“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4. In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what man can do to me.” (Psalm 56:3-4)
“In God will I praise His word: in the Lord will I praise His word. 11. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.” (Psalm 53:10-11) It is worth noting here that David did not claim to be fearless. We usually think of him as the “fearless warrior” who took on the giant Goliath when he was very young. But in this psalm he simply states: “what time I am afraid…” This means that David had to face his fears just as we do. Fear is an integral part of life that we just have to deal with. We can fear the weather, especially when we see what hurricanes and tornadoes can do. We can fear for the future, especially when we think of what might happen, and in the case of those of us who are older, we fear for the future for our children and grandchildren. Come to think of it, there is a lot to be afraid of, but David is going to teach us in these verses how to deal with whatever fear we have to face. David could face his fears because he trusted in God. He made the bold assertion: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” We are saved from sin by trusting in Jesus as our Savior, but we are sustained in life by that same trust. We need to remember that God is always with us, and when we face trying and fearful times, He is with us. David illustrated this in Psalm 23:4: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” We need to realize that no matter what we face, whether it is sickness, nature’s wrath, or people, God is with us and will see us through whatever it is that we have to face. I don’t know what you are dealing with at the present time that would make you afraid, but I do know that God is aware of it and will be with you through all of it. Many times He will deliver you from whatever it is that you fear, but at other times, He will deliver you through whatever it is that you fear. FDR was right when he told the citizens of our country as we faced a world war: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Fear will ruin our lives if we will let it. It will cripple us in our creativity and in our relationships with people if we give in to it. I remember dealing with fear in 1969 when we were thinking about cutting loose from the security of a good church and school teaching job to go to the seminary. We simply had to face it in faith and do it, because God willed it. I am glad that we knew that He would be with us. Whatever you are afraid of now, release it into the powerful hands of God. David referred to another thing that helped him in his fear – God’s word. In verse 4 he wrote: “In God I will praise His word…” Again in verse 10 he wrote: “In God will I praise His word…” Of course, David’s word from God was the Pentateuch, which recorded what God did for His people Israel. In our case, we have the whole Old Testament and New Testament. We know the complete story of salvation history. What a comfort it is to know that when we are afraid, we have the Bible that we can turn to that will reassure us of the presence of God. There is power in the word of God that can help us transcend all of our earthly fears. There have been many times in my life when I rushed to the word of God for comfort in trying times. There have also been many times when I would have been better off if I had rushed to the word of God. No doubt, you have a Bible. Read it and let its inspired passages remind you of the love of God for you and the power of God in your life. Don’t be upset that there are things that make you afraid; just be glad that you have God and His word to lean on when you are afraid. Bro. Joe
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“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.”
What a profound statement this psalm makes. It reflects the greatness of God. The statement “even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God" tells us that God is eternal and that He is pervasive in His universe. You can almost blow a circuit in your brain thinking about the greatness of God. That is why we have to take Him by faith and not by sight. The Bible tells us that if we were to see God in all of His glory we would die. When the Israelites heard God’s voice on the mountain, they told Moses that he could talk to God alone. To put it mildly, to encounter God in all of His glory would be an intimidating experience. There are all kinds of illustrations of the greatness of God, but none of them can really explain His dimensions. Think about this: It takes the light from the North Star, the nearest star to Earth, traveling at the speed of light (186,000 plus miles per second) four years to reach us. When you look up into the night sky, though you don't know which ones, some of the stars that you see burned out hundreds, maybe thousands, of years ago, but the light just reached us. Now that means that the universe is very large. Since God is "from everlasting to everlasting" and since He is the creator and master of all of it, He is larger than His universe. That, my friends, is BIG! Now think about this: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) The Word had been referred to earlier by John as God. This means that this God, who is greater than the universe, fitted Himself into the frame of a human being. Why? John 3:16 tells us why: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This has profound meaning for our lives. Through the Holy Spirit, and by faith in Him, He fits Himself into our little lives. Jesus becomes our personal Savior. Unbelievers like to make fun of the fact that we say we have a “personal Savior.” The point is that they cannot imagine a relationship like this. The greatness of God has gone completely over their heads. There are people who say that there is a god, but that he is not interested in our lives. He is too busy doing god things, and doesn’t have time for us. The great thing about the gospel is that the great God of the universe does care and He is not too busy doing God things to be interested in our lives. Romans 5:8 tells us: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” This is difficult for a person to get his or her head around, but it is true. I guess to some people it is just seems too good to be true. To we who believe it is too good not to be true. The great thing is that this great, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God not only wants to save us, He also wants to give us abundant life. In John 10:10b Jesus said: “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” Jesus brings all of the riches of His glory into our lives. Jesus forgives us and frees us from the guilt that we would have without Him. Just think of it, the creator of the universe, the great God of the Bible loves us so much that He wants the best for us. I prefer that to thinking about facing this great God in judgment because of unbelief. The God who loves and saves us by faith in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, is the great God who is larger than the universe. Think about it, but do it by faith or it will blow your mind. Bro. Joe "Behold, I will put out a fleece of wool on the floor and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it is dry upon the earth, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said."
