Psalm

Still Creating

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When I read the creation account in the first couple of chapters of the first book of the Bible, I marvel at the amazing creativity, wisdom and power of our God. In such a short period of time, he made everything we will ever know this side of heaven. The complexity of our world speaks to the intricate care that God used when creating our existence. From the vastness of our universe to the smallest forms of microbial life, his majesty can be seen. Typically, I stop at the creation account, forgetting that God has been, and is continually in the business of creating life. David puts it this way in Psalms, chapter 139, verses 13 through 16, which says: 

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”

Every child, every budding plant, and every newborn animal reflects the continuing creation power of our God. He may have set the laws of nature in place to allow such creation to self-propagate while he sits on high watching his plan for life unfold, but I like to think that he is intimately involved in the process of creating each one of us. Like David, I like to imagine his care and attention to detail applied with every freckle, every head of hair, and every cell in our body. There is Biblical evidence to support that notion, and this portion of scripture is one such area. So I encourage you not to limit the awe of God’s creation to the initial creation account. Marvel at his continued hand in the creation of everything around us, including you, your children and your grandchildren. 

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Every believer will agree that the hand of God is powerful and awesome. He created the laws of nature and physics, time and space, and every biological creature that exists. I encourage you to recognize his hand in the creation process, because he is the only one qualified to manage it. Many in our world do not agree with that statement, which is why I believe mankind needs to repent. We have become wise in our own eyes. Many scientists deny God’s existence while at the same time attempt to take on the role of God. Genetically designed babies, abortion, and euthanasia attempt to usurp the plan of God. There is a story early in the Bible where mankind tried to be like God in the Garden of Eden. We should never forget how that turned out. God is God, and we are not. I hope that you will join me in praying that our world will come to realize that as well.

How Long?

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We live in a time where we can find answers to our questions almost immediately with a simple click of a button or a voice command to a digital assistant. Businesses have 24/7 online support where we can call or text for immediate one-on-one assistance. We can even order coffee before leaving our house and pick it up on the way to work without waiting in line. We’ve become a culture that isn’t accustomed to waiting for anything. When we have a question, we want answers right away. When we face problems, we want a solution immediately. But when our problems become bigger than ourselves; when we face something that Google or Siri can’t fix, our self-entitlement is immediately stripped away, and we are grounded with the reality that we are at the mercy of God. If you read the Psalms, you’ll see that David found himself in that place quite often. He found himself in need of an answer; in need of deliverance immediately, but was powerless to do anything in his strength. In Psalms, chapter 13, verses 1 and 2, he writes: 

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

As I read those verses, I imagine David lamenting not for hours or even days. I imagine weeks or maybe even months of emotional and psychological distress. I can almost feel the depression in his heart growing after crying out to God for days on end without deliverance. I don’t doubt David’s faith in believing that God hears his prayers and will come to his aid eventually. But without knowing when, all David could do was wait and cry out to the Lord. Have you ever been in that place? Has something ever overtaken you that was much bigger than yourself, requiring you to depend solely on the deliverance of the Lord? If you have, you might be able to relate to David. You might have wrestled with your thoughts and have felt sorrow in your heart. You may have questioned whether God would ever deliver you from your situation. If you find yourself in that place now, I encourage you to do what David did. Continue to cry out to him. Keep crying out to him until he answers your prayer. Have faith that he will, and stand firm. 

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I remember watching an insulin commercial where professional musician, B.B. King, says, “I don’t like to wait”. Well, that is something he and I have in common. I suspect everyone has that in common with B.B. King. No one likes to wait. But there are times when we must. The key is to not lose heart. The key is to have faith and to persevere. No one likes to wait, just like no one likes to feel pain. But it rains on everyone; the just and the unjust alike. During those times, believers know that God is the answer. He is good and he has our best interest at heart. We are in his hands. Hopefully, we will be able to get beyond what David wrote. Hopefully, we will learn not to wrestle with our thoughts or allow sorrow to overtake us. Hopefully, we will surrender the outcome to the Lord and trust him.

Revere Him

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For many of us, our days can become quite repetitious. One day can blend into another, and time can get away from us. Our lives can become one long to-do-list as we focus on the tasks of the day, but forget about the Lord of our life. I want to challenge and encourage you with the words David wrote in one of his psalms. He wrote this to encourage the Israelites to keep their attention on God, but it applies to us gentiles as well. In Psalm, chapter 22, verse 23, it says: 

“You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!”

