Blameless Before God

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord rewarded me for doing right; he restored me because of my innocence. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. I have followed all his regulations; I have never abandoned his decrees. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin. The Lord rewarded me for doing right. He has seen my innocence.”
Psalm 18:20-24 NLT

David was in a good place when he wrote these verses. He recorded how God had blessed him, with words such as “reward”, ”restored”, “innocence”, and “blameless”, and David was sure that he had not followed evil ways and he had “kept [himself] from sin”. He was also feeling good because he had “followed all [of God’s] regulations” and had “never abandoned His decrees”. But is that reality or wishful thinking? Looking at David’s life as recorded in the Bible, there were times when his claims of being blameless were true, but another time when he broke several commandments all at the same time (read the account of David and Bathsheba). David flip-flopped through his life much as we do, with the human predisposition to sin emerging from time to time, taking us away from God’s protective shield. 

But Paul had a different perspective, as we read in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. In David’s times there was a legalistic regime in place under the Old Covenant, where people could claim to be righteous if they followed all the rules and regulations laid down by God to Moses. But in what we call the New Covenant, we read (Romans 3:24), “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins”. We pilgrims know all about God’s grace with the wonderful divine exchange of Jesus’ righteousness for our sins. David claimed to be blameless through his adherence to God’s “regulations” and “decrees”. We pilgrims are blameless because of Jesus. 

Dear Father God. I don’t know where we would be if it wasn’t for Your Son Jesus. Expressing our gratitude doesn’t even scratch the surface of what You deserve. We can only bow before You in worship. Amen.

He Delights in Me

Posted on by korgrocker

“He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me. He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.”
Psalm 18:17-19 NLT

David considered his circumstances and marvelled at the way God had rescued him from the attacks of his “powerful enemies”. Not only did the Lord support him , but He led him to “a place of safety” and all because “He delights in [him]”. The Amplified version interprets Psalm 18:19 as, “He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me”. What an amazing accolade, to say that God is pleased with someone. But how would we know? We might have a personal impression that God “delights in” us but the thing about divine accolades is surely that the Heavenly beneficence is public. But the only way that people will know that God delights in us is in the way we behave. There will be no neon lights in the sky proclaiming God’s pleasure with Joe Bloggs or anyone else. A Heavenly light display such as that was retained for God’s own Son at His birth – “Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, … Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,” (Luke 2:9, 13). But there was another time when a voice from Heaven proclaimed how pleased God was with His Son, as we read in Luke 3:22 at the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, “and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”” 

But today God’s pleasure with someone can be seen publicly in the way they behave. A contentious thought perhaps, but one that many people overlook. For example, if a Christian looks miserable, are they demonstrating God’s pleasure with them? If a believer makes comments that are negative how does that fit in with God’s favour? We pilgrims are God’s testimony of grace and His love to a wayward and evil generation, and our demeanours must reflect that. I was once walking through a pedestrian tunnel under the River Thames in London with many people coming towards me, hurrying to work, and I was struck by the staring, fixed and sad looks on most of the faces I could see. Faces displaying a lack of God’s blessing and favour. Faces trapped in a world of sin and without hope for the future. I was reminded once again that God wants us pilgrims to reach out with messages of Good News, which start with first impressions. Are we smiling or does our facial expressions mirror those of the people around us?

In Psalm 5:12 we read, “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield”. I suppose it goes without saying, that God has no incentive or need to bless an unrighteous person, although such people are included in His blessings, as we read in Matthew 4:45b, “ … He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. That is God’s grace in operation. But to fully appreciate God’s beneficence, we need to acknowledge Him and believe in Him, something that the worldly people around us fail to do.

For a believer, the reality is that God will delight in us as we follow His ways. He is with us every step we take, cheering us on when the going gets tough, encouraging us when adversity strikes, blessing us with provision for our needs. But if we feel that God’s favour has left us, then we return to the Cross where we touch base once again with our Saviour, Jesus. Only He has the words of eternal life. Only He can bring hope to the hopeless and favour to the lost.

