Psalm 73: Rescue the Perishing

"For behold, those who are far from you shall perish." (v.27)


I was not designed
to be on my own
to author my own story
to compose my own rules
to live with me in the center.
I was not designed
to look for life outside of You
to treasure the creation
to love people, places and things
more than You.
I was not designed
to rely on my wisdom
to trust my imagination
to rely on my thoughts
to igonore Your revelation.
I was not designed
to follow the path of my craving
to be enslaved to my desires
to be ruled by my passions
more than I am by You.
I was not designed
to put created things in Your place
to look to the creation
to fulfill the longings
that only You can fulfill.
I was not designed
to live for the moment
to ignore what is forever
to covet what is belongs to others
forgetting I've been given You.
I was not designed
to question Your goodness
to bring you to the court of my judgment.
to be bitter in my assessment
of the things You do.
I was not designed
to let my heart fill with envy
to be constantly accounting
to be jealous and untrusting
instead of resting in You.
I was not designed
to forget Your right hand that holds me
to ignore your good counsel
to not see that You're with me
I will be in glory with You.
I was not designed
to think I am living
to ignore the evidence that I'm dying
to forget that we perish
when separate from You.
So I acknowledge this morning
it is good to be with You
to make you my sole refuge
to speak daily of your workings
Whom do I have but You?
I praise you for rescue
for always holding me near You
for owning my hearts desirings
My life is You.

Psalm 73: The Distortion of Envy

"For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (v.2)


I have said it countless times and written about it often; as a human being made in God's image, you do not live life based on the facts of your experience, but based on your interpretation of the facts. No one acts, reacts and responds purely based on the actual facts of reality because the moment we are greeted with the facts, we take them into our hearts and process them. Our response is then based not so much on what is, but based upon what our heart has done with what is. Everyone of us is a philosopher, everyone of us is a theologian, everyone of us is an archaeologist who will dig through the past civilization of our own lives, trying to make sense of what has happened to us. Interpretation is an inescapable and profoundly important function of the human heart. The problem is that most often you and I are not aware that we are doing it, so our interpretation BECOMES our reality.

There is a second thing that I've often written and talked about, and when I say it to a crowd of people they always laugh even though I'm being quite serious; no one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You and I are in a constant conversation with ourselves and the things we say to ourselves about ourselves, God, others, and life are always formative. Our internal conversation shapes our external responses to the situations, locations, and relationships we live in.

Now, maybe you're thinking, "What in the world does this have to do with envy?" You must understand that envy is an interpretation. Envy is not an emotional response to what is. It is a particular interpretation of what is. Envy is a way of looking at and assessing what is that results in particular emotions and actions. But this needs to be said even more strongly; envy is not only an interpretation of what is, it is a distorted interpretation of what is. Envy is looking at life through a rippled window that will always distort whatever you see. In that way envy is madness. In its own way, envy separates you from reality. Envy expands certain facts, it neglects certain facts, and it reshapes certain facts; all the while presenting itself as a valid, accurate and reliable view of life. It makes you like the crazy guy on the street. What makes him crazy is that he doesn't know he is crazy. He looks, speaks and acts weirdly because what he thinks is real simply isn't real. Such is the world of envy. Envy is rooted in a distorted interpretation of life that will make you mad. Let me explain.

1. The distorted interpretation of envy makes it all about you. Envy always puts you at the center of your universe. It is all about what you have or don't have. It shrinks your world down to the Lilliputian size of your wants, your needs, and your feelings. The good life then becomes the life that you say is good for you and the bad life is bad because you say you are not getting what you want or need. In this system the world is evaluated solely on the basis of what you do or don't have. The problem is that life is not about you. You and I have been born into a world that by its very nature is a celebration of the glory of Another. I am not at the center of my world; God is. The fulfilling of my desires and needs is not the most important thing in the world; God's will is. Envy is angry because my kingdom doesn't seem to be coming and my will doesn't seem to be being done. Anytime you have you at the center of your world, you have a distorted perspective on what is.

