Psalm 27 – Fear? No Fear!

Light, space, zest— that’s God!

So, with him on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no one and nothing.

When vandal hordes ride down ready to eat me alive,

Those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces.

When besieged, I’m calm as a baby.

When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool.

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing:

To live with him in his house my whole life long.

I’ll contemplate his beauty;  I’ll study at his feet.

That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world,

The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic.

God holds me head and shoulders above all who try to pull me down.

I’m headed for his place to offer anthems that will raise the roof!

Already I’m singing God-songs; I’m making music to God.

Listen, God, I’m calling at the top of my lungs:

“Be good to me! Answer me!”

When my heart whispered, “Seek God,”

my whole being replied, “I’m seeking him!”

Don’t hide from me now! You’ve always been right there for me;

don’t turn your back on me now.

Don’t throw me out, don’t abandon me; you’ve always kept the door open.

My father and mother walked out and left me, but God took me in.

Point me down your highway, God; direct me along a well-lighted street;

show my enemies whose side you’re on.

Don’t throw me to the dogs, those liars who are out to get me,

filling the air with their threats.

I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness in the exuberant earth.

Stay with God!

Take heart. Don’t quit.

I’ll say it again:

Stay with God.

It is little wonder that “peace” is such an itergral part of the Gospel. Most men are in some way or another driven, controlled or held back by fear.

Fear of failure. Fear of inability. Fear of lack. Fear of abandonment. Fear of violence. Fear of the dark. Phobia abounds in men. Anxiety one of the most manifesting ailments in medical cases and the most treated psycological issue.

So some men won’t ever try. Some will always seek an easier out. Some will just hide.

Some will go the other way. become bullies. React to their fear by roaring back recklesly and stupidly. Go all out to eliminate one fear only to find themselves enslaved to another.

Some just never make it.

Our Psalmist realised that there was a way to be fearless. To be truly free. Knowing God automatically drove fear out. The simple understanding of who God is and what He has done for you leaves no fear standing tall in your mind.

But there was more. having a personal relationship with God brought something fresh into his life. He had total assurance of God’s love and grace and saw it as a guarantee that he would never need to fear again.

Do you still have fears? Little one even? Hear the Spirit of God calling you to come to Him. To enter into His peace today.

Peace. All fear is gone. Freedom

Psalm 26 – Glory revealed

GOD, I love living with you; your house glows with your glory.

 

Recently while visiting Australia we came across such beautiful old church buildings that are now standing empty. I went into some of them and it was amazing how you just felt the presence of God in them. People or not, you just knew that God had visited and inhabited these old buildings as people once worshipped Him there. I know a building is just a building but there is no denying that a building purposefully constructed, equipped and dedicated to worshipping God somehow becomes a house for His presence. His glory lingers and the sweet aroma of His presence remains. The power that He exudes leaves an awesomeness that is still felt today.

But dwelling in God’s house, living with Him, doesn’t have to be going to a building does it? After all we, the collective of believers, are the church. Where 2 or 3 are gathered, God is there. Any gathering of believers, immaterial of where they are, should immediately take on the exact same characteristics as the old building. Anyone entering the gathering should immediately get the sense of His power and love and grace and holiness. They should sense the same awe. They should know without a doubt that God dwells in that gathering. His glory will one day fill the whole earth but in the mean time the body, the bride, should be displaying that glory to all who would look their way.

Then of course you are the temple of God. God dwells in you. The fulness of the Godhead has made a permanent dwelling place in your bodily form. Lord I love living with you is no longer a trip to church but an acknowledgement that we love Him living in us.

I am a mobile revelation of God’s glory. Whether in a building, in a group or all alone, His house is filled with glory. His glory shines in any place I choose to worship. His glory shines in any gathering I am a part of and His glory shines as I go about my day far from any building or gathering. His glory shines in the darkness of the world where I must live for this time.

His house shines with His glory so that the lost may see the way home. I love it that it is where I already am.

Lord today fill me again with your presence, your love, your grace and power. Lord live so in me that your glory will fill the temple and shine like a beacon in the darkness

Psalm 24 – I can!

Who can climb Mount GOD? Who can scale the holy north-face?

Come let’s go up to the mountain, come lets go up to the Lord…….

I love to be in your presence, with your people singing praises.

One day in your court…

How many more songs can we sing that speak of being in God’s presence. Oh how our soul cries out just to be with God, separated from the things of the earth. alone with Him. How we long to gaze upon His beauty, to feel His touch. To know His arms around us and to hear Him whispering in our ear.

How we long for God to be a real presence in our lives. To be aware of His indwelling instead of observing Him from afar. Straining towards the place where God changes from lead character of the Bible to a personal, tangible being. Religion is happy just to sing the songs and stir each other’s hope for one day in heaven. The true believer wants that relationship now. We will worship and press in hoping for a move of the spirit, a supernatural manifestation, a ‘caught up’ moment where God’s person is sensed.

We need it. It is not a question of faith. It must not remain unseen. We are created to be with Him. Reborn in Him and promised Him in us. We will only be complete when we are completely one with Him. Dwelling in His presence.