Dear Father God. With grateful hearts we praise and worship You today for all Your Heavenly favours. It’s all about You and Your glory, and we humbly bow before You today, conscious of all that You have done for us. Amen.

Deep Waters

Posted on by korgrocker

“He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me.”
Psalm 18:16-18 NLT

David recorded that he was in a weak, defenceless moment, ”in distress“, when his enemies attacked him, but his plight attracted God’s attention, with the result that “He reached down from Heaven” and rescued David. David recorded that the “Lord supported [him]”. The language David used to describe his predicament and how God came through for him, was graphic and very descriptive, but David wasn’t literally in “deep waters” I’m sure. But he felt as though he was, with his anxiety and fear in danger of drowning him in a sea of emotional turmoil. The reality is, though, that he knew God would rescue him, no matter what the circumstances were.

There is a Bible story about a man called Jonah, who was literally in distress because of “deep waters”. We read in Jonah the account of how he was running from God and ended up being thrown into the sea to stop a storm – “Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!” (Jonah 1:13). Every child I’m sure knows the next bit, “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). In the second chapter of Jonah we read in his prayer from inside the fish, “You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves” (Jonah 2:3). Graphic details follow of Jonah’s experience in the sea, “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head” (Jonah 2:5). Like David, Jonah prayed earnestly to God because his life was in danger, and this part of the story ends with Jonah being vomited out onto the beach. 

In the comparison between the two accounts, David was in deep emotional waters, and Jonah was in deep physical waters. But there was no difference between the two circumstances in the sense that both men needed to be rescued. And it was only God who could make that happen. 

We pilgrims may also come up against circumstances over which we have no control. Perhaps an issue at work, or college. Perhaps physical danger through an accident. As wars sweep our planet, perhaps there are many who regularly cry out to God for their safety. Perhaps a mental health issue prevails in a person’s life, dragging them to a place where suicidal thoughts dwell. But wherever, or whatever the issue, God is always there for us. And we know that ultimately He will rescue us to a place of safety, when He calls us home. There will be no more crying or dying there. With God we will live forever in a place called Paradise.

Dear Loving Heavenly Father. You have rescued us through Your Son Jesus, from the consequences of sin. Thank You. Amen.

They Were Confused

Posted on by korgrocker

“He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; great bolts of lightning flashed, and they were confused. Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.”
Psalm 18:9-15 NLT

David wrote that “great bolts of lightning … confused” the people, his enemies. Lightning still frightens people today of course, but nowhere near as much as it did in Biblical times. We “more enlightened” people in the 21st Century understand how lightning develops and how the effects can be avoided, to an extent.  However, we can’t stop it and we can’t control it, and the reason is because it is something that happens because of the physical properties of the planet on which we live. I would suggest that God’s design for Planet Earth has been corrupted by sin, and there is a consequence for the evil that takes place upon its shores. We know of course that God’s design, His creation, was perfect because we read in Genesis 1:31, “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day”. Interestingly, there is no mention of lightning, earthquakes, disease, famine and any other negative event in the Creation account. Just perfection, even extending to human beings. But after sin entered the world, a curse was introduced. Genesis 3:17, “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it”. So perhaps lightning is part of that curse.

Elihu, one of Job’s friends, said this, “See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea. …  He fills his hands with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target. The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger” (Job 36:30, 32-33). Elihu’s perception was that God used lightning as a punishment for an evil people. At the very least it would “confuse” or frighten them, providing a warning that there was, and is, a God in Heaven who one day will judge the evil and wickedness that takes place on the earth. But lightning also demonstrates God’s power and authority, right from His throne. Revelation 4:5, “From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit of God”. This was a vision given to John of God’s power and authority, because human beings were unable to create such a phenomenon on a Heavenly scale. Yes, people can create sparks, but what are they compared to God’s lightning bolts?

