Compassion

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is merciful and compassionate, 
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 
The Lord is good to everyone. 
He showers compassion on all His creation.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭145:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Why is God ultimately so merciful and compassionate? We look around us at our world and wonder why He doesn’t remove all evil and, in particular, evil people. After all they get in His way. They frustrate His will and purposes. But as we muse about how wonderful it would be if God removed the wicked, we get a light bulb moment – He would remove us as well. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” So it’s just as well God is merciful and compassionate. He gives us time. Time to repent of our sins. Time to align our lives to His. Thankfully He is “slow to get angry” with us. 

But that is not to say that God’s mercy will always be there. There will come a time when He can be merciful and compassionate no longer. There is a time of judgement coming. You see, our loving Heavenly Father is also a righteous Heavenly Father. He can tolerate nothing that is evil, and when we pass the Great Divide into a new life, anything that is evil will not be allowed in His presence. And so God has created a place apart from Him where evil will be allowed and confined. We can be assured that all the injustices, all the evil, all the wickedness, all the crime, all the bad things we experience in this life – none of it is going unnoticed by God. It is all being noted down in Heavenly life-logs. And one day God will open the data vaults and will publicly replay the videos before casting judgement. Thankfully there is a remedy for us – read on!

Today, in this life, we enjoy being showered with compassion. All of us, good or bad, live in a time of incredible blessing, a time of God’s patience and goodness, a time of God’s grace. As we take our faltering steps along the roads of life, His compassion helps us. His goodness is with us. His love is unfailing. His grace without limit. But God is not a passive parent. His mercy and compassion is active. He sent His Son, Jesus, to show us the way to a right relationship with Him. When Jesus takes on all our sins, we take on Jesus’ righteousness. If that isn’t the ultimate demonstration of compassion, of love, then I don’t know what is. And covered in Jesus’ righteousness, we today receive a “not-guilty’ verdict from the Righteous Judge. The Lord is surely good to everyone. Even me.

Blessings

Posted on by korgrocker

“May our sons flourish in their youth
    like well-nurtured plants.
May our daughters be like graceful pillars,
    carved to beautify a palace.
May our barns be filled
    with crops of every kind.
May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands,
    even tens of thousands,
    and may our oxen be loaded down with produce.
May there be no enemy breaking through our walls,
    no going into captivity,
    no cries of alarm in our town squares.
Yes, joyful are those who live like this!
    Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord.”
Psalm 144:12-15 NLT

What a lovely picture of God’s blessings. In just a few verses, David, the Psalmist, sums up blessings in three areas – the family, prosperity, and safety. And all because these people truly believe, and trust, in God, their Lord. What a lovely picture of sons and daughters, being raised in a Godly home, growing and functioning just as God ordained. Near where I live there is a new wooded area with some Ash and Sycamore saplings. Many of them are growing incredibly straight and strong, reaching skywards because they are “well-nurtured” by the climate God has provided for them. And you can just imagine these beautiful daughters exquisitely sculpted like “graceful pillars” by our Master Craftsman, God Himself.  Mums aren’t mentioned in these few verses, but I’m sure they were in there somewhere too. In today’s society, often experiencing dysfunctional family life, there is something very attractive about David’s picture. And everything that this family does seems to multiply prosperity – these family members don’t need to enter a world of crime or dodgy deals to see their wealth increase. And there’s more – they live in a time of peace without fear of an attack by the enemy nations around them. No fear of burglars breaking in, or attacks in dark alleys. 

Are you thinking that this is all too good to be true? I don’t think so. Just because we don’t realise the blessings as described, or relate to the pictures the Psalmist paints, doesn’t mean that they do not, or will not, happen. But we notice that the blessings described all start with the word “May”. The Psalmist is praying a blessing on his family. He realises that it is only God who can turn his vision into reality. Though we know from various accounts, that David’s family life was often lacking functionality – we read for example the debacle with Absalom in 2 Samuel – such experiences didn’t stop David from praying. And neither must we stop praying either. Those of us who don’t have a family must know one that we can pray blessings over. And we must never stop thanking God for all the blessings He pours out on us. Food on our tables. The basics of life like air to breath and water to drink. The list is endless. It is pointless to focus on what we don’t have. Rather we should focus on God Himself. He never tires of blessing us, often in ways we won’t appreciate until we are in His presence. And there’s only one condition, and that is we must obey Him. Not for His sake, but for ours.