2. The distorted interpretation of envy is always idolatrous. Envy always puts the creation in the place of the Creator. Envy evaluates life on the basis of physical experiences, relationships, and possessions. Envy says that the good life is all about having a bigger pile of creation stuff than your neighbor does. Envy is obsessively comparative; always weighing the size of your stuff against the stuff of the people that are near you. And why does envy do this? Because envy places it's identity, inner sense of well-being, and meaning and purpose in the basket of creation instead of in the hands of the Creator. Envy looks to creation for satisfaction and peace. Envy looks to creation for life. Envy looks to creation for what only the Creator can give.

3. The distorted interpretation of envy is self-righteous. What is the fundamental perspective of envy? Here it is; "I deserve better!" I am a better person than my neighbor, therefore, I should have more of this world's goods, relationships, and positive experiences than my neighbor. That fact that envy begins with "I deserve" is the dead give away of its distortion and danger. Envy isn't humble and approachable. It isn't honest and properly introspective. It doesn't weep over sins of the heart and hands. It isn't blown away at little blessings and major graces. Envy allows you to look at yourself in a carnival mirror. Yes, you are seeing you, but with distortion. It convinces you that you have done what you could never do and deserve what you could never have earned. Envy denies your crushing need for grace. It forgets that you've broken every law. It ignores the fact that each of us is a rebel and a fool, deserving only of God's rejection and wrath. Envy neglects to celebrate that every day you live and breathe you are afford gorgeous grace; because self-righteous people don't notice grace because they don't think they need it.

4. The distorted interpretation of envy is always short-sighted. Envy simply forgets that this is not all there is. Envy is very skilled at ignoring eternity. Envy has a truncated view of reality. Envy acts as if all there is is the here and now. So envy forgets that this is not a destination. This is not the final place of peace, rest and satisfaction. In that way, envy misses the whole point of the here and now. This present moment was not designed to be a destination. No, it is a preparation for a final destination. There are times when God ordains it to be hard because that's exactly what I need in order to be prepared for what's to come. In this way, the moments of lack that envy rages against, are actually moments of grace. No, I am not having my needs withheld, but in grace, am being given exactly what I need. While I am focused on the here and now, a lovely Savior is preparing me for what is to come.

5. The distorted interpretation of envy is the soil of other sins. Envy never stops with envy. It always produces other sins of the heart and life as well. Envy will cause you to bring God into the court of your judgment and to sentence him as being unfaithful, unloving, and unkind. Envy will make you angry and you'll act out that anger against the people who are near you. Envy will make you unloving and unkind, because, rather than considering the needs of others, you will be obsessively focused on your wants and needs. Envy will make you ungrateful. Envy will cause you to despise the blessings of others. Envy will put hatred in your thoughts and murder in your heart. It will cause you to will others ill instead of wanting blessing for them. Envy will cause you to say things you shouldn't say and do things you shouldn't do. Envy is a source sin.

Perhaps you're thinking, "Wow, Paul, this is really disheartening!" Well, here's the good news. Jesus conquered envy so you could too. His grace promises you a new heart. Because of his grace, you can grow in thankfulness and appreciation. Because of his grace, you can learn to run from old idols. Because of grace, you can find joy in loving others as you have been loved. Because of grace you can really come to believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Because of grace you can be free from a life that is self-centered and demanding, and begin to live a life that is Godward and thankful. Grace really does rescue you from you. The cross of Jesus Christ really is the only hope for the envious heart, because on that cross sin was defeated and righteousness was given. Trust the grace of Jesus and don't let the madness of envy control and defeat you.

Psalm 73: Too Easy to be Senseless

"I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you."


The driven, watchful envy of a horizontal pleasure-oriented heart will drive you crazy. It will not only rob you of your satisfaction and joy, it will take your humanity from you. It will turn you into a bit of a beast. It will make you more of a brute than a friend. It will eat your heart and consume your soul.