But David wrote that the peoples were confused by the lightning bolts. Other translations introduce a different perspective, building a picture of God’s enemies being “routed” or “vanquished”. Certainly a well aimed lightning bolt or two would soon disrupt an army on a battlefield. But today, the confusion is a good description of something out of mankind’s control. In a society that thinks they can do anything, something uncontrollable like lightning confuses them. After all, they say, we can split the atom, we can produce devices that fly, we can create mobile phones and so on, so why can’t we control the weather? And at that moment confusion creeps in. Doubts form, and people wonder about whether or not there might indeed be a higher power beyond their understanding. 

We pilgrims believe in, and follow, a limitless God, who power is far beyond human comprehension. After all, what is a lightning bolt compared to the plethora of created heavenly beings, the stars and planets, that populate the universe? We should therefore be grateful that lightning is constrained as it is. There are many confused people walking around our streets, not sure how or when their lives will end, and the inclusion of Heavenly power events just adds to their confusion. But we pilgrims look on at the electrical storms and are reminded of our amazing Creator God who allows the occasional lightning bolt to confuse and frighten those who deny that He exists. The superstitious cover up the mirrors and cutlery, but we know differently, and offer up our praise and worship to the all-powerful God.

Dear God. You are the powerful One, the Name above all names, the King of all kings, the Lord of all. Amen.

Clouds of Darkness

Posted on by korgrocker

“He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; great bolts of lightning flashed, and they were confused. Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.”
Psalm 18:9-15 NLT

These verses today dramatically portray God’s judgement on Planet Earth, judgement for all the sin and wickedness that just cannot be allowed to continue forever. There are two occasions in the Old Testament where God has catastrophically destroyed people and their infrastructures because of sin, and we can read the accounts of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood, in Genesis. At other times God has judged His people by sending them into captivity. On an individual basis, God’s judgement is ongoing, with unrepentant sinners being “ … abandoned … to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies” (Romans 1:24). Paul continued, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too” (Romans 1:28-32). Does all this sound and look familiar as we observe what is going on in our societies?

 Our holy and righteous God will not tolerate evil and wickedness forever. We read in Genesis 6:5-6, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart”. We pilgrims probably have difficulty believing that our God could be so distressed over “human wickedness” but those four words “it broke His heart” sum up the impact sin has had, and continues to have, on our loving and gracious Creator God. 

Darkness is described by David as “dark storm clouds” and we read the fulfilment of this in Revelation 16:10, “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. His subjects ground their teeth in anguish”. The events foretold to happen in the End Times will not be pleasant! 

David’s poetic language nevertheless acts as a warning to all humanity. There will come a time soon when the Gospel will have reached the furthest corner of the Earth, and then the end will come. This will initiate a series of events culminating with the destruction of Planet Earth and the introduction of a new order, populated by all those people, past present and future, who, through Jesus, meet God’s criteria of righteousness and holiness. Through the Holy Spirit, David prophesied of this time of judgement coming and his apocalyptic language portrays times of terror and anguish too hard to bear.

The End Times will be met with mixed emotions by us pilgrims. If we are caught up in them – they could arrive in our lifetimes – we will welcome the end and mourn the troubles, but Jesus reassured us of a good outcome for His people, as we read in Matthew 24:13, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved“. Jesus later said, “In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones” (Matthew 24:22). We trust Jesus, however, because only He has the words of eternal life.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You that even now You are preparing a Heavenly home for each of us. We proclaim our faith in You and look forward to seeing you one day soon. In Your precious name, Amen.

Earthquakes and Fire

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the earth quaked and trembled. The foundations of the mountains shook; they quaked because of his anger. Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from him.”
Psalm 18:7-8 NLT

After acknowledging that God heard David’s cries and prayers for help, David let his imagination dwell on the different ways that God could deal with the problem of his enemies. Earthquakes and fire appear in David’s poetry, themes again appearing in Isaiah, “But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant, I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire” (Isaiah 29:5-6). Earthquakes and fire are just two of God’s remedies for dealing with a sinful and wicked earth, and we’re so grateful that He is holding back His judgement. He didn’t in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, as we read in Genesis 19:24-25, “Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulphur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation”. In case anyone thinks that the Genesis account was just mythical, evidence has been found of an ancient city destroyed by intense heat. Dating methods have placed it in the right historical period. 

