Don’t lose God in the big words used about Him. Final thoughts on Psalm 139

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”  (Psalm 139:1-5, NIV)

  There are words that are often used to describe the attributes of God.  These descriptive words sometimes find their very meaning in their exclusive use as words for the attributes of God.  Words such as omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient and sovereignty are seldom used apart from being connected to descriptions of God’s monumental and vast attributes.  David doesn’t use uncommon words in describing God. Instead, he uses common language and metaphors to describe the knowledge, presence and supremacy of God that is too wonderful, too immense and too powerful for his mind to really grasp.  David sees and senses the indescribable magnificence of God and as he is daunted by the intimate knowledge God has of his very being and soul.  Yet David’s words venture on in humble praise, gratitude and petition.  Praise for all God is, gratitude for all He gives and petition to cleanse His heart as he follows the Almighty God in ways everlasting.

      God is not impressed by our use of big words that still fall ineptly short of His nature and essence.  Nor does He need our feeble attempts to describe Him. Neither is God   interested in our tokenism when we come to Him.  Instead, God welcomes our contrite heart in our need of His grace and our humble gratitude for His endless provision and protection.  He delights in our seeking of His presence, desiring again and again His steadfast and enduring love.  God is joyful in our prayerful and genuine worship as we find joyful delight in knowing Him and having His hand upon our lives. We can lose the indescribable God in trying too hard to describe Him.  Our relationship with God does not depend upon our knowledge of Him nor the words we use about Him but on who He is and what He gives and does for us in Jesus Christ and the presence of His Holy Spirit.   He has covered us with His love from before we were born and it carries into eternity.  By His ever-present hand we are led in His everlasting ways in all our days.  It is all too wonderful for us and that is why, all our days are His. 

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV)

Suggested Reading … Psalm 139

On days of weakness … we need to trust in God’s power. Thoughts from Psalm 139

“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; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.” (Psalm 139:14-18, NIV)

  When we describe power, we tend to use words such as force, capacity and authority. We tend to think of power as the ability to control, the strength to change and the supremacy of one person or authority over another. All powers can be are matched, changed or reduced by the capacity and strength of another power. In some ways power is about the bigger, the better and the potency.  Still all power ... that is used or taken, without restraint and wisdom will become brutality, injustice, insanity and chaos.

     God’s power is infinite in its capacity and sovereignty and yet is wondrously woven into His wisdom, presence and essence and thus is perfect at all times.  In the presence of God and by His power, mountains are both made and melted into nothingness.  God’s power is perfect in His mercy and love to us through the grace of Jesus Christ as it saves, changes and remakes us. His power is without equal, above everything else and able to create substance and beauty out of His Word alone. Still His power is perfect in His designing unfathomable intricacies and complexities into every facet of His creation. 

     Power is deceptive to human beings as it is subject to our foolishness, inadequacies and the emotion of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). When we sense our weakness or feel powerless, we may be tempted to use any power for revenge or control.  Many times, we end up with a bigger mess in our lives than the place we started from. On any day that we feel weak, we are far better to trust in God’s power as it is without equal and it is perfect because of His wisdom.  All weaknesses acknowledged and abandoned unto God, thus become wondrous as worship as we see God’s sovereignty and they are perfected in His hands, as we put our actions and our ways under His control and supremacy.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, NIV)

Suggested Reading … Psalm 139

On days of discouragement … we need to trust in God’s presence. Psalm 139

“I can never escape from your Spirit!  I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there;  if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning,  if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me,  and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.” (Psalm 139:7-12, NLT)

  We struggle on days of discouragement.  Hours go by, as our spirits flounder and sink lower and lower.  The causes of the discouragement vary for any of us; from the trivial to the devastating. What can be dismissed as circumstance by one person can be daunting to another person.  The temporary gray cloud of some unsettling event over one person can seem like an ink black hopeless catastrophe to the next.  Every one of us can feel alone and isolated.  Every one of us can be brought down by something, someone or some circumstance or event.  We can feel discouraged even when surrounded by those who love us as if we were all alone deserted and abandoned.  Discouragement can come from countless pressures and sources, factual or imagined as we struggle to cope with the past, present or the future.

     On any day when discouragement looms over us and no matter how isolated and alone we may feel, God is with us. His promise is to never abandon us, we can trust in His guaranteed presence being wherever we are.  There is no place we can visit, linger or dwell, that He is not there.  It is not that He comes to those places, but rather, He is there.  We cannot travel to a place where He is not present as He is always with us.  Even more miraculous is what He brings to every place of discouragement.  He brings true hope which shines as the most brilliant of lights in the darkest of places.  There is no height or depth that we can travel where God is not there to care for us and encourage us by His presence.  We can abandon our discouragement to our God, for His presence is ever with us, no matter what we face or where we are. His presence is a rock solid place of encouragement on any day of discouragement.