You see, if you somehow fall into thinking that life is found in the pleasures and comforts of the physical; created people; things and experiences of this here and now world; then that is what you will live for. You won't live for God. You won't live for the good of others. You won't be motivated by what is loving, good, true and wise. No, you will live for you, and whether you know it or not, everyday will be a hot personal pursuit of your private definition of pleasure. You will have you at the center of your will. You will be your own king, seeking the control over people and circumstances that is necessary to ensure that you will, in fact, get the things that you have set your heart on. You will become a hyper-vigilant observer of your own life and the lives of others. You will be an incessant pleasure/comfort accountant; measuring your experience of these things over against the experience of those around you. You will daily measure who has the biggest pile of pleasure and you will not be happy if it is not you. You will naturally judge that you are more deserving than your comfortable friends and you will question the goodness of God and the moral good of obeying, if, in reality, at the end of the day you end up with the shorter end of the stick. You will do this with regularity and perseverance, but you won't know you are doing it. You'll know that you're unhappy, but you will tell yourself that God has failed you. You will say that it simply is not fair that bad people get blessed while good people like you have to suffer through life with little. You will struggle to hold on to your faith, wondering if it is all worth it in the end.

What has happened is that the architecture of your life is shaped by an infrastructure of personal expectation and self-focused demands. You know all too well what you want from people and situations and you know what God needs to do in order for you to name him as good. What all of this means is that at the deepest, most profound and life-directing level of your heart, you have lost your senses. In the biblical sense of what the word means, you have gone mad. Sin has simply made you crazy. Without realizing it, you have taken on a distorted view of reality. You have a distorted view of yourself, others, life and God. Life will never operate the way you want it to. People will not submit to the laws of your kingdom for very long. God will not get up and give you his holy throne. Your reality is irrational and your hope is hopeless. Your dreams are gas. And the more you work to fill your heart, the emptier it becomes. The more you work to get your dream, the more it vaporizes in your hands. The more you live for you, the more envious you become. It is socially acceptable madness. It cannot and will not ever work.

Asaph's confession is insightful and indicting. There is a way in which it indicts us all, because in his confession, he calls us to examine what sin does to each of us. God hardwired us to be kingdom-oriented people. We were designed to live with both king and kingdom consciousness, because we were designed to live for him. The architecture of our lives was to be shaped by all of the plans, purposes, words,and actions that would flow out of these words, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It is inside the boundaries of these words that true and lasting peace of heart will only ever be found. Inside these boundaries is where real wisdom and real love lives. Inside this moral structure, life lives in gorgeous beauty. Outside is frustration, discouragement, anger, disappointment, and doubt. Sure, the temporary pleasures are pleasurable, but their shelf-life is short. The reality is that creation has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart. Your heart has been wired to find its hope, peace and rest in God alone.

Living for the pleasures of here and now, as the principle quest of your life, is a a vain attempt to re-create the world and how it was designed to operate. No, it is not wrong to find pleasure pleasurable. It is not ungodly to desire comfort. It is not evil to desire good and loving relationships. It is not wrong to appreciate beauty. But here's what you need to understand; all of these things were beautifully designed by God to point and connect you to him. These created pleasures were not made to be an end in themselves, but a means to an end. All of creation is a finger pointing to the Lord of creation in whom life can be found. Creation was made to introduce you to him over and over again. It was not meant to replace him.