Elijah too came up against earthquakes and fire, as we read in 1 Kings 19:11-12, “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper“. An amazing demonstration of God’s power re-confirmed Elijah’s mission. 

So what do we pilgrims think of earthquakes and fire? We know the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:7, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world”, and we look around and see this happening. We might even suspect that David’s words were a prophetic message foretelling God’s judgement, but Jesus continued in the next verse, “But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come“. Earthquakes were very much part of the apocalyptic vision recorded in Revelation. We read in Revelation 16:17-18, “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!” Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck—the worst since people were placed on the earth“. There was fire involved as well in the last days. Revelation 16:8, “Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire“. 

Earthquakes and fire are considered part of God’s judgement on the evil and wicked people who have populated Planet Earth. Up until now, we read that, “The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. … ” (Numbers 14:18a). ‭‭We are so thankful that God’s anger and judgement has been delayed because otherwise we would not be around today. As we read through Revelation we can see a series of world events that take place before the Time of the End in Revelation 20, but in Hebrews 9:27 we read, “ … each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment“. In these days on Planet Earth we live in a season of God’s grace. The Revelation 16 times of earthquakes and fire have yet to come. David did indeed prophesy about what was to come, and we pilgrims are in a place of God’s favour and grace, which we strive to share with others.

Dear Father God. To many people their lives will not end well as they stand before You on Judgement Day. But thank You that You have entrusted us with Your message of hope. Please help us to spread the word that “Jesus saves”. Amen.

The Ropes of Death

Posted on by korgrocker

“The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.”
Psalm 18:4-6 NLT

David painted a picture of a life-threatening situation with phrases like “ropes of death” and “floods of destruction”. But he followed his distressful experiences with cries and prayers for help which God heard from Heaven. Looking back at some of David’s experiences while being chased around the Middle East by King Saul, when he was forced to take refuge in all sorts of hideaways, we can appreciate the strength of his feelings. We can read about one of David’s experiences in 1 Samuel 23:7-8, “Saul soon learned that David was at Keilah. “Good!” he exclaimed. “We’ve got him now! God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself in a walled town!” So Saul mobilized his entire army to march to Keilah and besiege David and his men“. Because of the threat of being betrayed by the inhabitants of this walled city, and we read on, “So David and his men—about 600 of them now—left Keilah and began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t go to Keilah after all. David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him” (1 Samuel 23:13-14). So, in Psalm 18 David expressed poetically the close experience that he had had with death, if Saul had captured him. 

But take these verses in Psalm 18 about “ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” and overlay them on our lives today. First of all, the great majority of us do not walk about in fear that a 21st Century equivalent of King Saul is after us. But we do have many fears that threaten to do the same. Fears of financial ruin because of the loss of employment. Fears of an early death due to illness or disease. Fears of homelessness because our landlord wants to increase the rent beyond what we can afford. Fears of …. (add your own selection). And the result of our fears is that we worry. Sadly, it is almost as a last resort that we follow David’s example and “[cry] out to the Lord” and “pray to … God for help”. Jesus had some sound advice in His Sermon on the Mount. We read in Matthew 6:25-27, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” And the chapter finishes with “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today“.

Jesus wasn’t saying that we, as believers, will be immune from the problems that blight the lives of so many. Instead He said we should follow God and His ways, because by doing so we will find ourselves on a pathway along which our worries and anxieties will diminish. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus“. 

 “Ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” can never get in the way of our relationship with God. Yes, we may experience many troubles in this world, but Jesus said that He had overcome the world. Even now, there may be those amongst us who feel as though they are facing a fork in the road. To the left is the route of worry and anxiety, with our view firmly fixed on all the trials and troubles this world has to our doors. To the right is God’s way, the right way, where the trials and troubles still exist but we lift our eyes upwards to God and experience His peace and provision. He may or may not do something about our worldly situation but instead He will stand with us as we face our problems. Jesus said, “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:31-33). So there we have it.  “Ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” don’t appear in the Kingdom of God.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your provision and love. Regardless of our circumstances, we will worship You this day and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Worthy of Praise

