So yesterday during my message I took a couple of minutes to thank the worship team for absolutely insisting on giving them the Scripture for next Sunday, as early as Monday. Despite my annoyance it’s a good call, just so that we’re all brought to meditate on the Word, for a more complete message, for a more relevant overall service.
As early as last night one of them reached out to me again… and at first I told the fellow to wait, but then when he pushed for it, well, I went with Psalm 86.
…but first:
Just want to go ahead and make the most of my being in a fasted state right now. I’ve walked over 10k steps now before lunch time, and I’d also like to go ahead and put some words in to match the steps.
And, what else is there to say, but to proclaim and declare the our God is good, and He is good all the time? Indeed, even in the trials, even in the delays, or in the victories and the progressions, it’s very essential for us in the body of Christ to remind ourselves and each other – God is for us and not against us, and nothing can ever separate us from His love.
Simplify that, and you have: God is good, and God is with us. And, of course, we can’t help but acknowledge Christ and His finished work. Indeed, it’s only through Christ that we can make these bold and allegedly presumptuous claims of our Creator – Only through Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and ascension can we say that God is good (The Creator of all things is our good Father), and God is with us (never leaving us, never forsaking us, always with us, always shining His goodness upon us).
Thank You, Father. Thank You for Your steadfast love, and thank You for Your mercies, new and fresh with every morning. Thank You for Your lovingkindness, so good that we’re able to sing as the Psalmist once did: That Your lovingkindness is better than life.
Thank You, Jesus. Thank You for Your sacrifice, and for all that we have now, all because of what You have done. Thank You for performing the ministry of reconciliation upon us, and being the catalyst for the ministry of reconciliation now moving in and through us – that more and more people would come to the knowledge of Your saving grace, and that, consequently, the Father’s will be done: That none would perish, and that many would come to repentance.
Thank You, Holy Spirit – You have been poured out upon us, and we are filled that we overflow, much so that we bear the fruits that You naturally produce through us – that is, the fruits of love, peace, patience, joy, faithfulness, kindness, goodness and self-control. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for through You we are constantly and consistently convicted of our righteousness: Our reconciliation, and our consequent right-standing with God, much so that we are able to call Him our Father.
Thank You, God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – for even if all of this seems so redundant, it just seems so right to continue to proclaim, simply because this chaotic world causes us to have more and more perspectives of Your greatness and glory; through the many things that happen on a daily, hourly basis, we see more and more facets of Your grace and Your goodness!
As there are never two snowflakes with the exact same design, so every day with You is sweeter than the day before; We see Your goodness and greatness in more and more ways, the longer we walk in this finite existence.
Glory and honor to Your wonderful name, now and forever!
Psalm 86
Great Is Your Steadfast Love
A PRAYER OF DAVID.
1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
Now, we discussed Philippians 3 a little bit more in-depth yesterday, and one thing that I pointed out; rather, one thing that I proposed is that we sort of ‘connect’ Philippians 3:3 with John 4:24, in that we are able to worship ‘in Spirit and in Truth’, as Christ said in the latter, by way of worshipping with the Spirit of God, giving Christ Jesus all the glory, and putting no confidence in the flesh.
That final point of not putting confidence in the flesh is a lead to what it really means to be circumcised; while most men in our country have had our physical bodies ‘cut’, the circumcision emphasized to us was of the spirit and of the heart, as mentioned in Romans 2 – and Paul’s testimony gives us an idea of that this circumcision is, which is also an example of what it means to have no confidence in the flesh… He acknowledged, later in Philippians 3, that if anyone was to boast of qualifications and achievements, it was him – He called himself a ‘Hebrew of Hebrews’, and also, essentially, a Pharisee of Pharisees; not merely qualified, but in the top tiers in terms of qualification, and achievement.
Yet he considers all of it as nothing, compared to Jesus Christ. And that’s what I emphasized as well – When we encounter Jesus Christ in our own lives, our qualifications and our achievements are put in their place: infinitely beneath Christ and His finished work.