Yet it is as if God is high on a mountain in a lofty fortress. It would seem so hard to get ‘up” there. Solid cliffs defending Him against every approach. For too many it is an impossible task and so we die of loneliness, hoping that in death we will be transported to this high place.

His holiness further protects against approach. As we see Him we forget His finished work and fear would keep us from climbing any higher. We grip onto our handholds as tightly as possible and wait and wait for Him to call us closer. Too many die waiting.

Before we even get to the next verse my heart sings with joy knowing that as a son of God I have unlimited, unrestricted, unprotected, unguarded access to His presence. I can know His reality, His person, His being, His touch, His voice.

I stopped trying to climb what cannot be climbed. I determined that my need was greater than my fear. I encountered GRACE.

I love being in His presence, on His mountain, surrounded by His glory

Press in believer He is calling you, waiting with open arms. He came down from the mountain to fetch you. His word to direct you and His Spirit to empower you. Today you can say it is good to be in the house of the Lord..

Psalm 23 – Home

I’m back home in the house of God

for the rest of my life.

Where you spend it is far more important  than eternity itself.

This is one of my favourite portions of Scripture.  The sure and certain knowledge that I will spend eternity in the presence of God.

God has called me home. This does not mean I died, quite the contrary. He has drawn me to Jesus. He has shown me the way. He has shown me door, not out but in. Made the way clear and caused the door to open, a one way door.

I am so aware that I never used to live in God’s  house.  I went walk about and made a home for myself in the world. I have travelled the world and been party to its ways. I have found it to be a hard and unwelcoming place. A place where death is a given and where God cannot be seen. Been there done that.

Now like David I am back home. My address has changed. This is the house of my Father, my birth right, my inheritance.  Jesus came and prepared my room so that I could just move back in. My robes are in the cupboard, my crowns on the shelf, pictures of glory on the wall. This is where I belong.

Never again will sin or judgement expel me from my home. The grace of my Father will keep me from ever wandering off again. In fact as free as I am in His house you can’t open the doors from the inside.

Immortality, Yes bring it on. Life, God has given me as a gift, for now eternal, by faith immortal. Yet the most important thing is where will you live it? Where will you spend eternity? Where will you live forever?

If it’s not in the House of God, in the House of the Father, in the intimate presence of God, then I am not interested.

Psalm 23 – In your face!

You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.

 

Sure God has prepared a feast for you. A six-course dinner, a table so laden with good things that you don’t know where to start. That’s what God does for His children. He blesses and blesses and blesses. There is new mercy every morning and His grace simply abounds all the time.

It’s all in keeping with the heart of our Shepherd.

What is really special though, without seeming unappreciative of my blessings, what really stands out and shouts about who God is, is where He does it.

Not in a back room. Not in private. Not hidden from anyone or anything. He just sets up right in front of my enemies and makes them watch me being blessed.

In your face law! In your face Satan! Look what God is doing. You have tried your best, you have accused me day and night but God has shut you up. Now even as you stand there grimacing, hang dog, smarting from your loss, God is rubbing your nose in it. Look, despite your efforts God is blessing me.

Two things. It tells you how sure God is of Himself. God has made your salvation possible by grace. He has paid a price and He knows it was more than enough. He has overcome every enemy and He knows it is finished. Look how confident He is. Even while the enemy is still hanging around shouting empty threats of a comeback, God has entered into a rest. The work Jesus came to do is fully accomplished. Finished. All of it. He no longer even regards your enemy. They don’t need to have an eye kept on them. They can never harm you again. God is ignoring them as if they never were anything.

Secondly the invitation to the table is right there where He saved you. No preparation. No training or teaching you how to eat with a knife and fork. No washing up, dressing up or talking up.Faith doesn’t need any of that. Faith says that while I can still see my enemies I know that I am safe and secure in Christ. It means I also no longer notice and regard them. It means I have no fear as if they were nowhere near. I can enter into His rest and partake of the feast with no thought of danger, despite them lurking around  trying to catch my attention.

Satan might still roam the earth but he can no longer accuse me before God. The law still exists but God has fulfilled it’s demands. It no longer even knows my name. So I will not hear Satan’s lies nor leave the table to chase him around. I will never again bind myself to the law. I am free to sit down and enjoy the feast of blessings that has been prepared for me.

Right here right now!

In your face! Look what the Lord has done.

Psalm 22 – one day in Heaven

All the power-mongers are before him -worshiping! All the poor and powerless, too -worshiping! Along with those who never got it together -worshiping!

Despite the Bible teaching us that no man has been to heaven and returned, except Jesus, many claim to have gone there and have tales of what they saw. Huge flowers, abundant fruit, gold everything, light etc. Funny how most of them differ somehow from the others. I guess what we all need is a picture of something otherwise unknown that reinforces our faith. Be it one day in the sweet by and by or be it here on earth when the fullness is revealed. We all know that what we have now cannot be what it will be like then.

As much as I hold to the Bible’s promise of immortality, a change must come. Living forever in the world as it is today is a scary thought. Thankfully the “moment” will come when all will change. And then? What it will be like then?