Suggested Reading … Psalm 139

Suggested Reading … Psalm 139

On days of uncertainty … we need to trust in God’s knowledge. Thoughts from Psalm 139

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:1-6, NIV)

  We struggle on days of uncertainty.  We cannot ascertain the days ahead and whether we encounter relief or the continuance of troubled days. We cannot understand the justice of what we are experiencing. We cannot handle the pressure of the anxiety of the unknowing. We do not know what to do with our feelings because we want answers and fixes being unable to contain the pressure in the anxiety of the unknowing.  Why are we so consumed and overwhelmed with what cannot be known as finite beings?  We all know it is impossible to know, what is ahead for us in the minutes, hours or days and yet we put so much energy and thought into what we cannot know.  Some bounce through their days, looking at things positively while others labor through their days, dampened by the melancholy thought patterns they have fallen into in their lives.  The thoughts can be inaccurate either way; to see things as always positive can be to deny the reality of certain negative events and to see things as always negative can be to deny the reality of certain positive events.  So how do we deal with days of uncertainty?

     David the Psalmist knew many days of uncertainty during his lifetime and he proclaims the answer to all uncertainty, rests with the God that knows all things.  The answer to uncertainty in our hearts and minds rests on trusting in the certainty of the all-knowing God with our thoughts, our days and everything about us.  He knows all of our past, present and future.  He sees our pathways, our hurts, our needs, our concerns and our cares.  He forgives our sin, redeems our failures and mistakes as He holds us, comforts us and watches over us as we face all uncertainty.  On any day when uncertainty would threaten to take away our steadiness or when it would flood our thinking with anxiety, we need to look to our Father in heaven and trust securely in His knowledge.  His knowledge has carried us before and it will carry us again. Although His knowledge is too wonderful for our minds to comprehend, we can completely trust in it, with all of our heart and mind and strength. His knowledge is always certain and complete on any day of uncertainty. We need to abandon all our uncertainty to our God, for in Him alone rests all certainty and knowledge. 

Suggested Reading … Psalm 139

Something else.

“I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.”  (Galatians 1:6-7, NLT)

   We at times purchase substitutes, replacements for the original items and many times find the products inferior, ill- fitting or off-tasting.  We at times follow leaders and systems, believing a slogan or a philosophy only to discover the slogan was basically  empty and the philosophy shallow, void of real substance.  We can be consumed with codes for living and find ourselves frustrated and unfulfilled by the unending legalistic rules and the lack of freedom or failures in new pathway. In reality, the something else that we have chosen is something else from the original.

     There are many that would change “The Gospel” for something else. There are many that would abuse the grace we have been given to follow patterns of living inferior to the ways of God. There are many that would make the "Gospel" into a system of materialistic benefits expecting blessings in earthy things that will simply pass away.  There are many that would make the Gospel into a legalistic code of rules, voiding the finished work of Christ in securing our salvation.  There are many that follow slogans, philosophies and even new false angelic leaders only to find the leaders are charlatans, the slogans empty and the philosophies of little substance.  There are many seemingly attractive alternative myths that we see and hear but they are really fueled by our own passions (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

     The truth remains … something else from the “Gospel” is something else.  There is a grace that saves us and sustains us, there is a peace that reigns over us, there is a deliverance that delivers us and glory that shines over us and it is the “Good News.” Jesus Christ is the "Good News", He is the truth, the hope, the grace, the peace, the deliverance and the glory of the God’s saving love for His children.  Nothing else can do what Jesus Christ does and nothing else is what Jesus Christ is. Everything else, is something else other than God’s indescribable gift to us in Jesus Christ.

“May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.  Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.” (Galatians 1:3-5, NLT)

Suggested Daily Reading ... Galatians 1

It is Good News!

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion,

‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7, NIV)

  You feel trapped. You are living in exile from the place you would desire to live. You are separated from your home and the joy that it brought you. Your surroundings are not familiar and you feel the sting of defeat from the mocking residents of this hope forsaken place of sadness. Living in this depressing place of captivity was not the outcome you expected when you were living it up with abundance, affluence and self-indulgence.   The people of Israel in their captivity may have felt this way as they were separated from their beloved homeland because of their sinful self-centered living and their disregard for their loving God and His ways.

     Sin has its roots in self-centered desires and pursuits.  If allowed and fostered with attention, sinful desires become sinful actions and being exiled, captive, lost in your separation and sadness, the resulting consequences.  The promises of sin are false, hollow and illusionary but the results are real, overwhelming and bitter. We might not find ourselves exiled from Jerusalem because of our sin and disregard for God and His ways, but we can find ourselves exiled from the place of blessedness, contentment and relationship as we can suffer the bitter consequences whenever we follow the ways of our sin.

     Suffering in any place of exile, captivity and separation feels hopeless and we would welcome any relief and possible redemption. To hear of the possibility of grace, redemption, restoration and peace would bring incredible joy. 

     Jesus Christ brings great joy to any exiled from their true heritage as children of God. He brings freedom from all captivity, bondage and depressing places.  He restores a peace that passes understanding to hearts tormented by the bitter consequences of all sin.  The restoration by God of His people to their homeland was news of great joy.  The restoration of all sinners to a relationship with God as our heavenly Father which comes by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord is the greatest joy in the world.  We should be ever thankful for the great work of Jesus Christ in securing our release from all sad places of captivity, exiled from our intended home with God as our beloved Father.  We have a tremendous gift in our salvation and it is ever powerful and relevant as “Good News” for us to live by and for us to share with the world around us.

Suggested Reading … Isaiah 52