Fear him, praise him, honor him and revere him. We need to remember God by making him central in our life. That means involving him in every area of our life. We need to reverently fear him, remembering that he is not only our friend, but he is also our master. He is God, and he has the power to destroy both our body and our soul. We must also praise him, not only for who he is, but also for what he has done. We should not be like the nine leapers who were healed and did not come back to praise Jesus. We should be like the one who came back and praised him for his deliverance. We need to honor him, understanding that we serve a Holy God, one who is almighty and whose name is higher than any other name; the God who says there is none besides him and who created us and everything we know. And we must always revere him. Our knee, as well as our hearts, should be forever bowed before him in awe and submission. Our days should never be absent of God. From when you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night, I hope that your thoughts are on the God of all creation and the savior of your soul.

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The worries and responsibilities of life make it easy for us to take our eyes off of the reason for life. God is that reason. Nothing matters without him. We are prone to take him for granted. We are prone to taking our eyes off of him. And if we aren’t careful, we are prone to wander away from him. One way to avoid these traps is to remind ourselves, every day, of our need for God by fearing him, praising him, honoring him and revering him. Let us reflect the heart of David; a man after God’s heart. Let us proactively fix our eyes, and our hearts, on God from when we wake to when we go to sleep. After all, the Bible commands us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. That is an all encompassing love.

Say Anything

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If you are fortunate enough to have someone who is so close to you that you can share anything with, even your deepest darkest secrets, desires, fears and troubles, then consider yourself blessed. I’ve seen relationships between friends, siblings, spouses and even a parent with their child where no subject of discussion is off the table; anything can be shared, lamented about or celebrated. It is wonderful to know that God encourages, and at times orchestrates, these types of relationships. But I believe that God can be, and should be, our closest confidant. He should be the primary person we share everything and anything with. David knew that as he reveals in Psalm 142, verses 1 and 2:

“I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.”

I’ve often considered how we must continue to remember that God is God and should be reverently feared and revered. I’ve said that we should approach him with humility and honor because he is holy, he is God, and he is the creator of everything we know. David learned this about God the hard way when Uzzah tried to steady the ark of the covenant with his hands and was killed right there on the spot because he neglected to revere the Lord, and his holiness. But David also knows that with God, we are able to share anything and everything. He knows everything about us anyway. The Bible tells us that he knows what we need before we even ask him. But there is something therapeutic about getting our thoughts and concerns off of our chest. God doesn’t mind. Jesus says that we are to come to him when we are weary and burdened. He says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. So I encourage you to remember to open your heart before God when you pray. Don’t hold anything back. Tell him anything and everything.

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When I imagine very close friends, I conjure an image in my mind of two close female friends spending hours talking about their overbearing parents, the girls who are giving them trouble at school, and the boys they wish would ask them out. They hold nothing back, and trust the other implicitly with every thought, every feeling and every secret. God can be that for all of us. David said, “I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.” God doesn’t only listen, he cares. And not only does he care, he can help us, guide us and protect us. So I encourage you to talk to him today and every day. He is always listening.

Cherish Sin

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Does Satan have a stronghold in your life where you find yourself battling a habitual sin that you can’t seem to shake? He might have beaten you down so badly with shame and addiction that you feel like you’ll never be free of it. Or, you may have grown so accustomed to your sin, that you’ve learned to justify it to a point that it doesn’t even prick your conscience anymore. If that is you; if Satan has his hooks in you but you’ve decided to accept that you’ll never be free, I challenge you not to give up. Set aside the shame, humble yourself, and continue to pray and believe that Jesus will set you free. Because the more you grow comfortable with your sin, the more you are distancing yourself from God. In Psalm chapter 66, verses 18 and 19, the psalmist shares these words:

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.”

You see, we can’t comfortably continue in our sin, and think that our prayers will be effective. If we cherish sin in our heart, this psalmist says that the Lord will not listen. There is support for this truth in other areas of the Bible as well, explaining that God may not hear the prayers of those who cherish sin in their hearts, but the prayers of the righteous will avail much. So I challenge you not to cherish, or love, the sin in your heart. Because if you do, the Lord will not listen to you, and your separation from God will grow. Do what the psalmist did. Allow the Spirit to clean your heart. Then God will surely listen and hear your voice in prayer.

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Our spiritual unfaithfulness has a greater effect on our relationship with God than we might think. When we are spiritually far from God, he is spiritually far from us. But once we repent; once we humble ourselves before the Lord with a broken spirit, he will forgive us, restore us, listen to us and “hear the voice of our prayer”, as the psalmist puts it. So I challenge you not to cherish sin in your heart. Learn to see sin as God sees it; as evil and a vice that separates you from him.