Look around and you will see the evidence that we have gone crazy. We are a culture that is deeply in debt because our cravings are bigger than our means, and so we have charged ourselves into financial oblivion. Our cravings are bigger than what is needful and healthy, so we have eaten ourselves into ill health; obesity becoming a national health crisis. We have lived for the buzz; becoming addicted to an endless variety of substances and experiences that give us short term relief. We reduce one another to vehicles of happiness instead of objects of love; living in cycles of relational dysfunction and separation. We stand before closets that would clothe the third world and tell ourselves that we have nothing to wear. We stand in front of stuffed refrigerators and tell ourselves that we really have nothing to eat. We are jealous of one another and threatened by the prospect that the good life will pass us by, and we cope with it all by numbing ourselves with things that are not healthy, or with hour after hour of the brain-deadening pleasure-porn that we call entertainment. And we wake up no more at rest or at peace than the day before; hoping to succeed more, acquire more, enjoy more, possess more, experience more, love more, and feel more; all so we can smile more. We are driven and crazy and Psalm 73 gives us the answer.

Psalm 73 powerfully reminds us that this is not all there is. The name of the game is not personal, temporal pleasure. There is an end coming. All that is now wrong will be made right. You see, we are not only kingdom-oriented beings, we are beings with a future. We were made to live with God and for God - forever. In pointing us to the final end of all things, Psalm 73 tells us what the drama of life is all about. Although we were made to have God as the one life-shaping treasure of our hearts, sin turns us in on ourselves. It cause us to forget who we are and that God exists. It turns us into little self-sovereigns, wanting to reign for our own glory. But God, in his grace, invaded our madness in the person of His Son. Jesus did not transgress God's boundaries. He did not live for his pleasure. He lived a life that was perfect in his Father's eyes. But he did more, he willing took the penalty of our selfishness on himself. On the cross he was punished for us and purchased our forgiveness. But there is still more. He gave us his righteous. In Jesus, all who believe not only don't get what they deserve (condemnation), they are given what they have not earned (righteousness). Because of this forgiveness and righteousness, we are accepted into God's family forever. Psalm 73 reminds us that the crisis of the human existence is not that we are horizontally unfulfilled, but that we are vertically cut off. Grace connects us once again to God, and in so doing, to the one place where are hearts can find rest and we can be given back our senses. Grace not only connects you to God, but delivers you from you and from the madness of you and your propensity to make life about little more than you in the here and now.

Psalm 73: Judgment Day

"For behold, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you." (v.28)


To transgressing of your boundaries
You will put an end.
To human thoughts of autonomy
You will put an end.
To delusions of self-sufficiency
You will put an end.
Grace forbids these going on forever.
To acts of violence and deeds of greed
You will put an end.
To the burn of lust
You will put an end.
To injustice and inhumanity
You will put an end.
Grace prohibits these going on forever.
To the silent writing of my own law
You will put an end.
To using others for personal pleasure
You will put an end.
To robbing you of divine glory
You will put an end.
Grace won't tolerate these going on forever.
To disobedience to parents
You will put an end.
To gossip and slander
You will put an end.
To the worship of comfort
You will put an end.
Grace wars against these going on forever.
To self-aggrandizing pride
You will put an end.
To self-oriented envy
You will put an end.
To subtle daily idolatries
You will put an end.
Grace will not permit these going on forever.
To desire-driven lawlessness
You will put an end.
To attempts at self-sovereignty
You will put an end.
To denial of what is true.
You will put an end.
Grace restricts these going on forever.
To denial of You and the elevation of self
You will put an end.
To mockery of what is good
You will put an end.
To the love of what is foolish
You will put an end.
Grace will not allow these going on forever.
What is now will not go on
forever.
This world is marching toward
an end.
We can embrace the hope of
justice.
Final judgment is coming.
Grace requires evil to die forever.
Those far from You will
perish.
Those unfaithful to You will
come to an end.
I have been unfaithful to you.
I have chosen to be far from you.
I have broken each of your laws.
But I am not afraid of what
You will put to an end.
Grace has drawn me near to you.
Grace has paid for my unfaithfulness.
Grace has made me clean in Your eyes.
Grace put my stripes on Jesus
so I would not face them
when you put what is now
to an end.