Posted on by korgrocker

“I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my saviour; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.”
Psalm 18:1-3 NLT

Just a few words in Psalm 18:3, but David succinctly recorded that the Lord had saved him from his enemies, and by the way, he said that the Lord “is worthy of praise”. The previous two verses detailed David’s experience of God and he expressed his love to the Lord, “the power that saves [him]”. David’s declaration of being saved from his enemies wasn’t just hopeful talk. It actually happened on a number of occasions, and David died of old age in his bed, safe to the end. Through the prophet Nathan, God said this, “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth!” (2 Samuel 7:8-9). In 2 Samuel 22:1 we find “David sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul”, and the words of Psalm 18:1-3 follow. Before his encounter with Goliath, David said to Saul, “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”” (1 Samuel 17:37). And we know what happened next. David had much to thank and praise God for because even in the hardest times, the Lord was with him, as He promised.

What about us pilgrims? Do we also have much to praise and thank the Lord for? Of course we do, and we start at the Cross of Calvary. There the Son of God was crucified, taking on the punishment for sin that was rightly ours to bear. That in itself must surely drive us to our knees in an outburst of love, thanks and praise. Each of us individually is able to personally thank God for something he has done for us. Without that appreciation of our loving and gracious Heavenly Father, we might dare to think that something good that has happened to us was because of our own efforts. But we read the truth in James 1:17, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow“. 

So we pilgrims look to our Saviour God, deeply grateful for all He has done for us. Sometimes it’s worth sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil, and writing down all the ways God has blessed us. There is no end to them, if we’re honest. Sadly, we so often dwell on the larger blessings but overlook the many ways that God blesses us day by day. We start the day with a blessing because we have woken up, and have before us a day of opportunities in His service. But in it all, God is “worthy of praise”, not just because of His blessings but because He is God. Our loving, gracious, merciful Creator. None other is worthy of praise like our God.

Dear Loving Heavenly Father. We praise You today because You are worthy. There is no-one like you. Ever. Amen.

An Outburst of Praise

Posted on by korgrocker

“I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my saviour; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.”
Psalm 18:1-2 NLT

The preamble to this Psalm records that David wrote it “on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul”. But David didn’t just write it, he sang it. David was an extraordinarily gifted man, able to govern wisely, a giant killer, a musician, song writer and singer, and all because he was favoured by the Lord. If David was asked about all his gifts, I’m sure he would have pointed to Heaven and say it was all because of His Lord.  In these first two verses of Psalm 18, look at the words David used in his song of praise and thanks. He wrote that the Lord was his “strength“, his “rock”, his “fortress”, his “Saviour”, his “shield”, and he finishes with the Lord being “the power that saves [him], and [his] place of safety”.What an accolade! David would have been the sort of person who you wanted to have around in church, encouraging people in their faith.

There was a time when David lived for a time in a cave, an account which we can read in 1 Samuel 22, but the first two verses read, “So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men“. There was something about David that drew people to him, and even his oldest brother, Eliab, who was recorded as saying to David, “But when David’s oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking to the men, he was angry. “What are you doing around here anyway?” he demanded. “What about those few sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle!”” (1 Samuel 17:28). There were some interesting family dynamics in David’s life!

But David was quick to credit the Lord with all His blessings so freely poured out on him. God was there for David through some difficult times and David was quick with his thankful responses to his Lord and God. Note though, that God didn’t take away the circumstances that David encountered in his life, but He did keep David safe within them. It is the same with all His people. We live in a sinful and wicked world, but that is how it is for human beings. Because of sin this world is a hostile place for God’s people, but as Jesus said to His disciples, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Think of all those people who have fallen away from the faith because they mistakenly thought God would save them from all their troubles. Instead of saving them from their troubles, God will save them within them. David knew that and we know from previous Psalms that he was always ranting about the wicked people, his enemies, who continually caused him grief, but in this Psalm David is singing his heart out with a song of praise and thankfulness.