The Apostle Paul said in his epistle to the Philippians church, “I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ!” (Philippians 4:19 TPT). On the wall of his prison cell, Paul could see in his mind a similar picture to David. A vista vibrant with the potential of God’s “abundant riches of glory“. God’s blessings are not beyond our reach. He is not a stingy God at all. As David prayed, we pray too – may God bless us all today. Amen.

Mere Mortals

Posted on by korgrocker

“O Lord, what are human beings 
that You should notice them, 
mere mortals that You should think about them? 
For they are like a breath of air; 
their days are like a passing shadow.
Psalms‬ ‭144:3-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We try and get our minds around many questions in life. Scientific and technical advances have given us many answers to life’s questions, and where there is no answer, “learned” people stand up and provide their opinion as though it was fact. We human beings like to know all the answers. But there are some questions that, no matter how hard people try, we have no answers for. Like “Why am I here on this planet?” Or, “How many days do I have left in this life?” Philosophical questions that have no answers. Not even from our “learned” elite. We have a tendency to put aside such questions and blank them out of our thinking. This is especially true when our thoughts turn to God. We have no truly definitive answers to questions such as, “Who is God?” Or even “Is there a God?” And as a result, many choose to deny that God even exists. If there is no God then there are no questions, and no need for any answers.

David, the Psalmist in today’s verses, asks the question, “Why should God be even bothered about mankind?” After all, human beings are born, they die, and pass through life “like a breath of air”. But his thoughts are just transient, because we see from the rest of the Psalm, that there is no doubt about God’s existence, at least as far as he is concerned. Just a few verses on, he writes, “I will sing a new song to you, O God! I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp.” He already knows the answer to his question. He knows that all he can do is praise his Creator, because God loves him. David’s relationship with God was so personal and powerful, that he had no doubts. But in asking the question in today’s verses, he took a moment to meditate in wonder that his amazing Creator God intimately cares for him. I can just imagine him shaking his head in disbelief.

The question still hangs over us in 21st Century society today. Why should God care about us? In spite of all our sins, our bad behaviour, our rebellion. Our denial, our failures. Why? Thankfully, we don’t need to let that question hang over us – the answer is provided in the Bible. This Book is the story of God’s pursuit after human beings, His creation. God yearns for a loving relationship with His creation. To include all the relevant Bible verses in this blog is beyond WordPress’s storage capabilities. But let’s consider just one. John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” We may not understand the why, but we know the facts. God loves everyone, past, present and future, who have lived and will live on this planet, and He demonstrated that love for us by sending His Son, Jesus, to engage with His creation, His people, and ultimately to die for them so that their sins would be forgiven. An eternal act by our eternal Heavenly Father. All we can do is shake our heads in amazement. In disbelief. And respond as David did, with a deeply thankful heart, full of praise to our amazing God.

Fingers

Posted on by korgrocker

“Praise the Lord, who is my rock. 
He trains my hands for war 
and gives my fingers skill for battle. 
He is my loving ally and my fortress, 
my tower of safety, my rescuer. 
He is my shield, and I take refuge in Him. 
He makes the nations submit to me.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭144:1-2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David, the Psalmist, was a warrior. We read about his exploits and marvel about his combination of skill and faith that was pretty much invincible. There were no other warriors in his day who would take on Goliath, even kitted out with a full suit of armour, let alone with a staff and a sling. And in this Psalm, David declares that because of God’s rock-like permanence in his life, he was able to train his hands and his fingers for the tasks before him. For the physical battles he needed to win. And come what may, he had behind him, watching his back, a “loving ally“, God Himself. His “tower of safety“. His “rescuer“. His “shield“. And if that wasn’t enough, he declared, with some justification, that God “[made] the nations submit to [him]“.