Psalm 73: Location, Location, Location

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge..." (v.28)


The experts say that there are only three things to consider when buying a piece of property; location, location, location. The same could be said about life. Life is about about location, location, location, and when you understand this you live in a radically different way. Confused? Let me point you to four ways in which location matters.

1. Location, location, location: You live in a dramatically fallen world.
You simply have to be prepared. You simply have to understand. You simply have to live with realistic expectations. You simply must bring a biblical understanding to the place where you now live or you will be constantly unprepared and disappointed. You and I live in a very, very, broken world where there is trouble on every side. Your body and your mind are affected by the fall and don't always work the way they should. Your family and friendships will not work as they were designed. The government over you does not function as it was created to function. The physical environment is broken and suffers under the weight of the fall. The Apostle Paul says it very well in Romans 8; "the whole world groans, waiting for redemption." There's no escaping it; you are located in a place where trouble of some kind will greet you every day. You live in a place where somehow, someway, temptation will greet you every day. The more you face the harsh reality of how broken your world is, the more you will live prepared for the troubles that come your way.

2. Location, location, location: The big battle is fought in your heart.
In acknowledging the brokenness of the world where you live, you do not want to give way to spiritual environmentalism where you blame all of your struggles on things outside of you. That was the mistake of the medieval monastery. The thought was that the way to live a righteous life was to separate yourself from the evil world around you; so the monastics built walled communities of separation. But as it turned out, these communities tended to repeat all of the ills of the surrounding world from which they had separated. Monasteries were a failure because they neglected one very significant biblical truth; the biggest danger to every human being is located inside of him not outside of him. There is something dark and deceitful that still lurks in the heart of every one of God's children who has not yet been fully glorified; sin. It is only ever the sin inside of me that draws and hooks me to the sin outside of me. The big battle for righteousness is always fought inside of you and not outside of you. Every day there is a war fought for control of your heart and your jealous Savior, with the zeal of gorgeous redemptive love, will not share your heart. He will not rest until your heart is ruled by him and him alone.

3. Location, location, location: You will run somewhere for refuge.
In the middle of trouble, when you are in the heat of the battle, you will run somewhere for refuge. You will run somewhere for rest, comfort, peace, encouragement, wisdom, healing, and strength. Asaph gets it right at the end of this psalm of trouble and hope; there is only one place to run where true protection, rest, and strength can be found. You and I must learn to make the Lord our refuge. The are many false refuges that we tend to run to. Perhaps in trouble you run to another person, hoping that they can be your own personal messiah. Perhaps you run to entertainment, hoping to numb your troubles away. Maybe you run to a substance, trying your best to turn off the pain. Maybe you are tempted to run to food or sex, fighting pain with pleasure. Since none of these things can provide the refuge which you seek, putting your hope there tends to just add disappointment to the trouble you're already experiencing. God really is your refuge and strength. Only he rules every location where your trouble exists. Only he controls all the relationships where disappointment will rear its head. Only he has the power to rescue and deliver you. Only he has the grace you need to face what you are facing. Only he holds the wisdom that, in trouble, you so desperately need. Only he is in and with you and for you at all times. He is the refuge of refuges. Do you run to him?

4. Location, location, location: Where you are heading, trouble will be no more.
You could argue that the biblical story is about three locations. The Garden in Genesis that was a location of perfection and beauty, but became a place of sin and trouble. The hill of Calvary that was a place of horrible suffering and transforming grace. And the New Jerusalem, that place of peace and refuge; lit by the brightness of the Son, which will be our final refuge forever. Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, your story will not end with daily trouble and temporary refuge. No, your final location will be utterly unlike anything you have ever experienced, even on your best and brightest day. You are headed for the New Jerusalem, where the final tear will be dried and trouble will be no more.

Today you will face trouble of some kind. Today you will run somewhere for refuge. Today there is hope and help to be found. May God be your refuge, and as you run to him, may you remember that he has promised you that there will be a day when you trouble is no more.