Now I bring this up because the opening verses of Psalm 86 give us another perspective to this genuine ‘humility’ that’s produced. Through Paul we see that an encounter with Christ has us humbled… but here through David we see that humility leads us to seek an encounter with Christ.
Indeed, there is nobody who could quite hear us and answer us as our Creator can, and there is nobody who could save us and preserve us, as our God can.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Indeed, when we take the time to think about His love and His goodness; When we take a step back further from what bothers us and what distracts us at any given moment, we could not help but be glad. When we meditate of the graciousness of our Father, His goodness and His steadfast love, and the absolute forgiveness we have in Him through Christ… well, I suppose, given enough time, we would find ourselves lifted up.
To know that we are heard, and to know that He not only hears but listens to us, and is willing to hear from us, even if we know He knows all things – that’s comforted me so many times in this world.
Call upon Him. Cry out to Him. In the sudden turns of events, and in the situations that we keep bringing up even if reality would have us think otherwise… Let’s reach out to our Father, let’s run to Him, to His throne of grace in our time of need.
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
Our God does great things, and indeed, as the song goes, great things He has done. Prior to everything else we have attributed to Him, as miracles and breakthroughs in our lives here on earth, before all of that is what He has done for us. Again, He was born, He died, He rose again, and He ascended into heaven – and this served as the first and best thing that has ever happened to us, just as it is the Work that preceded all the good works we were to do.
All of it comes from His finished work. Because Christ rose again, and because Christ ascended into the heavens and is seated now at the right hand of the Father, so the Holy Spirit has descended upon all of us who believe, that now we experience the good work He does to us, constantly, and consistently – He convicts us of our righteousness, constantly reminding us that, here in this existence, we will never be separated from Him, and everything reminds us, connects us to Him.
What else are His works and the wondrous things He has done for us? His finished work is the breakthrough of all breakthroughs, which causes us to see and discern breakthroughs in our own lives – Favors when and where we least expected them, perfectly timed progression and/or progression which we would only see as perfectly placed after the fact; We’ve seen Him straight up moving in the hearts of men, that we would be granted grace when all else fails.
Christ is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us, and through Him we see more and more great things happening in our own lives.
Christ has also done the Work of works, and from His finished work we are naturally working, blessed with every spiritual blessing for good works, and aided by the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
Our God teaches us. We have the mind of Christ, which I believe entails that every thought we now have is thought with Him, just as He thinks, and we resonate to His thinking, and we respond in our own lives. The One who teaches the Way is Himself the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
As the Holy Spirit is our Helper who is ever faithful to us, so He is also our Teacher – indeed, through His constant conviction we are brought not only to realize the theoretical value of God’s goodness in our lives, but we experience it live and hands-on, and is therefore more and more ingrained and integrated into our beings.
Indeed, we have been saved from oblivion, and through the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, we are brought – our entire beings brought deeper and deeper into the infinite love of our Father. In other words, even if we are absolutely with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it could not be helped but to observe that we are being brought further and further from Sheol, moving from glory to glory.
14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.
15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.
17 Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Our God humbles us. He hears us. He does great things. He teaches us… and, full circle: He saves us. By redeeming us, we are taught. We behold yet more great things. In our redemption and salvation we are assured that He has heard us… and in experiencing all of this, folks, we are, indeed, brought low – humbled, proclaiming the infinite superiority and glory of our God, thankful that He is our gracious Father.
We give Him all the glory and praise, for He deserves it all. He is worthy of all praise. From Him are all things, and to Him are all things, indeed.
Just wanted to run through this quickly as we started this week… and, again, in my fasted state. My head hurts just a little bit now, so I think I’m going to head out to do some walking and communing in nature.
I’m just so thankful. God is just so good. Our Father is great, and He is so good.
I’ll probably go through this Psalm again some other time this week, but, for now, I’m happy with what we drew out here.
Let’s all have a good and wonderful week ahead.
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