We too, under God’s direction, have the opportunity to train our hands, to give our fingers skills. Through the universities and apprenticeships of life, we acquire the training we need. I think of the dear saints who have spent countless hours using their finger-skills to paint an artistic masterpiece on a cathedral ceiling, or who have stitched together wondrous and beautiful tapestries, depicting God-scenes from their age. But ordinary folk like us also feature in God’s plan. Those mothers, using their finger-powered needlecraft skills, blessing their families with clothes and woollies. The fathers using their hands to till the fields or fix the car. The office worker typing instructions into a computer. The list is endless. Today we use our hands for more peaceful pursuits, but they can really throb with passion when they are joined to God’s thinking, God’s plans.

In Colossians 3:17 we read, “And whatever [we] do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” That’s the secret for effective finger skills. In our battles through life, our fingers will be more effective when we use them for doing God’s work, no matter how mundane it might appear to be. And we give Him thanks for the opportunities afforded to us. 

Days Long Ago

Posted on by korgrocker

“The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; 
he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. 
So my spirit grows faint within me; 
my heart within me is dismayed. 
I remember the days of long ago; 
I meditate on all Your works and consider what Your hands have done. 
I spread out my hands to You; 
I thirst for You like a parched land.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭143:3-6‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Ah! The “Good Old Days”. Remember them? When the chocolate (candy) biscuits we call Wagon Wheels in the UK used to be so much bigger. When school holidays lasted forever, with a succession of warm days. In this Psalm, David writes about being under stress, oppressed by the enemy, and he confesses to being dismayed. And he too harks back to the “Good Old Days”, when God did amazing things. He longed to return to them.

In times of trouble there is a human tendency to think back to times when there were no problems – well, at least that is what our memories tell us. How selective our memories can be. With some people they can beautifully filter out anything negative and instead leave a legacy of positive thoughts. A warm glow of how good things used to be. But in the things of God, the “Good Old Days” really were good. We have a unique and amazing book of memories, the Bible. And it is full of good thoughts, tales and happenings from “days long ago”. It is full of the wonderful things God has done throughout history. It is full of the wisdom needed for living a good life. It is full of expressions of love from the Creator for His creation. And the amazing reality of God’s Word is that it isn’t just a history book; the “days long ago”, unlike in our selective memories, extrapolate into the present, bringing water to assuage our thirst in this parched land, this spiritual desert.

At times in our pilgrimage through life, we will encounter enemy activity. Times when our spirits grow faint within us. Times when we feel like giving up. At times such as this we must, as David did, “remember the days of long ago”. Because what God did in those days He can and will do again. As we meditate on all His works, we will feel something start to rise up within us. We see a glow on our spiritual horizons, hinting at a new dawn of hope coming. The spirit within us connects with God’s Spirit and life starts to flow into the parched lands of our souls. The dawn of hope bursts into the light of a new day in God. And we spread out our hands in gratitude. What else can we do? The miracle of connection with our amazing God once again brings life to our weary souls, lightening our load, turning hope into reality.

The Cave

Posted on by korgrocker

“I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.
I look for someone to come and help me, 
but no one gives me a passing thought! 
No one will help me; 
no one cares a bit what happens to me. 
Then I pray to You, O Lord. 
I say, “You are my place of refuge. 
You are all I really want in life. 
Bring me out of prison so I can thank You. 
The godly will crowd around me, 
for You are good to me.””
Psalms‬ ‭142:1, 4-5, 7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David was going through a time of personal examination and contemplation, as he was hiding in a cave somewhere. It might have been the Adullam cave mentioned in 1 Samuel 22, but regardless of its location, David was in a cave. He daren’t show his face anywhere because we read that his enemies had set traps for him. But as usual with David, when in a place of stress and loneliness, he turned to God. He knew that with God in his life, he was never alone. And in addition, he also knew that nothing else in his life had any importance, an attitude he retained all his life. It was quite something that with all his regal trappings, he could cast them aside as of no importance compared to the riches he had in God.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:12, “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.” And the verbal exchange between Jesus and the young man, as recorded in Mark 10, exposed the difficulty encountered by people who have lots of “stuff”. When Jesus suggested that he sold and gave away all he had, we read, “At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” Like David, we must ensure that we have the right attitude to what we have. We must hold what we have with an open hand.