Psalm 73: Getting It Right

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." (v.28)


It is a grace to get it right because so often I get it wrong. No, I don't mean that I fall into gross and willing sin and I don't mean that I am seduced by the old arguments of new atheism. No, I don't mean that I occasionally question the tenets of my faith or question whether ministry is really worth it. No, getting it wrong is much more subtle than that. Getting it wrong is not about the big, dramatic, consequential moments of life. No, getting it wrong is much more about the little mundane moments of everyday life. It is very easy to let up your guard and be all too relaxed in these moments precisely because they are little moments. It is also tempting to minimize the wrong choices that you make in these little moments because they are little moments. But the opposite is true. The little moments of life are profoundly important because they are little moments. Little moments are the moments we live in everyday. The character and course of a person's life is not set in three or four grand, significant moments of life. No, the character of a person's life is shaped in 10,000 little moments of life. It is the character that was formed in the mundane that you carry into those rare consequential moments of life.

The last verse of Psalm 73 is a manual on getting it right and because it is, it is also a manual on what it looks like to get it wrong. Getting it right means acknowledging God's presence, remembering his rescue, and obeying his call.

Getting it right: Acknowledging God's Presence. Perhaps there are no more important words to have constantly ringing in the ears of your heart than these, "...it is good to be near God." "Near God" is something you could never have earned, deserved, or personally achieved." "Near God" is the exact opposite of where sin takes you. "Near God" brought Jesus to earth and required him to die. "Near God" restores to you what sin destroyed and what only grace can restore. "Near God" is where you were designed to live. It is very important that grace has brought you close to God once again. Grace means he is in you and you are in him. Grace has made it impossible for you to be alone. You see, God's greatest gift to you is the gift of himself! But you and I don't always acknowledge his presence. There are moments in life when we get it wrong; where we live as if he doesn't exist and is not near. When we do this we either panic in the face of the normal difficulties of life in this fallen world and in the face of the perplexities of God's sovereign plan or we fall into trying to do God's job, and in so doing, complicate our lives all the more. Are you getting it right; does your daily living celebrate that grace has brought you near to God and God near to you?

Getting it right: Remembering God's Rescue. In a fallen world, that does not operate in the way that the Creator intended and where temptation and danger are encountered every day, these words are vital as well, "...I have made the Lord God my refuge." Under the heat of life in this broken world you will become weary, wounded and discouraged and when you do you will run somewhere for refuge. It is vital to remember that God is the only hiding place worth running to. It is he and he alone who can heal the wounds of your heart. It is he and he alone that can give you the strength you need to get up once more and continue. It is he and he alone that can give inner peace when there is little peace to be found around you. It is he and he alone that can forgive you when you have sinned and strengthen you when you are weak. But often we forget that grace has given us refuge. We forget that God welcomes us to run to him. So we run to the creation rather than the Creator for refuge, and when we do, we never get the solace for which we are seeking. We may successfully numb ourselves for a while and we may distract ourselves for a while, but our hearts are not strengthened or encouraged. Because the replacement refuges of people and things cannot relieve our burdens, but only distract us from them, we have to go back to them again and again. Sadly, when we get it wrong, forgetting that God is our refuge, while running to people and things, we never end up strengthen and encouraged. No, we only end up fat, addicted, and in debt. Are you getting it right? When you are weak, weary, and discouraged do you run to the one refuge that can provide refuge; your Lord?

