Reflections on Psalm 63

(It's been over one year since I blogged, but thanks to the encouragement of a friend, I might start again! May the Lord bless you!)

 

Psalm 63:1-8

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praise with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”

• Seek God Sincerely

God is worth knowing. Christ is infinitely worth knowing. He needs to be and must be the all consuming passion of the Christian life. He is the reason we live, and His glory is the purpose for which we live. I need to ask myself, “Do I have a thirst for God?” “Do I seek after Him, thirst for Him, desire to know Him?” Do I see His glory being put on display in my life?” A.W. Tozer wrote, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.” Seek God sincerely.

Remember God’s Righteousness

•  Take time to reflect upon all that the Lord has done for you. No situation is too hopeless and no need is too great for Him to take care of. If our greatest need, which is the removal of the wrath of God towards our sin, has been taken away by Christ, if we can trust Him to care of that need, we can surely trust Him to take care of all our much lesser needs. Remember the faithfulness of God in your life.

Praise God Passionately

•  
  The Name of the Lord is worthy to be praised. Pursue a life that offers praise to God from a heart of joy. Day and night think about the wonders He has done in your life and thank Him for them. Reflect on His attributes displayed through His Word, which will produce a heart overflowing with gratefulness and praise.
   
   

Cling to God Closely

•  In God alone there is an everlasting refuge that cannot be shaken. God’s Word is full of invitations by Him to His people to put their full confidence in His protecting strength and unconditional love. I know that for me, clinging to God is one of the most important things in my Christian walk. Sometimes, it is all I can do! (Even when I don’t cling to the Lord, He is always holding on to me!) We must always be clinging to God closely. In times of peace and prosperity we need to thank God that He is the sustainer of our lives and the giver of every good thing. In times of difficulty and discouragement, we still need to thank God and rejoice in His goodness. In times of spiritual trial and doubt we must choose to cling to the promises of God that remain unshaken rather than react according to our feelings. Choosing joy is something God requires of us, and we are able to choose and display joy in our lives when we cling closely to God.

Personal Holiness: Hating What is Evil

“It follows logically that the person who is seeking to demonstrate true “agape” love will also hate evil. Hating evil is the flip side of having love, which by definition, can’t be attracted to or “rejoice in unrighteousness: (1Corinthians 13:6). Since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), it follows that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Prov. 8:13). The believers will “abhor what is evil” (Rom. 12:9) because that’s what God does.

When we are faithful followers of Christ who seriously want to be known for our integrity we cannot accommodate any form or degree of evil. But that is often easier said than accomplished. The fight to avoid evil is part of the larger battle for personal holiness. Even Paul confessed, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate...For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish, But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man” (Rom. 7:14-15,19-22). It might be a struggle, but when a believer confronts sin and sometimes succumbs to it, his inner, godly self will, with God’s help, eventually disapprove and turn from the evil.

Conventional human wisdom says that the only way to hate evil is to be shocked by it. But the constant bombardment of our senses in today’s multimedia culture, with all its immorality and violence, makes it hard to be shocked by anything. Sadly, many believers amuse themselves with larger and more continual doses of worldly and ungodly diversions. They rationalize their behavior by believing that because they are Christians, exposure to sin and evil will not have a lasting effect on them. But in reality, such constant intake makes Christians immune to the shocking nature of evil, which of course lessens their resistance to evil and makes them more accommodating.

If we truly hate evil, however, we will want simply to avoid it in the first place. Consider the godly man in Psalm 1: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night: (vv. 1-2) We can’t flirt with sin and evil and not be affected by them.”

-Pastor John MacArthur, “The Power of Integrity: Building a Life Without Compromise”

Holiness

"Pursue...sanctification (holiness, set-apartness) without which no one will see the Lord." - Hebrews 12:14

 

"It is time for us Christians, to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient. It might be well if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms obedience and disobedience." - Jerry Bridges

What does it look like to be holy? What does it mean to obey God and "be holy as I am holy?" (1Pet. 1:17) What is happening in our churches, in our families, in my own life that tempts us and lures us and ensnares us so that we sin and disobey our Lord and Christ? “Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe God is more to be desired than life itself.” (John Piper)

God forgive us! Give me a heart for holiness! Break away any desire for even the slightest sin. Let me love Your goodness, Word, presence, conviction, discipline, commands. Let sin be so bitter to me, and let me discover that only in Christ is the sweetest fellowship and most blissful communion found! I am willing, because of the Cross which motivates me and the Holy Spirit who lives within me, to relinquish any movie, book, music, friend, website, media, hobby, attitude, action, or thought that would cause me to love sin, distance myself from Christ, pursue worldliness, dishonor my neighbor, or follow my own lust.

 

Let me remember that this world is not my home, and I am no longer my own. Give me the grace needed to obey You and the courage to fear You more than any man.

 

"Stamp eternity upon my eyeballs!" (Edwards) and let me live this life at all times with one eye upon heaven and Christ, my joy and my great reward!

 

"For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification (holiness). So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you." - 1 Thess. 4:7-8

Consecration and Worship

My God,

I feel it is heaven to please thee,

and to be what thou wouldst have me be.

O that I were holy as thou art holy,

pure as Christ is pure,

perfect as thy Spirit is perfect!

These, I feel, are the best commands in thy Book,

and shall I break them? must I break them?

am I under such a necessity as long as I live here?

