Tag Psalms

Does God Like Us?

Todd R 1 Comment

Loving someone and liking someone are not the same thing.  Christians think and talk often about the love of God and how He loves His people.  Love is about sacrificing our own interests for the best interest of another, and the incarnation and the cross show what love is in a way nothing else can.  When we think of God’s attributes, love is often near the top of the list.  God loves His people.

But does God like His people?

If I like someone it means I enjoy being with them.  Their presence and fellowship make me feel good.  I think they’re a worthwhile person and it’s easy to give them my time and attention.  I don’t get tired of them easily and need some time away.  Christians don’t talk about whether God likes them as much as they talk about God’s love.  Sometimes we may instead feel that He just puts up with us.  He doesn’t actually like us, even if His love for us is infinite.  Maybe we even feel He wants to keep us at a distance because He resents all the times we’ve failed Him.  But this isn’t how we should feel.

Consider Psalm 149:4, which says:

“For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
            he adorns the humble with salvation.”

This verse says that God “takes pleasure” in us.  He wants to be with us, and He wants to see us succeed.  He gets pleasure from our praise and our enjoyment of Him.  It also says He gives His people “salvation.”  Salvation means many things, but it includes the restoration of the saved person’s relationship with God.  The restoration of a relationship He wants to have and was willing to die for!  If He didn’t want us around – if He didn’t like us – He wouldn’t offer us salvation.

Consider also Zephaniah 3:17, which continues the idea:

“The LORD your God is in your midst,
            a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
            he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.”

In context, this verse seems to be pointing to either: the condition of God’s people post-exile, after the coming of Jesus, or in eternity in heaven.  My interpretation is that Zephaniah was talking about something that will be partially realized after Jesus’ first coming and fully realized after His second.  It’s one of those “now, not yet” ideas.  So, what is he saying?  He is saying that God is with us and that He will save us, but there’s more.  The second half of the verse sounds like God is celebrating the people that He has saved.  He “will rejoice” and He “will exult” with “loud singing.”  Have you ever pictured God as singing because He has so much joy?  That seems to be what Zephaniah is describing!  When God saves His people, they bring Him so much joy that He sings!

One last verse to consider is Ephesians 2:10, which says:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

I quote this verse a lot, but today’s focus is on the word “workmanship.”  This word is a translation of the Greek “poiema” from which we derive our English word poem.  In sanctifying us – steadily in this world, and perfectly in the next – God is making something out of us.  He is not making something useless or ugly, but something poetic, and He is pouring all He is into it, like an artist would into a piece of art.  We aren’t a dispassionate work, but a passionate one.  One He cares deeply about.  One that He wants to get right.  To get perfect.  God is not indiscriminately cranking out widgets that are indistinguishable from one another.  Each creation of His is a poem, a work of art!  As Veggie Tales used to say: “God made you special, and He loves you very much.”  We are each an individual “poiema” that He takes pleasure in having created and in continuing to create.

So, not only does God love us, but He also likes us!  He doesn’t just tolerate us until we become perfect, and He doesn’t wait to fully love us until we think we deserve it.  Instead, He wants to be by our side every step of the way from our current, imperfect selves until the day He completes His work in us.  And He enjoys it!  He “takes pleasure in His people,” now and forever.

Do you believe this?  Do you feel not only loved, but liked, by God?  If not, consider again these verses and ask God to comfort you in the fact that He wants to be with you, at all times and no matter what.  He will “rejoice over you with gladness” and “exult over you with loud singing.”  We are His beloved work of art.  His “poiema.”

Amen!

Only God Has Tamed the Tongue

Todd R Leave a comment

In many Psalms, the authors complain about the evils in the world and compare them with God and His perfect attributes.  Psalm 12 is one of these, and begins with David lamenting the ungodliness he sees in the world in the first verse:

“Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
            for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.”

What is David so upset about?  James 3:7-8 tells us: “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”  David is upset by people’s inability to “tame the tongue,” which he describes in verses 2 through 4:

“Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
            with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
            the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, ‘With our tongue we will prevail,
            our lips are with us; who is master over us?’”

David says the words of the unfaithful are lies, flattering, duplicitous, boasting, proud, and rebellious.  These adjectives also describe much of what we see and hear today, and if we’re honest, much of what we say.  How often do we say things just because they came to mind?  And if they are bad things, but we get away with it or get something we want from it, are we emboldened to continue?  After all, “no human being can tame the tongue.”