Getting it right: Obeying God's Call. Getting it right is not only about living in the comfort of God's presence and refuge, but it is also about answering his call. Getting it right is about constantly remembering that God gives you himself and his grace not so that you can make your little kingdom work the way that you want it to work. No, he gives you the grace of his nearness and the grace of refuge so that you will have what you need to give you to the thing to which he has called you; the big sky work of his kingdom of grace and redemption. "...That I may tell of his works," says it very well. No longer do I live for my own glory; the glory of getting what I want, indulging what I feel, and satisfying my needs. No, I now live with the recognition that I have been sovereignly gifted and positioned so that all that I do and say would point the people around me to the one glory that will only ever satisfy their hearts; the glory of God. And I live looking for opportunities to point to his work as Creator, his work as Sovereign, and his work as Savior. But sadly, I don't always get it right. Often I live as if there were few things as important as my schedule, my plans, my comfort, and my success. Where the rubber meets the road in daily live, I put myself in the center of my world and forget that that place had been reserved for God alone. When I make it all about me, I live in low-grade frustration and irritation and I miss the daily opportunities that God gives for me to connect myself to something that is vastly bigger and fundamentally better. Are you concretely living for something bigger than your own daily agenda?

Because of God's grace, we often get it right; but because of remaining sin, we so often get it wrong. In which place are you living today? May your hands be productive because in your heart you get it right (God is near, he is my refuge, and I will obey his call.)

Psalm 73: Immanent Sovereignty

"But it is good to be near God." (v.28a)


You are not a distant Lord,
a detached Master
moving the pawns
on the board
in an impersonal act
of winning.
Your Lordship
does not separate
me from you
as a serf
would be separated
from a king.
No, you accomplished
your sovereign plan
by invading my
dark and messy world
in the person
of your Son,
giving yourself
in radical grace
to people
who saw no value
in your nearness.
You are Master,
but you are
Emmanuel.
You are Lord,
but you are
Father.
You are King,
but you are
Friend.
You are Sovereign
but you are
Shepherd.
Your rule is not from
afar.
No, your rule brings you
near.
I have hope today
because you are not
distant.
And I celebrate
the amazing
rest and strength
to be found in the reality that
your sovereignty
has brought you
near.

Psalm 73: Desire

"...And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you." (v.25b)


You and I are creatures of desire. There is nothing you ever choose, do, or say that is not the product of desire. Desire not only directs your choices, it shapes your dreams. Desire forms your moments of greatest joy and darkest grief. Desire makes you envious of one person while being glad you're not another. Desire keeps you awake at night or puts you soundly to sleep. Desire makes you willing to get up in the morning or causes you to be frustrated at the end of the day. Desire makes you expectant and hopeful in one moment, and demanding and complaining in the next. Desire sometimes makes you susceptible to temptation and at other times is the thing that defends you against it. Desire can lift you up to God or it can make you a willing friend of the devil. Desire can make you a celebrant or drive you to the pit of depression. Desire can make you the best of friends or cause you to drive people away. Desire can cause you to lovingly edit your words or make you willing let it rip with little regard for the damage your words will do. Desire will make you willing to give or cause you to hoard everything you have. Desire will cause you to submit to the King or to set yourself up as king. Desire can cause you to fight for freedom or can be the very thing that causes you to be addicted. Desire can give you power or rob you of the power that could be yours. Desire is your biggest problem and one of God's sweetest graces. But there is one thing for sure; your life is always shaped by desire.

The great spiritual war that is being fought for control of our hearts is a war of desire. (See James 4:1-4 and I Peter 2:11). Remember this biblical principle; whatever rules your heart will control your words and behavior. You and I are human beings. We do not live by instinct. We have been designed by God with the capacity to desire. This means that everything you do or say is done or spoken out of the want for something. You and I are always seeking something. You and I are always living for something. Beneath everything we do is the desire for something. It is here that the war of right and wrong is fought. It is here that the direction of our lives will be shaped. You cannot let yourself think that the war for what is right is a war of behavior. If you fight the battle of behavior alone, the battle will not be won. You must be willing to fight the spiritual fight at the place where your behavior is formed; in the desires of the heart.

Every day, in all the situations and relationships of your life, this war rages. It is about whether you will live in fear of man of fear of God. It is about whether you will live to possess some part of the creation or live to please the Creator. It is about whether you will live to achieve some personal success or live in the way the Creator designed you to live. This war is about what you treasure the most and want the most. This war is about what set of desires will set the agendas for the way that you will respond in the situations and relationships where God has placed you. Spiritual warfare is all about the desires of the heart.

