is it about these people?

Well, it could be any or all of the above factors contribute to gleam in their eye and the lift in their step. But I would venture to guess that these folks have also developed the ability to practice hopefulness in the midst of all the negative stuff that might send a less hopeful person into the tank.

Aaron Beck, a leading marriage researcher, found the number one belief that kills marriages is that a spouse will never change. Once that belief set in, there was a loss of motivation, the surrender of perseverance, and giving up. Here’s the thing: Underneath the failure to endure and the quitting was the loss of hope.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 13:12 that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.”  But when hope is practiced, whether in marriage specifically or life in general, there is tremendous motivation not only for growth and change, but for that winsome radiance to dominate our personality in a way that both elevates our moods and is consistently visible to those we are around.

That is why we’ve got to choose daily to put our hope in the promises of God.  That’s what David did.  He practiced hope.  In the first two verses of this six-verse psalm, David was focusing on the overwhelmingly bad things in his life that were dragging him down. But in the last two verses, his focused has shifted to the overwhelming mercy and grace of God—and it changed everything.

What did David do to pull off that turn around?  Well, to begin with, he went to God—he prayed.  He poured out his complaint (Psalm 13:1-2) and then made a bold request (Psalm 13:3).  Next, he went back into the memory banks of his past experience with God and recalled that God had never failed him—not even once (Psalm 13:5). Therefore, since God had been faithful in David’s past, it only made sense to trust him in the present.  And finally, David praised (Psalm 13:6).  David began to sing of the mercies and goodness of God.

David practiced hope—and before he knew it, the sparkle had returned to his eyes.

Hebrews 6:19 says of the practice of hope: “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” And when we practice hope—praying, reflecting, singing—we too, can expect the sparkle to return to our eyes. Romans 5:5 says, “hope does not disappoint us.”

Now that will put a sparkle in your eyes!

“Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath.”  ~William Gurnall

Posted on

Earthquake-Proof!

Read Psalm 11

Featured Verse: Psalm 11:3

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

If you were to open your Bible and read this verse, you would notice a note in your text that suggests that there is a possible alternative reading to the verse:  “When the foundations are being destroyed, what is the Righteous One doing?”  The ancient Hebrew manuscript is unclear as to which reading is exact, but the preferred choice of the modern editors of Scripture was to choose the rendering I’ve quoted.

However, both readings are correct!  Whatever reading is chosen, whether it is “the righteous” who are looking for guidance in times of trouble or it the activity of the “the Righteous One” we are wondering about, the question is answered in the rest of the psalm, especially the very next verse, Psalm 11:4.  When the foundation are being destroyed,

“The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD is on his heavenly throne.”

That is the confidence we have in times of insecurity and instability:  God is in the unshakeable place; He is the Unshakeable One.  He is the One we run to for “refuge” (Psalm 11:1) when the foundations are being destroyed!

I lived in the Bay Area for several years, where fault lines run throughout the area like fingers branching off your hand.  My home was literally just a few blocks off the Calaveras Fault.  During our time there, we endured a few minor shocks—enough to keep you reminded of the possibility of the “big one.” Everybody, in theory at least, knew the preferred place to go when one of those infamous California earthquakes hit.

So do the righteous!  Whether our troubles come in the form of big ones or they are little ones hit, we go the Unshakeable One.  When the foundations are being destroyed, he is in the place where the foundations are eternal.  They were here before the earth was even created, and they will be here long after this old earth fades from view.  And we have this promise (Psalm 11:7) that is as sure as God himself:

“For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
upright men will see his face.”

Next time you experience a tremor, go where you are supposed to go.  Go to the Unshakeable One and claim your place of safety.

“Our extremity is God’s opportunity.”  ~George Whitefield

Posted on

Your Real Zip Code

Read Psalm 3

Featured Verse: Psalm 3:5

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.”

Where is the best place to live in the entire world?  Periodically, national magazines will rate the various cities around the world for their livability—based on the city’s beauty, environmental practices, economic health, the crime rate, the number of parks, the average lifespan of the inhabitants, and so on.

There are some amazing communities in this world, and I believe I live in one of them, but the very best place to live anywhere, bar none, is squarely in the hands of Almighty God.  If you live there, by saving faith and daily obedience, the physical address of your residence doesn’t really matter.  The crime rate and economic health are non-factors.  The natural beauty and livability quotient are inconsequential.  Even the most hostile environment can be a great place to live when the Lord “is a shield about you.” (Psalm 3:3)

David passionately loved the city of Jerusalem.  In fact, it became known as the City of David.  But there came a time when he had to flee the city, running for his life because of the uprising of his son, Absalom.  Absalom wanted to assassinate his father, and he had plenty of support among the religious community, the military, and the common citizens—the very people for whom King David had provided such a good life.  But they had turned on David, forcing the king to run for his life, keeping barely just a step ahead of death and with absolutely no prospects of ever regaining his throne and returning to his beloved city.

Yet as David fled Jerusalem he found an even better place, an oasis from the chaos of the coup—he found refuge in the hands of God.  Obviously, that oasis was not a physical place.  It wasn’t even just an emotional state of mind.  It was something much more important, much more enduring, much more satisfying—it was the spiritual reality of being cared for by the only One who truly has the power of life and death.

In another psalm wrote, “Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:16, NLT)  David knew and relied upon this truth—that God knew the exact number of days that David would live—and he would not die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what God had foreordained.  Nothing could change that—not Absalom, not betrayal, not war, not poverty, not disease—nothing!  God alone held that power over David’s life.

That’s why, coup and exile notwithstanding, David found this world a perfectly safe place. That’s why even in the midst of his crisis, David could “lie down and sleep—and wake again.”  It was the Lord who was sustaining him. That is just the way you think—and live—when you truly understand that your life is fully in God’s hands.

Your life is there too, you know!  Or maybe you don’t—but even if you don’t, that truth remains settled:  Because of the saving faith you have expressed in Jesus Christ, your address has permanently changed to God’s hands.

It’s high time you starting enjoying your new zip code.

“A consciousness of our powerlessness should cast us upon Him who has all power.  Here then is where a vision and view of God’s sovereignty helps, for it reveals His sufficiency and shows us our insufficiency.”  ~Arthur W. Pink