This verse, confirmed in the New Testament actually gives us a picture of one day in Heaven. Not away there somewhere but what it will be like when He appears.

It speaks of three groups of people, people you know. Power mongers. Those in leadership, elected or self appointed who seek their own gain. Church leaders who promote themselves, call people to themselves, seek to dominate. Government leaders, businessmen, rebel leaders, everyone seeking to enrich himself at the expense of others, to oppress and exploit.

The poor and powerless, the oppressed, those who have allowed the power mongers to hold the power. Also those not seeking enrichment or power. The losers, the have not’s as well as the humble and meek. And then those that never got it together. The sinners. The God deniers. What a picture of the world today.

Then the verse gives us that picture of one day in heaven by adding a word that changes the picture. Worship!!! It has all three groups worshipping God. Completely changing the nature of the group, the status of the group, the attitude of the group. In fact it simply does away with the group and makes them all one.

In that day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh what a glorious day it shall be when He appears and all men shall see Him and in that instant shall fall on their faces and worship Him. That’s somewhere I want to live forever. In His presence.

Come let us adore Him. Come let us worship Him together. Come let us reveal Christ to the world that all men shall know Him. Let us hasten His return.

Psalm 22 – Dumped!

God, God…my God! Why did you dump me miles from nowhere? Doubled up with pain, I call to God all the day long. No answer. Nothing. I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.

 

Imagine for a moment how Jesus felt. Given up His glory to come to earth. Lived to do the will of His Father. Was mocked and ridiculed and persecuted as He ministered. Hated by religeous leaders. Judged and condemned to death. The crowds He had come to save chanting and calling for His cruxifiction and the release of criminals instead.

Whipped and beaten. Nailed to the cross. All the time perfectly obedient to the will of His Father. All the time knowing that He had to bear it all in order to bear your sin. That’s what He came for.

There he hung on the cross. The weight of your sin crushing Him. Still being mocked, challenged to prove His identity. Doing it all in the strength of God. Then suddenly nothing. He was on His own. The judgement of every man upon Him. The full force of the law. Death! And He was all alone. The presence, the strength of God was gone. He had to do it all alone.

Imagine for a moment how Jesus felt. Come to do the will of the Father and now in His moment of greatest need His Father was not there. Dumped.  Forsaken. Left alone.

It was the way it had to be. The only way your debt could be paid.

What was He to do. Turn to the world for help? Run to His enemies and cry for mercy? Join the God haters and mockers?

He chose to continue to put His fàith in His Father.  Entrusted His spirit to Him and completed what He had to do. He died in your place.

And where was God? Had He really abandoned His Son? No! He was right there standing guard over His Word. His arms around His son even as He descended into hell. Waiting for the exact moment predetermined to raise Him back from the dead so that you too may live. Waiting eagerly for the work to be finished so that Jesus could return to glory and you with Him.

Do you sometimes feel dumped? Are you calling on God day and night but it seems in vain. Nobody hears. Nobody responds. God is not there? Well, you are not alone and do not have to go through what Jesus did. God is there.

Sometimes though we do need to feel alone. Salvation comes at the point when you realise you have no hope. Repentance is the descision to abandon the world and it’s ways and in that moment of being alone realise that God is there for you. Sometimes you get caught up in your works, traditions, culture, family, church and you need to realise that God is not in them and turn from them. In that moment of feeling alone put your trust in God.

He had to dump Jesus for your sake but He will never dump you for His.

Psalm 17 – part 1 – In your presence

A David prayer. Listen while I build my case, GOD, the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent- in your heart you know I am.
Go ahead, examine me from inside out, surprise me in the middle of the night- You’ll find I’m just what I say I am. My words don’t run loose.
I’m not trying to get my way in the world’s way. I’m trying to get your way, your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail; I’m putting one foot In front of the other. I’m not giving up.
I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer. So-answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences; take in your frightened children who Are running from the neighbourhood bullies straight to you.

Later in the Psalms we will find the Psalmist telling God that one day in His courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Despite what some may be teaching the point is that Life is not about immortality. In fact immortality on its own could be a very miserable eternity. No, life is about being in the presence of God.

David understood this well. He had a tent of meeting, a place where he could go and just spend time in God’s presence. Worshipping Him face to face, talking to Him and hearing Him speak. A place to seek solace and place to seek guidance. A place to be safe.

How much more now that we have the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of His presence, a permanent Emmanuel, should we be in His presence. We don’t need a tent of meeting, we don’t need a prophet to speak for us, we don’t need sacrifices to be made or priests to minister to us or for us. We can enter in with boldness. In fact he has established us in Christ at His right hand.

That is where we are complete. That is where everything that God is, is ours. That is where there is no pretence. That is where there is total transparency. That is where you are truly you.

The honesty and openness that David has with God in this psalm is surely the desire of your own heart. It can only be achieved when you are standing in His presence. Leave your prayers. Leave your complaints, your requests and your questions. Lay it all down and spend time pressing in.Forsake all else this morning for the sake of entering into His glorious presence.

Worship Him, behold Him. Know Him. Be intimate with Him. Draw nearer and He will draw nearer. Let your heart do the talking.