I always get a little aggravated with Gideon when I read this. My thinking is something like this: "Where is his faith? Wasn't God's declaration enough?" Then I think again. The Midainites had conquered Israel and ruined their crops and houses. Now the vast Midianite army was about to attack again. The Israelites repented and God turned to Gideon to rescue them. I have to ask myself what I would do under similar circumstances? I would probably act like Moses and say "Why me?" Or I would probably pull a Gideon and say "Prove yourself to me." Taking on the Midianite army at that time in Israel's weakened condition would surely be a tough task, especially since God pared his army down from ten thousand to three hundred. God proved himself to Gideon and, to make a long story short, under Gideon's leadership the Israelites prevailed. What is the moral of this story? When God calls upon us to serve Him, He wants us to do it by faith. This is certainly what Gideon had to do. I once heard a preacher say that “God plus one is a majority.” I later heard a correction to that: “God is a majority.” Compared to the power of God we have little power. What God wants from us is obedience. We are living in what is being called “the post-Christian age.” This means that we are not in the majority. The fact is that we have never been in the majority, but we have never needed to be in the majority. God wants us to know what Gideon learned, if we will follow Him by faith and obey Him, He will do great things through us. I recently wrote an article entitled “God Is not in Trouble.” In it I pointed out that just because things seem to moving away from Him, God is not anxious, because He knows that He is a majority. That being the case, we don’t have to worry about it either. I wish that people across America would be more responsive to the gospel, and I wish that unbelievers would stop worrying about where the Ten Commandments are posted. But the reality is that these negative things are happening, but it is still true that “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37) Verse 31 of Romans 8 tells us:“What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us who can be against us?” This goes for our personal problems as well. Whatever you might be going through at this time, God is not unaware of it, and He will take you through it, over it, under it or around it. You need to start seeing yourself as a conqueror, not because of you, but because of Jesus. You want go through anything that God will not go through with you. He has promised to never leave or forsake you, so take heart, have faith and, like Gideon, see what God can do. When you get to the end of what you are going through you will be the victor. The Lord wants us to take Him at His word and trust Him. He will take our humanity into account and humor us, like He did Gideon, but it would be better if we would just trust Him. The Bible is full of God's promises to us about using His power to aid us in serving Him. We quote Philippians 4:13 so confidently: "I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me." Do we really believe it or do we lay out the fleece? When I really think about it, I'm not quite as aggravated with Gideon and his fleece. But I can pray that I will have the faith and courage to serve the Lord in any endeavor He calls me to. You can pray the same prayer. Bro. Joe “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.”
Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” That is true, but what is even truer is that you cannot ever fool God. He is omniscient (all-knowing). This is how Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking on different occasions. One that comes to mind is when He healed the man who was let down through the roof. He first forgave the man for his sins and the Pharisees wondered who He was to forgive sins. Jesus knew their thoughts and demonstrated His divine power for them. The point is that you cannot hide from God. David wrote that “thou knowest my foolishness.” When I read that this morning, I thought, man I am really in trouble. If God knows my foolishness, He knows a lot about me. (Don’t laugh it probably applies to you as well. lol) What is foolishness? According to The American Century Dictionary it is “lacking good sense or judgment, unwise.” This is why the Lord told us in Proverbs 3:5-7: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding." 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Since God knows so much about us, it is understandable that He knows all of our thoughts as well. There is one illustration I have occasionally shared with churches: “How would you like it if all of our thoughts were placed over our heads like thoughts and words in comic strips?” We would all know what everyone was thinking and I imagine that a lot of relationships would be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Then we would know a lot of what God already knows about us. That leads to a question: If we care that much about what other people think about our thoughts, why aren’t we as concerned that God knows our thoughts? I know that thoughts are not always easily controlled, but I think that it will make a difference in how and what we think if we are aware that God knows our every thought. When we consider that the old “maxim” is really true that “the thought is the father of the deed,” we should be careful about what we think. That being true, we should be careful about what we allow our eyes to see, for what we see is most often what we think about. David also wrote: “and my sins are not hid from thee.” This means that God not only knows what we think but what we do as well. There is nothing that we ever do that God does not see. When my sister-in-law Carolyn was a youngster, she told people at school that her mama had eyes in the back of her head. I used to think the same thing about my mama as well. God doesn’t have eyes in the back of His head; rather, He has all-seeing eyes. All of the things that we ever think that we have done in secret were not secrets to God. That is a sobering thought isn’t it? As the old saying goes: “You can run but you can’t hide.” I don’t know at what point in David’s life this psalm was written, but when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, he found out that this is really true. Even if David could have hidden what he did from the people and the prophet Nathan, he still would not have gotten away with it, for God already knew it. Maybe what I have written has you a little, or maybe more than a little, depressed. Take heart. God knows our every thought and our every deed, but He loves us anyway. That is the good news of the Bible. We are sinners who sometimes think bad thoughts and do bad things, but He loves us anyway. Understand that God is not always pleased with us, and because of His love for us will discipline us, but He will also forgive and clean the whole slate. That’s why I’m glad that: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Bro. Joe “What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? 13. Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. 14. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”
The way I see this text is that David knew the secret of a good life. I realize that there are other elements of a good life, but those mentioned in Psalm 34:13-14 can suffice to give one the elusive good life. Too many people seek the good life in things, money and even fame. As David points out here, the good life comes from within and does not depend on what we have but it depends on who and what we are at the core of our being. First, he writes to “keep your tongue from evil.” I know that we think that this means that we merely stop “cussing.” It certainly helps when we clean up our language, but that is not all that this means. I think that it means we need to keep our tongues from speaking evil about other people. This is a pervasive sin in the entire world, and, incidentally, in the church as well. We can have a good life if we will refrain from speaking evil about other people. Second, he writes “and your lips from speaking guile.” What this actually means is to tell the truth instead of lying. We can start on the good life here, if we tell the truth to ourselves about ourselves. We have a tendency to excuse ourselves from things that would be awful if others did them. (Come on, you know what I’m referring to here.) The Bible tells us to speak the truth in love. If anything should be expected of a follower of Jesus Christ, it is that he or she is truthful, and that it is not impossible for him or her to speak the truth with love. We can have a good life if we will be truthful with ourselves and with others. Third, he writes “depart from evil and do good.” The word “depart” is closely akin to the word “repent.” We can’t have good lives if we do not repent of the evil in our lives. The Bible does not quibble on this subject, for it tells us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We need to repent of evil in ourselves, but we also need to repent of the evil that we might have done to others. And when we have repented of these things, then we should turn around and do good. It is not enough to just repent; we need to replace evil with good. If we want good lives, we need to change our ways, particularly in our relationships with people, and do good. I think that all of us need to take stock of changes that need to be made in our lives, and until we do, we will not have good lives. Fourth, he writes “seek peace and pursue it.” The first thing that we must do is to seek peace within ourselves. We do that by making things right with God. We will not have peace with other people until we have peace within ourselves. We will not have peace within ourselves until we have made peace with God. Notice that we are advised to seek peace. Don’t expect to have peace without seeking it from the only One who can give it. But we are also reminded that we need to really get serious about it and pursue it. We pursue all of the good things that we want in our lives, and this should certainly be true about peace with God, within ourselves and with other people. I know that you want a good life, or as David wrote, “see good days.” You have just discovered the secret of a good life in these two verses from Psalm 34. Read the text and internalize it, and you will find yourself having a better life, indeed, a good life.” Bro. Joe “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 14. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