David also expressed disappointment that nobody cared about him. That is a natural attitude in times of depression and loneliness. The long hours waiting for a knock at the door or the phone to ping. David equated the lonely place with being in prison. But he wasn’t really alone because he reassured himself that God was his place of refuge. And he knew that once he was out of the cave, he would find Godly people. When we too decide to leave the “cave” of our depression and loneliness we must look for, and find, God’s people. Sadly, many people, by choice, prefer a life of isolation, mentally and physically, rather than embrace the love and caring of God and His people. 

David asks God to bring him out of his prison, the cave where he was languishing. In what “prison” are we incarcerated today? We have already mentioned loneliness and depression, but there are many other “caves” where people find themselves, often through no fault of their own. Places where circumstances have left people in a place where they didn’t want to be. At such times we can invite God to be with us in our “prison” and be assured that He will lead us out into freedom. Jesus said, as recorded in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,”. Everything Jesus said was true and trustworthy. He promised a life of freedom. John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Amen?

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Soothing Medicine

Posted on by korgrocker

“Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! 
If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. 
Don’t let me refuse it. 
But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds.”
Psalms‬ ‭141:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David, the Psalmist, seems to be in danger of being drawn into “acts of wickedness”. Being a king in those days was a privileged position and temptations must have been everywhere around him. But we don’t know what he was particularly in danger of. In the previous two verses, he prayed that God would guard his lips and avoid the “delicacies of those who do wrong”. He then continues in asking godly people to correct him; if they do so he would consider it a kindness, “soothing medicine” for his dilemma.

David was effectively asking to be held to account. By being accountable to someone who is trusted and Godly he knew he could avoid the dangers of “drifting towards evil”, as he said in verse 4. David had the wisdom to know the value of a trusted friend, someone who would correct wrongdoing and dispense, “soothing medicine”, God’s correction for his soul.

Today it’s worth asking the question, “Who are we accountable to?” Do we have trusted friends who love us and are willing to correct us when we need correction? Dear friends with whom we can share our weaknesses? David knew the value of such people and we too would do well to find such a person ourselves. It could be a wife or husband. It could be a pastor or minister. If asked, I’m sure God will lead us to the right person. 

In our pilgrimage through life, it is of course possible to get to our destination on our own, allowing God and His Word to guide and direct our steps. But sometimes He wants us to find someone to help us through particularly difficult terrains. Someone who knows the positions of all the individual mines in the minefields of life. Someone who knows the locations of the invisible reefs located in stormy seas. Someone who works in life’s A&E department, dispensing medication and patching us up when we fall. Without such a guide, we progress with difficulty, in danger of suffering frequent and debilitating setbacks. When we are accountable to such a guide, we will avoid getting drawn into the “delicacies of those who do wrong”. Godly correction is surely a soothing medicine to those who are sick and in danger, tempted to get involved in “acts of wickedness”.

David finishes the Psalm with a declaration: “I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord. You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me.” Godly people are part of God’s plan, to help us in times of trouble, and protect us from the wicked.