There is One, however, who has tamed the tongue.  David contrasts His words with ours in verses 6 and 7:

“The words of the LORD are pure words,
            like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
            purified seven times.
You, O LORD, will keep them;
            you will guard us from this generation forever.”

These words are pure, refined, purified, kept, and preserved.  The number seven in the Bible is often used to indicate perfection, so if His words are “purified seven times”, they are perfectly considered and constructed before they are delivered to us.  God keeps all His promises, and His word never expires.

Even when the world is full of people who speak ungodly words, the Lord’s words are pure and can be trusted. Because of this we know He will “guard us from this generation forever.”  Someday our words will be like His words.

Amen

Beware the Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Todd R 1 Comment

Regular readers will know that I am a fan of Douglas Adams’ science fiction comedy novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Adams makes a comic art form of extreme absurdity, and one such creation is the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.  In the book, intergalactic hitchhikers are urged to always travel with a towel, and among the reasons is that a towel is handy to wrap around your head to “avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you)”[1]  By simply covering your eyes, you can escape being devoured by this Beast, one of the least intelligent creatures in existence.

I thought of this Beast when reading Psalm 50:17, which says: “For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.”  Why cast words behind us?  So we can’t see them, and if we can’t see them, we think we can safely ignore them.  Perhaps God will leave us alone, as if He does not exist.  But the verse is a warning not to be like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.  God can’t be swept under a rug and ignored.

There is an episode in the book of Ezekiel that would be comical if it weren’t so tragically similar to this Beast.  Ezekiel’s many images, object lessons, and visions are designed to stir God’s people from complacency and turn back to Him.  To fully convince Ezekiel that the nation was casting God’s word behind them, Ezekiel was taken in a vision inside the temple in Jerusalem, and this is what he saw:

“So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.  And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.  Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” – Ezekiel 8:10-12

Ezekiel was a prophet to Jews already exiled to Babylon, but Jerusalem itself had not yet fallen, and many Jews thought it was impossible.  But inside the temple, the very place symbolizing God’s presence and glorious light, the elders of Israel were worshipping Egyptian-style animal deities and using incense to ward off evil spirits.  They sinned, while saying God couldn’t see them because they don’t see evidence of Him in their circumstances: “the LORD has forsaken the land.”  How like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal!

Later, in Ezekiel 9:9, the prophet records:“Then [God] said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’”

Can this dry land live again? Photo by Tobias Jelskov on Unsplash

Sometimes by casting His words behind us, we may think we are forsaken.  We interpret His word in light of our circumstances, instead of interpreting our circumstances in light of His word.  It is when the church acts like God doesn’t see that we should be fearful.  When the church claims Jesus as Savior but not as Lord.  When the church trusts in worldly power, not God’s power.  When the church struggles to see how their very Maker and King is, as they say, “relevant.” 

In Ezekiel chapter 10, the glory of Lord departs the Jerusalem temple entirely, and all of Judah was exiled, but Ezekiel’s message wasn’t finished.  He also proclaims hope, most dramatically in chapter 37, the “Valley of Dry Bones” vision.  Ezekiel sees dry bones scattered everywhere across a valley, symbolizing how spiritually dead God’s own people appear.  The vision is a test for Ezekiel: would he look at the valley and assume, based on the immediate circumstances, that “The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see”?  In verse 3, he writes: “And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”  Ezekiel doesn’t jump to conclusions but trusts that God knows best: “And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’”  Symbolizing new life in Christ, even from death, God re-assembles the dry bones, adds sinew and flesh and skin, then breathes life into them, “and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”[2]

In the Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel learned that God does see our dire situation, and He has a plan, even if we choose to look the other way.  This plan is infinitely and eternally more “relevant” than any present (and temporary) circumstances.

In the New Testament the plan continues with an Ebenezer[3] moment, as the apostle Paul wrote: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

[1] Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  (1980).
[2] Ezekiel 37:10b
[3] Ebenezer, the ‘But God…’ Squirrel, is the blog’s mascot and a reminder that, no matter the situation, God can overcome it, and the words “But God…” in the Bible are often moments where that happens.

The Snares of Death

Todd R 2 Comments

Sometimes a particular Psalm, or part of a Psalm can be hard to identify with.  Often the writers were going through circumstances unlike anything we have faced or ever will face.  The author of Psalm 116 mentions such a situation in verse 3.  Here are the first 4 verses:

“I love the LORD, because he has heard
            my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
            therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
            the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
            I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD:
            “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!””