What about us pilgrims? What problems are we facing into at the moment? Financial issues? Worries about our families? Anxieties about the state of the world, with the wars and famines? When Jesus said that he had “overcome the world” He proclaimed that He was bigger than anything we will find in this life. And in faith we can start to thank God for being for us all the things He was to David, who lived in a much more dangerous time than we do. So today, can I hear a chorus of praise and thanks to God, a song penetrating the dark fogs of 21st Century Planet Earth? Of course I can. We all can. Because we are the choir, practising for the time when we will indeed spend eternity praising the One who saved this sad, bad world.

Dear God. You have the world in which we live snuggled in the palm of Your hand, and in spite of all its sin and wickedness. Thank You for the assurance that You are standing with us through every circumstance. Amen.

Satisfied Hunger

Posted on by korgrocker

“Arise, O Lord! Stand against them, and bring them to their knees! Rescue me from the wicked with your sword! By the power of your hand, O Lord, destroy those who look to this world for their reward. But satisfy the hunger of your treasured ones. May their children have plenty, leaving an inheritance for their descendants. Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.”
Psalm 17:13-15 NLT

Again, a theme of the difference between people who “look to this world for their reward” and God’s “treasured ones”, a difference between unbelievers and believers, finishes Psalm 17. At first glance, David would seem to be obsessed by God’s judgement of the wicked unbelievers, comparing them with the lot of the favoured believers, between those heading for a lost eternity, and those who will go to live with God forever. But then what could be more important? Compared to eternity, the life span of a human being is indeed infinitesimally short. James 4:14, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone”. Eternity is a concept that is difficult to imagine, because humans are constrained in a temporal world, the result of sin with lives cut short in a cursed world, a world that, as Paul wrote in Romans 8:22, “ … has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time“. But in this world, the believers and unbelievers jostle along, side by side, heading for a final separation at the End of the Age. 

David wrote that the unbelievers, by their choices, will end up satisfied with the things of this world, a portion allotted to them as a reward for their brief life. In 1 Timothy 6:7, Paul wrote this to Timothy, “After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it“. That is the truth about temporal rewards. So many people spend their short lives trying to accumulate wealth, property, goods, and the things of this world, only to reflect on their death beds that none of it can go with them across the Great Divide. And we even find that such people find that their lives are shortened by the stresses and anxieties involved in the process. 

Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:19-21). We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, echoing David’s prayer for God to “satisfy the hunger of [His] treasured ones”. Our “daily bread” isn’t just the food we eat of course. It also refers to our spiritual “bread”, the Word of God that sustains our souls. God’s food is a complete formula designed for the health and wellbeing of all. 

David finished Psalm 17 with the thought that one day he will wake up and see God’s face. I sometimes think of Lazarus, graveyard dead and who had been buried in a tomb four days previously. He was wrapped in grave-clothes, lying on a cold slab in a rock tomb, when suddenly through the cloth strips covering his ears, he heard someone calling his name with a loud voice. Jesus, of course, called out, “Lazarus, come forth” or probably more colloquially, “Lazarus, come out of there!” and that was enough to miraculously wake him up and completely reverse the decaying process. We next find Lazarus hopping his way out of the hole in the rock, constrained by the strips of cloth that had been tightly wrapped around him. I would have loved to have been there, seeing the reaction on people’s faces, but the thrust of this story is what it could mean for all believers one day. After we too have died, will the next thing we hear be the voice of Jesus calling our names? What applied to Lazarus will apply to us as well, because we too have been called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light. Lazarus woke up in a dark tomb to then continue his previous earthly life, having to die again one day, but we will wake up to a life with God, and, as David wrote, “be satisfied”. 

David was certain that because he was righteous then he will see God one day. We have the same assurance, because Jesus Himself gave us His righteousness in exchange for our sin. That momentous day on a hill called Calvary was enough for Jesus to take on all our sins, receiving the punishment that was ours to bear. And amazingly, because of Jesus, we will see God one day. Too good to be true? Too good not to be.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Son Jesus and all He did for us. May we live our lives honouring to You, day by day. Amen.