July 25, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Ester 6:1-9:19; Acts 16:1-24

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Psalm 4

1     Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!

You have relieved me in my distress;

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

     2     O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?

How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?     Selah.

     3     But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;

The Lord hears when I call to Him.

     4     Tremble, and do not sin;

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.     Selah.

     5     Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

And trust in the Lord.

     6     Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”

Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!

     7     You have put gladness in my heart,

More than when their grain and new wine abound.

     8     In peace I will both lie down and sleep,

For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

NASB95^[1]

This Psalm speaks of a time when David was in distress.  He is praying for relief, in other works, he was right in the middle of distress when he wrote this song. This Psalm is easier understood if you see it as several people speaking.

David speaks, v. 1:  He calls out to the Lord for deliverance, and for an answer to prayer.  He begs for God to hear his prayer.

God speaks v. 2:  God asks how long that men will pursue worthless things rather than following after Him.  God indicates that to honor Him has become a reproach to men.

When I hit this verse, I stalled out.  I was not able to concentrate on the study any longer and I figured I was just tired from being up all night.  On the contrary, I needed to step back away from the study for a few hours to think on the truth in this statement.  Suppose that we are comfortable in our sin, we are used to it, and we know what to expect from our sinful lives.  Whatever that may be for you, whatever it is that you put as more important than God.  Think of that, and consider why it is more important than God is in your life.  Why is it that we keep tripping back into the same snares that we know are already standing in our way?

Why do we love what is worthless, and constantly live lives of deception before God?  I propose that we do this because we are used to living in the darkness, it is familiar to us and we feel that we have prospered living in the darkness.  The darkness that is in our lives is part of our identity, it is part of what we are made up of. 

I thought further on this, and even dreamed about it when I was sleeping this afternoon.  I saw myself with a drawn sword, it was caked with blood, dirt, tarnish and feces.  I was trying to polish the sword with hay and stubble that I had available from a straw thatched hut I was outside of.  It occurred to me as I worked away at the sword that I was able to get it to reflect a little light from the mirror finish that the master craftsman had put on the sword, but only a little bit.  To sharpen the sword was out of the question because I could not improve upon the edge that the master craftsman had put on the sword, any attempt that I would make to sharpen the sword would compromise the mirror finish that was on the sword.  Why did the sword fall into such a state of disrepair?  Suppose I do not value the sword as a weapon in my life, rather it is a threat to the comfortable lifestyle that I am used to. 

That is where we are at, God has called each of us to be better than we are.  He has called us to live lives of joy, peace, happiness, safety, affection, and intimacy with Him.  Yet we keep going after sin rather than fully going after the promises that God has placed in our lives.  Yesterday I sat down and watched part of "Brave heart" by Mel Gibson;  it colored my thinking on this study.  Early in the movie William's family was killed and he went away with his uncle to be trained.  When he returned, he was thatching the roof to his old house, and the men of the village came up to him to see if he would join them in battle.  William stated that he returned to raise crops and to re-establish his farm, he had no interest in fighting.  Circumstances drove him to develop an intense passion that caused him to pick the sword back up and to go to battle. 

God has bestowed on each one of us honor as warriors.  He has equipped each of us with a sword, and given each of us armor to put on our bodies to protect ourselves.  Yet we prefer to store away the sword, leave the armor in a heap in the corner of a storage room and raise our crops our own way.  We don't want to fight, we want to live out our lives in our grass huts, mucking out a living by wallowing in the mud and digging in the dirt.  We are comfortable in our miserable states, we are comfortable living our lives as we have established them.  God's call to better things is ignored, we aim at worthlessness and deception, thus considering taking up the sword as foreign to us.

What are we putting our trust into rather than trusting in God as we are called to do?  Is it in our jobs, retirements, families, social clubs, motorcycles, trucks, atv's, sports, pornography, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, financial security, the list is endless.  We trust in what we have put as more important than God is in our lives, thus what we have placed above God has become our god.  This is not what we want, this is what we are comfortable with.  God has called us to a better way, but it means that we have to step out to follow Him.  The question each of us has to answer for ourselves is whether or not verse two is valid in our lives?  How can we answer the two questions that God asks?  What are we going to do about it?  On with the study!

Verse 3, David speaks:  David knew that God had set him apart as godly for God's use.  Not only that David knew that God was listening for him to call out to God. 

Consider this, the opposite is also true, David also knew that if he did not call out to God, that God would be standing by waiting for his call.  God is listening for the call from his warriors, He doesn't demand that the warriors come calling. 

Verses 4-5 David's advice:  Move to holiness, take action in your life to be fearful of entering into sin and boogering up your relationship with God.  Be afraid to sin, be afraid to stray away from God, think on it when you are sleeping.  Do everything possible to follow the Lord by offering yourself as a spiritual sacrifice to Him.  Place your complete trust in the Lord.

Verse 6, The world responds:  In a nutshell, the world responds back by asking why it should have to do the work?  Why can't God just shine His light on them and make them better?  Why can't God do all the work and we bask in the benefit of God's effort?

This is the attitude of the world as a whole, we don't want to do the work, we are lazy.  We want God to bless us and bestow great joy and peace on our lives.  We don't want to have to work to get the blessings.  This is where the misconception of grace comes to play.  Grace doesn't mean that we no longer have to work or labor to follow God.  Grace simply means that our sin is already covered with the blood of Jesus.  We still have to learn to walk, and our fellowship with God will not grow as long as we are expecting Him to do all the work.

Verses 7-8, David tells of his condition:  God's gladness is better than the false gladness that is gained from being drunk or financially secure.  God's peace follows you to bed, and causes you to live in safety in Him.

Think about that, and reflect on what David speaks as to the value of God's working in his life.  Note also that David spoke of the work that was required in verses 4-5.  In other words, God will not bestow upon you great blessings simply because you believe in Him.  God expects you to make an effort to follow Him, then when you make the effort, God will lavish you with safety, gladness of heart, and peacefulness in your life. 

Return to verse 1, we cry out to God to deliver us, yet David makes it clear that we must be willing to do the work.  David prays, he gives us God's view of our selfishness, then gives us practical advice for drawing near to God.  He supplies the sword, and the armor, but if we are not willing to put it on and to walk to battle, we won't be warriors.  God calls us to lives of action, each of us have to determine in our hearts to pull away from what we have become comfortable with, turn to God, and make a conscious effort to follow Him.

I am going to close here, all comments are welcomed.

Father, as we consider Your word today, shine the light in our lives, draw us from our comforts and show us a better way.

In Him,

Joe Turner.