Have you ever felt like this: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me”?  The Reformation Study Bible notes on this that “It was as if ropes came out of a grave, pulling the psalmist into the ground.”  Has death ever felt this imminent?  I can imagine someone who has experienced war or terminal disease can relate to this, but many of us can’t fully understand it.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

But even if we have never felt this way, there’s an important part of the image for all of us: evil is not passive.  The “snares of death” do things.  They come after us.  There are forces of evil that actively seek to derail us from following Jesus.  If we’re not actively fighting these forces, we will lose ground.  These battles may take place within ourselves, as we war against the flesh, or the battles may be with external influences in the world around us.

My pastor once referenced a similar idea when during a sermon he said: “the culture is trying to kill you.”  When Proverbs 16:25 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death,” it suggests that most people believe things that they think are fine, but that actually lead to death.  And when most people in a group believe something, it becomes part of the culture.  Every culture endorses thoughts and actions that should be condemned by Christians, because they aren’t putting us on the path of life, but on the path to death.

But there’s more to it.  Part of American culture that’s trying to kill us is the part that tells us we’re in a war against other people, instead of in a war against sin.  Many aspects of our culture assume that we should love people who are like us and hate people who aren’t.  Maybe we hate those who have a different ethnic background, religion/denomination, or a different political party.  Maybe they have a different economic status, color of their skin, or sexual orientation.  Sometimes all it takes is that someone likes a different sports team.  This hate is a “way that seems right to a man.”  Should we war against the culture, or against sin?  Are those different goals?

In the book of Joshua (1:7b) we are told about the law of God: “Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”  Why point out the left and the right?  I believe this is like Scylla and Charybdis from Greek mythology.  Scylla and Charybdis were two very dangerous monsters that lurked on either side of a narrow water passage.  Therefore, if you drifted too far left you were killed by one of them, if you drifted too far right, you’d be killed by the other.  And also, trying too hard to avoid one would inevitably put you in the path of the other one.

Sometimes in life we end up too far from the correct path because we define our path as being against the other path.  We go right because we are avoiding going left, and vice versa.  We define ourselves by what we are against rather than by what we are for and end up hating the other side.  And then, either Scylla or Charybdis have devoured us!  The “snares of death” and the “pangs of Sheol” are upon us and we might not even know it.

How to avoid this path?  By defining right behavior and attitudes by Christ’s standard, which includes commands to love our enemies.  Once we think someone is our enemy, we need to reject the instinct to hate them and accept Christ’s grace which enables us to love them.  We define the Christian life by what it is for, not by what it is against.  We love God and love our neighbor, regardless of who they are.  To do otherwise may put us on “the way to death,” where “the snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me.”

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

The God Who Puts Food on the Table

Todd R 4 Comments

There are many reasons to praise God, many ways that He blesses us.  One of these is given in Psalm 111:5, and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted:

“He provides food for those who fear him;
            he remembers his covenant forever.”

While this may be a reference specifically to God providing manna and quail to the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness, it applies more broadly to any food provided to anyone at any time.  Therefore, we should praise Him whenever we have something to eat.

But He doesn’t just deliver food from the grocery store to us.  He provides everything required for food to exist in the first place.  He designed everything involved in the growth of what we eat.  Sunlight, rain, soil conditions and nutrients, all have a role in the growth of fruits and vegetables.  All of these roles act the way they need to be by design.  Food doesn’t exist by chance and is not an accident of a blind nature.

Then add what’s needed to produce the meat we may eat.  First, those plants need to contain what animals need to eat and grow.  The animals need to be able to not only digest those things, but then to turn them into something edible for us.  Again, all ordained by God, the intelligent creator of our universe, who “provides food for those who fear him.”

Also, He is not only a God who designs and provides, but a God of mercy, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”[1]  He provides food even for those who do not praise Him and give thanks to Him, so they might come to know Him by His mercy towards them.

Those who fear God, praise and thank Him for the food He provides, the complexity of the world He designed, and His mercy toward all His people.  But also, to reflect His character, provide food for those in need, showing them the mercy and love of the God who puts food on our tables.

“He provides food for those who fear him;
            he remembers his covenant forever“

[1] Matthew 5:45b