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Burning Coals

Posted on by korgrocker

Let my enemies be destroyed
by the very evil they have planned for me.
Let burning coals fall down on their heads.
Let them be thrown into the fire
or into watery pits from which they can’t escape.
Psalm 140:9-10 NLT

If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the LORD will reward you.
Proverbs 25:21-22 NLT

So here we have an apparent direct contradiction between what David wrote in Psalm 140 and what his son, Solomon, wrote in Proverbs 25. On the one hand David wanted his enemies to be destroyed, and on the other Solomon advised that we are to be kind to them. Which is it to be? But before we do a Google search for “contradictions in the Bible”, I would say it all depends what is meant by “enemy”. In the context of Psalm 140, David was going through a very difficult time with his enemies. And he wanted God to do something about it. I suppose if someone is coming at you waving a claymore or battle-axe, there wouldn’t be much point in offering them a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. It would be a case of a quick prayerful cry – “Help God!”  Or perhaps David was in a war situation with adjacent peoples – verse 7 mentions “the day of battle”. 

But Solomon’s definition of “enemy” might have been more benign, perhaps just meaning someone who is upset by us and has little more than malevolent feelings about us. In that case, of course we love our “enemies” and immediately respond to meet their needs in whatever way we can.

In David’s case, “burning coals” imply literal destruction. In Solomon’s case, perhaps “burning coals” mean that the “enemy” burns up with a guilty conscience, with shame. In the one case there is little we can do other than ask God to intervene. In the other we have a duty to be kind and loving, no matter how antagonistic the person is. 

In our pilgrimage through life we will find many “enemies” in our way. People who want to stop our progress. People who want us to take another path, perhaps leading in the wrong direction. But whether we take the path of the Psalm or the path of the Proverb, it is important that we involve God in the process. Only He knows the right way.

Search Me

Posted on by korgrocker

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
test me and know my anxious thoughts. 
Point out anything in me that offends You, 
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Psalms‬ ‭139:23-24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We must have one last look at this amazing Psalm, Psalm 139. David, the Psalmist, has meditated his way through God’s omnipresence, His blessings and support, the wonder of a new born baby, how God continually thinks about him, and how he hates the wicked and blasphemers. And, finally, he makes an appeal to God to search his heart and expose anxious and offensive thoughts. David, overcome with God-thoughts, finally surfaces to the realities of life but doesn’t want anything to spoil his relational bubble with the Lord. 

In our pilgrimage through life, there will be many opportunities to sit in David’s seat, where we can dwell in God’s presence, soaking in His Spirit, meditating on His love for us with a responsive heart. I often look about me and see God’s hand in His creation, always with thoughts of wonder about the complexity and uniqueness. But then the phone rings, or a text pings the phone. A demanding voice intrudes into my God-space-bubble and before I know it I’m back to the realities of life. In many ways we live a double life, citizens of both the Kingdom of God and kingdom of the world. But regardless of our circumstances we can find time for both. The Apostle John said in Revelation 1:10, “It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast.” Even in his incarceration on the Isle of Patmos, John was spending time in God’s presence; the deprivations of being exiled unable to stop his visit to God’s Kingdom. 

But back to David’s statement, “Search me, O God, and know my heart”. In many ways that’s a dangerous question to ask of God, because He might expose something we would rather not be reminded of. Perhaps a behavioural issue, or unconfessed sin. Perhaps a relationship that needs to be restored. But if we want to spend quality time with God there needs to be total honesty and openness. Nothing can be allowed to get in the way of a relationship with our Creator. David knew that, hence his question. David could see a connection between hiding what he referred to as anxious and offensive thoughts, and preventing God from leading him, unimpeded, along the “path of everlasting life”. That’s the same path we are taking, as pilgrims towards our full-time future in God’s presence. We don’t want anything to get in the way of our journey either. Thankfully, God loves us so much that He isn’t going to dump on us a whole load of difficult to deal with stuff all in one go. So we need to keep praying that prayer, so that God can peel back our layers of “anxious and offensive thoughts”, one by one, helping us deal with the issues, helping us step by step on our journey. Of course He loves us just as we are, but on the other hand, He loves us too much to allow us to forever wallow in an anxious and offensive state. Blocked from the relationship with God that He so earnestly wants us to enjoy. Search us, O God, we pray.