From what we see in our text, David had learned the value of waiting on the Lord. Two things to note: (1) we might as well wait on Him, because He acts in our lives according to His timing. (2) He is doing great things for us while we wait on Him. We think that our greatest need is what we are asking for at the time, but God, who knows our real needs, is at work doing the real things while we wait. We are reminded here to “be of good courage.” The HCSB translation of this is: “be strong and courageous.” What we are dealing with are our own attitudes in our approach to God and to life. It is God who will give us the strength and courage that we need to meet all of the things that we have to face in this life. God will certainly help us, but He wants us to “man up” (or “woman up”) and face life, and all that it brings, with His strength and courage. This enables us to have the wherewithal to wait on the Lord. While we wait in strength and courage, God is at work meeting the needs of our lives. I guess one of our greatest needs is in the area of human relationships. I am referring to that person at work, at school, at church, wherever, that bugs you and that you are having a difficult time loving, liking, or even tolerating. You know his or her name. You have prayed for them, but they still bug you. Well, you should know that God is at work in their lives and He is at work in your life while you wait. What God is doing is getting both yours and the others heart ready to have a better relationship. Keep praying, stay strong and courageous, and it will work out somehow. I’m guessing that you have a “pet sin” that just keeps popping up its ugly head in your life. You have asked God to get rid of that sin in your life. But somehow it just seems to be keeping on. While you are waiting, God is at work in your life giving you the strength to stop whatever it is. That we continue with the problem is not God’s fault, but we need to know that while we are waiting, and dealing with the guilt, He is doing a work in our hearts that will help us conquer the “pet sin.” While we were waiting, God was giving us greater strength and courage. If you are like me, you have things that you worry about and that you are having a difficult time overcoming. It just seems to pop up and rob you of the peace that you should have in Jesus. Believe me I know what that feels like. I was worrying about a particular problem recently, and it was really bugging me. In the midst of it God said to my heart: “Trust Me.” It wasn’t an audible voice, but it was just as real as if it was. While I was waiting for God to help me overcome that worry, He was at work in my life, teaching me to just give the worry to Him and let Him handle it. While I was waiting, I discovered that God could really handle it. He told me that it would be alright– and it was. What was worrying me stopped bugging me, and while I was waiting, God made it alright. The important thing for us to remember is that God makes us wait in order for Him to do a work in our lives. He is not just working on the problem that we have presented to Him; rather, He is working on our lives, growing us in our faith, helping us meet all of the exigencies of our lives. While we are waiting, God is at work making us better people and stronger believers. Just thank God that He is making you wait so that you can grow in Him. That is, after all, what He is doing. Take David’s word for it here and “wait on the Lord. Wait I say on the Lord.” Bro. Joe "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to Christ."
Paul wrote that Christ "hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" in verse 18, and in verse 19 he wrote "...and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation." We who have been reconciled have been given the ministry of helping other people be reconciled to Christ. Because of this ministry we have become "ambassadors for Christ." As ambassadors we have been sent on a mission to tell others about Christ. What does an ambassador do? Let's begin with what he does not do. He does not go to another country and do his own thing, or tend to his own business. He does whatever the leader of his country tells him to do. Therefore, as "ambassadors for Christ," we are to do as Christ tells us to do. For example, there are people who have been called to be "ambassadors for Christ" in faraway countries. They raise their children in that country, and many of them spend their days until retirement in that country. That is one example. Another example is people like most of us who are not called to be ambassadors in faraway countries, but are called to be ambassadors, or witnesses, where we are. We are to do what Christ tells us to do right here where we are. We sometimes have the idea that because we are not called to go to another country, we do not have to be ambassadors. The Bible says "go ye." "Go ye" means all Christians. We are all ambassadors, or missionaries, for Christ. This is as true where you live as it is in China. We need to remember that it is an honor to be appointed an ambassador. Our country does not send people to other countries as ambassadors unless they are smart, tactful and able to get along with other people. An ambassador also has to have some knowledge of the country to which they are assigned. In order to do this, I imagine that they have to study and learn about the country to which they are going. It is a privilege to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God. We should take our ambassadorship seriously and learn and do all that we need to do to be the best ambassadors that we can be. Let's determine that in this crazy world in which we live, we will be Christ's ambassadors. Bro. Joe |
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