Grains of Sand

Pixabay So many of the psalms are cries for help.  That, in itself, should tell us something. God doesn't mind cries for help. And David was usually not shy about admitting his needs. God knows we can't.... Feel free to fill in the blanks with whatever it is that you can't do, or be, or feel. I'm not sure if David composed Psalm 143 as a bedtime prayer. I imagine it that way because of verse 8: " Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love. " As he pours out his grief to God, not knowing what the next day may entail, he admits his need for mercy, for relief, for forgiveness, for protection, for encouragement, for a touch from the Lord Himself (vss. 1-6). His desperation requires an immediate answer: " Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit faints with longing. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. " This i...

juicylight.com (Google Images) Yesterday I had the opportunity to share some of the “God-things” that have happened to me in my life's journey to this point. The memories are still capable of bringing tears to my own eyes as I remember the faithfulness of God in completing the work His has started in me (Philippians 1:6) in spite of the twists and turns in life that, at the time, I was unable to understand. So when I read Psalm 1 this morning I was especially impacted by the last verse: “ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous ” (Psalm 1:6, NIV). The Scripture refers to this “watching” or  “knowing” in many places. Job 23:10: “ But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold ” (NIV) Psalm 31:7, 8: “ I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place ” (ESV). Psa...

It was a solemn vow, a contract between two parties. It was much more than a business arrangement, a convenience for the mutual benefit of both. And it is interesting to note that on God's part it was a "love, honour and cherish" commitment but expressed as though the other party would need to learn to love, honour and cherish as the relationship developed. Here is what Moses said as he finished his message to the Israelites. " You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised " (Deuteronomy 26:17-19, NIV). The sense of the pass...

They had nothing to work with and couldn’t keep up with the demand. When they complained their overseers accused them of being lazy. If they had enough time to ask for time off to worship, then obviously they didn’t have enough to do! That’s the scene in Exodus 5 as Moses meets with Pharaoh and asks that the Hebrews be allowed to leave Egypt to go and worship their God. Poor Moses got it from both sides: The Pharaoh complained that he was keeping the slaves from their work, and the Hebrews complained that Moses’ interference was making their lives a whole lot harder. And Moses complained to God: “ Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all’ ” (Exodus 5:22, 23, NIV). Have you ever noticed that sometimes, even when you are being obedient to God’s command, things don’t wor...

I’m not sure what difference it makes but often people will ask if we want the good news first, or the bad news. Either way we have to deal with both so does it really matter which one comes first? In Genesis 18, three strangers arrived at Abraham’s door (or tent flap, in his case). “ Abram ” (father) had become “ Abraham ” (father of many) at God’s command, indicating the number of descendants that he would have. “ Sarai ” (princess) had become “ Sarah ” (noblewoman). But despite the name changes, Abraham still had not had a son by Sarah, as God had promised. When the three visitors arrived, Abraham greeted them with great deference. He perceived that they were divine messengers. In fact, one of them is referred to as “ the Lord ” (18:10). As was the custom, Sarah was not present during the men’s conversation over dinner, but like many of her kind, she was eavesdropping behind the closed tent flap. The good news? The Lord promised that within a year Sarah would produce the lon...

“ Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness ” —Lamentations 3:22, NIV. Strange words from a man observing the destruction of everything that his society held dear. The name of the book, Lamentations, tells us the story in one word. This is Jeremiah’s lament over the devastation of a nation. Still, hope peeks out from behind the curtain of despair. Hope comes clothed in what the prophet knows of the character of God. “ I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…for men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men ” (3:24-26, 31-33). Jeremiah knows that God is good. He underst...

“ As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him ” —2 Samuel 22:31, NIV. This gem comes in the midst of many more. David is singing praises to God, recounting how God has brought him through so many difficult places during his years of exile being pursued by Saul, and then throughout his years as king. It took a long time for David to finally see the fulfillment of the promise that Samuel made to him when this servant anointed him as king. He was only a boy then, and he would go through some terrifying times before he finally ascended to the throne of Israel. Being king wasn’t always easy either. But as a boy, then as a young man, then as a mature man, David would have wondered in all his dark moments whether or not God was going to make good on his promise. As he sings this song of praise, he remembers those awful times as he rejoices in how God delivered him from them. Without a doubt, we repeat David’s story ...

“ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? ” —Numbers 23:19, NIV The story behind this statement comes courtesy of a somewhat wayward sorcerer by the name of Balaam. Balaam was asked by the King of Moab to curse Israel so that the Moabites could defeat them in battle. Balaam had already had a rather scary encounter with one of God’s angels when he tried to accommodate Israel’s enemies, so this time Balaam got it right. In verse 20 he explains to King Balak that God told him to bless Israel because that was his will and all Balaam could do was bless Israel. God’s purposes for his people were always benevolent ones even in their dark days of sin and the subsequent punishments that were necessary to get them back on track. Yesterday I had a mini-meltdown. It happens once in a while, especially when I am feeling overwhelmed or thwarted in my plans. Those are times when it ...

“ See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared ” —Exodus 23:20, NIV I wonder if Moses ever got writer’s cramp? We often think of the Ten Commandments as only, well, ten. In fact, there followed the giving of the basic ten a whole waft of others along with instructions for every detail of building the Tabernacle. And in the middle of taking note of the myriad of instructions about the laws that were to govern the new nation of Israel comes this wonderful promise. Perhaps this was the point at which Moses was thinking, as he rubbed his sore fingers: “How on earth am I ever going to do all this stuff?” The weight of responsibility for the physical and moral well-being of a couple of million people tracking through the desert was not a light burden. Moses had seen God’s provision in the past. But like all of us, each fresh challenge seems to require a fresh assurance that the God who looked after business yesterday...

“ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still ” —Exodus 14:14, NIV The Israelites have left Egypt. Behind them is a country devastated as a consequence of the plagues that God has sent to “encourage” Pharaoh to let his people leave in peace and to display his glory. They also leave behind mourning mothers and shocked fathers holding their firstborn in their arms. That last plague was the most terrible of all. But Pharaoh is still determined to bring back his slaves and pursues God’s people, catching them with their backs to the Red Sea and nowhere to hide. Exodus 14:14 are Moses’ words to a terrified people. They, too, have forgotten all that they saw God do on their behalf in Egypt just a short time earlier. How easy it is to forget. I promised myself that in this new year I would stop worrying about a particular “thorn in the flesh” and the first thing I did this morning was start “entertaining” that concern once again. So these words from Moses are particularly r...

Today's journey through Scripture took me to one of my favourite passages in 2 Chronicles 20. Let me summarize for you. Jehoshaphat (one of the good guys) is faced with a big problem. An army is headed toward Jerusalem with unfriendly intentions. The king calls for people to fast and seek the Lord. Excellent move. Jehoshaphat personally leads the inquiries and in a beautiful prayer acknowledges the supremacy of God over everything, including Israel's enemies. He then throws himself, and his people, on the mercy of the God to whom they have committed themselves no matter what happens, as he says: " If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us…For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you " (20:9, 12, NIV). In the history ...

I can hardly read the printed words for all the scribbles and notes I've written alongside Isaiah 40. The bulk of the chapter is a huge praise-fest, exalting God and all that He is to His people. Then I got to the end of the chapter and was reminded again how all the power, love, compassion and glory of God works for me in practical reality. Boy, did I need to hear the promise once more! Do you not know? (Yes, I do, but my memory is terribly short sometimes.) Have you not heard? (Yes, but please tell me again, and again, and again, and…) The Lord is the everlasting God,      the Creator of the ends of the earth. (Right down to that last and littlest end—me) He will not grow tired or weary ,      and his understanding no one can fathom (I'm so glad you understand how I feel, Lord) He gives strength to the weary      and increases the power of the weak. (That's me and thank you) Even youths grow tired and weary ...

Psalm 76-78 The theme for last night's session at our study was angels, how they worship and how their worship impacts us. Angels worship day and night, and it's easy for us to say: "Sure, they're angels and don't have to deal with the mess that my life is in right now. How can I be expected to praise God under these circumstances?" I quoted Psalm 34:1 where David says: " I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. " Considering that David was on the run from Saul, keeping company with the dregs of society, in the foreign land where the king also wanted to be rid of him, having to pretend he was insane to escape death, etc. etc., I'd say his attitude of continual praise was pretty significant. Well, we might say, David was a special case. I'm not him either. This morning I read through Psalm 77. This is one of Asaph's psalms and I was impressed by his solution to the: "how-can-I-praise-God-when lif...