Woe, woe is me that I am a sinner,

that I grieve this blessed God,

who is infinite in goodness and grace!

O, if he would punish me for my sins,

it would not wound my heart so deep

to offend him;

But though I sin continually,

he continually repeats his kindness to me.

At times I feel I could bear any suffering,

but how can I dishonour this glorious God?

What shall I do to glorify and worship

this best of beings?

O that I could consecrate my soul and body

to his service,

without restraint, for ever!

O that I could give myself up to him,

so as never more to attempt to be my own!

or have any will or affections

that are not perfectly conformed to his will

and his love!

But, alas, I cannot live and not sin.

O may angels glorify him incessantly,

and, if possible, prostrate themselves lower

before the blessed King of heaven!

I long to bear a part with them in ceaseless praise;

But when I have done all I can to eternity

I shall not be able to offer more than

a small fraction of the homage

that the glorious God deserves.

Give me a heart full of divine, heavenly love.

- Valley of Vision

Grace In Trials - Valley of Vision

Father of Mercies,
 Hear me for Jesus’ sake.
 I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee; it is of thy mercy I died not long ago; Thy grace has given me in the cross by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee, drawing me by thy great love, reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces, I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me, for it is hard to practise what I believe. Strengthen me against temptations. My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin, a river of corruption since childhood days, flowing on in every pattern of behaviour; Thou hast disarmed me of the means in which I trusted, and I have no strength but in thee.
Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways, but without thy grace to sustain me I fall. Satan’s darts quickly inflame me, and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand: Empower me against his wiles and assaults. Keep me sensible of my weakness, and of my dependence upon thy strength. Let every trial teach me more of thy peace, more of thy love.
Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces, and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me. May he confirm my trust in thy promised help, and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee, for Jesus’ sake.

-The Awakened Sinner, Valley of Vision

O my forgetful soul,
Awake from thy wandering dream, turn from chasing vanities, look inward, forward, upward, view thyself, reflect upon thyself, who and what thou art, why here, what thou must soon be.

Thou art a creature of God, formed and furnished by him, lodged in a body like a shepherd in his tent; Dost thou not desire to know God’s ways?

... O God, Thou injured, neglected, provoked Benefactor, when I think upon thy greatness and thy goodness I am ashamed at my insensibility, I blush to lift up my face, for I have foolishly erred. Shall I go on neglecting thee, when every one of thy rational creatures should love thee, and take every care to please thee?

I confess that thou hast not been in all my thoughts, that the knowledge of thyself as the end of my being has been strangely overlooked, that I have never seriously considered my heart-need. But although my mind is perplexed and divided, my nature perverse, yet my secret dispositions still desire thee. Let me not delay to come to thee; Break the fatal enchantment that binds my evil affections, and bring me to a happy mind that rests in thee, for thou hast made me and canst not forget me.

Let thy Spirit teach me the vital lessons of Christ, for I am slow to learn;
And hear thou my broken cries.
 

Living the Cross Centered Life: Parts Four and Five

Living the Cross Centered Life

Chapter Four
The Divine Dilemma: An Inescapable Penalty and a Longed-for Salvation

“Men are opposed to God in their sin,
And God is opposed to men in His holiness.”
-
J.I. Packer

· Why do you think many Christians are unfazed when they hear that God loves them?
Could it have anything to do with the fact that modern-day evangelicalism makes
little of God’s wrath against sin and focuses most of its attention on God’s
love and forgiveness? How can this be dangerous?
· When we begin to grasp the “terrible threat facing each of us in our human
condition”, shouldn’t we be more amazed and astounded at God’s love and
forgiveness?
· Contrast Psalm 5:5 in the NASB with the message:

“The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate
all those who do iniquity.”

“Hot-Air-Boaster collapses in front of you; you shake your head over Mischief-Maker.”

· Does God merely “shake His head” over our “mischief” or is He personally offended
and angered at our sin?
· The Divine Dilemma: 1 Timothy 1:17 vs. 1 Timothy 1:9-10
· C.J. writes, “For God, the divine dilemma comes about because He isn’t
indifferent to any of this sinfulness on mankind’s part. He is, in fact,
righteously and furiously opposed to every bit of it. He cannot simply overlook
or excuse it. In light of His holiness and justice, He has no alternative but
to punish sin and punish the sinner.”
· In our sinfulness, we have no other hope for redemption and forgiveness except to
cry out for a mediator, the Mediator, Jesus Christ, to save us.

Living the Cross Centered Life

Chapter Five
The Divine Rescue: Why Only Jesus Christ Could Save Us

“The debt was so great, that while man alone owed it,
only God could payit.”
-
Anselm

· Blood was necessary for forgiveness, but it doesn’t have to be our own.
·
Hebrews 9:22, “...without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
· 1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony
given at the proper time.”
· How do you respond to the truth that God, the righteous and offended party, in
amazing grace “toward those who thoroughly deserve only His wrath”, not only
allowed but planned the death and substitutionary work of His perfect Son,
Jesus Christ, so that unworthy wretches like you and me could stand blameless
and forgiven in His sight? 2 Corinthians 5:21/Hebrews 4:14-16/ 1 John 3:5
· Do I recognize my responsibility and do I have the desire to share this great news
with a lost and dying world, even if it will cost me? Luke 14:26-27