Psalm 13-15 I have to admire the man. His brothers held him in contempt as an upstart and thrill-seeker. His father-in-law tried his best to kill him. He was pursued by enemies inside his own household and outside as well. He slept in caves, accompanied by everyone no one else had any use for. Even when he rose to the highest post in the land his family was in shambles and his wife and kids turned against him, adding a few more to the number of his enemies. He mourned the loss of several children and had to watch his back in his dealings with his most trusted advisers. So when we read the following words we aren't surprised: " 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? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him,...

Numbers 21-24 They got impatient and started to complain that God wasn't keeping up with their needs. “ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died ” —Numbers 21:6. The punishment seems a mite excessive until we remember that this was only one of the countless number of times Israel rebelled against God. Like little kids, sometimes reasoning doesn’t work and you have to “apply the board of education to the seat of learning” as my mother used to say. This event was the backdrop for the beautiful illustration of what Christ would do one day many years later. As Moses raised the bronze serpent and Israel was instructed to look at it if they wanted to be saved, so those who look to Christ can also be saved. God had his ways of dealing with Israel, but that didn't mean he was willing to allow other people to deal with them in any way they chose. Take Balak, for example. He called on a prophet, Balaam, to put a curse on Israel. The conv...

Exodus 18-20 “ Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them ” —Exodus 18:8. If anyone has worked through the series of studies called “Experiencing God” he might remember the section on signposts. The author reminds us of the importance of looking back on how God has worked as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and how God uses even the most impossible circumstances to bring glory to his name and to fulfill his purposes in the lives of his children. Moses shared with Jethro the story of Egypt—the impossible made possible because that’s how God wanted it to be. “ Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. Brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron come with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of the Lord ” —Exodus 18:12. The result was worship. And the worship was shared not just wi...

Job 21-24 Job’s friends have told him that the evil he is suffering has come on account of his own wickedness. He proceeds to refute that by reminding them that there are plenty of wicked men who prosper and never suffer, not even once, during their lifetimes. So absence of prosperity, good health, or whatever, is not necessarily a sign of God’s judgment. The presence of these things is not a sign of his pleasure either. That argument doesn’t seem to impress Eliphaz: “ Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you? Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless ” —Job 22:4, 5. He then goes on to list all the nasty things Job has done. Since we have already been told that Job was a righteous man (1:8), we can only imagine that Eliphaz is “talking through his hat” as my father used to say. He is in error when he assumes: “ Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his wo...

Genesis 12-15 Abram continued the journey his father had started. God called him to leave the comfort of Haran to go to Canaan. He knew his destination but he knew nothing about the place to which God had called him. But he went. We have in these chapters a picture of a man in constant motion—not just the motion of moving, but in the struggles of adjusting. The Canaanites were in the land and without a doubt were not pleased to have their space invaded. Sounds like our reaction to immigrants, doesn’t it? Sometimes those adjustments weren’t well done. Abram adjusted to his fears of having the Pharaoh make him disappear because of his beautiful wife by lying about who she was. Even our heroes of the faith have clay feet from time to time. Abram had to deal with fractious relatives. Sometime close family ties are better preserved from a distance. Unhappily Lot chose the wrong place to pitch his tent and ended up being kidnapped. That situation turned his uncle into a military leader as h...

There are times when God doesn't seem to be moving very quickly. There are other times when it seems we have to run very fast to keep up with Him. I have my "hurry up, please" list and my "slow down, please" list. Some day soon I'll give you all the details of the items that are currently on both of those lists. Right now, this "work in progress" is not quite ready to be revealed. Is there a verse of Scripture that covers both of these variables? Hang on, I'm looking! Aha, here there are in Psalm 37. The key word in verse 3 is " trust " followed by " delight " in verse 4 and " commit " in verse 5. All these actions are directed to God. Any success we anticipate in the business of crawling or running with God is found in our attitude toward Him. Trusting Him, delighting in Him and committing ourselves to Him daily, are essential to that process. Then comes what is specific to crawling with God. " Be still befor...

" Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. '" —Hebrews 13:5. In the present economic crisis, thinking about money is the stuff of everyday living. It's a good thing the Scriptures don't tell us not to think about money; we'd be hard pressed to manage an instruction like that. This particular verse from Hebrews reminds us not to love money for money's sake. In other passages, like that of Matthew 6, we are told not to be anxious about the supply of our most basic needs. Instead, we are to put God first and watch Him take care of all of our necessities. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us to not be anxious, AND to be content. But it's the last statement that struck me this morning as I read it. Not being greedy and being content with what we have is based on something other than the "power of positive thinking". " …God has sa...