Now, I would invite you to be humbly honest in this moment. What do you really want? If you were to respond to the following, how would you fill in the blanks? "If only I could have ______________ then my life would be ______________ ? It is so easy for us to say that we are living for God, when, in fact, at the street level our lives are often shaped by the anxious pursuit of other things. Perhaps for you that is the desire to get married that preoccupies too much of your thinking and shapes too many of your choices. Perhaps for you it is the desire to be successful that has eaten your schedule with frantic workaholism. Perhaps it is the desire for physical things that has left you empty and in debt. Perhaps it is the desire to avoid failure that has made you more demanding and controlling than you thought you would ever be. Perhaps it is the desire for physical health that has reduced you to fearful body self-consciousness. Perhaps it is the desire for ministry success that has turned you into more of a mini-messiah than a servant. Perhaps it is the desire for comfort and ease that has caused you to be way too self-absorbed. Or maybe it is the desire to be affirmed and respected that causes you to ride the roller-coaster of people's responses to you. Where does the war of desire rage for you?

Could you say with David, "There is nothing on earth I desire besides you?" Does this sound ethereal and impractically super-spiritual to you? Does it feel like a moral impossibility to you? In fact, David is expressing in a phrase exactly where God wants each of us to be. It is the reason each of us was given life and breath. We were made for God. We were created to love him above all else. We were designed to live with his glory as the single motivator of all that we do. Desire for him was intended to shape all the other desires that we would rightly have. You see, it is not wrong to desire comfort, acceptance, peace, success, order, health, etc... In fact, there would be something wrong with you if you did not desire these things in some way. But these desires must never rule you, because when they do they replace God as the ruler of your heart. The move from desire to idolatry is a shockingly short step.

So, we all need to cry out for help once more, we all need to seek God's rescue and his power, because we must all humbly admit that there is evidence in our daily living that the war of desire still rages in our hearts. There are times when Jesus is our priceless treasure, but there are other times when we would rather have other things than him. This means that we cannot quit seeking his help until the day when we are able to say with complete singleness of heart, "...There is nothing on earth I desire besides you."

Psalm 73: Where do you Run? Where do you Hide?

"...I have made the Lord God my refuge,..." (v.28)

When it all becomes
confusing,
when what is good
seems not so
clear,
when wrong seems
like its
winning,
where do you
run
where do you
hide?
When you wonder
if its worth it to
honor
worship
fear
obey,
where do you
run
where do you
hide?
When disappointment
surrounds you
and weariness sets in,
where do you
run,
where do you
hide?
When your soul
is growing
bitter
and you heart is at its
end,
where do you
run,
where do you hide?
When evil seems to
prosper and good suffers
again,
where do you
run,
where do you
hide?
When my flesh is
weak
and my heart may
fail,
there is one thing I have
learned;
You are the only place of
refuge,
You are the only place to
hide.
You are
Counsel
Guidance
Glory
Strength.
I have nothing besides
You.
So in the darkness of
confusion
when I need a place to
hide,
I run to the only place to
hide.
I run to
You.

Psalm 73: The Old Story

"I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." (v.28b)


In case you hadn't notice it, your Bible isn't arranged by topic. I know that this frustrates some of you. You wish that your Bible was structured like an encyclopedia which alphabetized tabs on the side of the page so you could easily find your subject of interest. But your Bible isn't organized that way and that is not because of Divine editorial error, but because of Divine intention. Your Bible is a narrative; a story. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that your Bible is a theologically annotated story; a story with God's notes. The grand, over-arching story of Scripture is meant to be the story that unpacks and makes sense of the story of your life and my life.

Your Bible is not a collection of religious stories. No, it is one story, the grand story of redemption. The Bible has one central character; God himself, specifically in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. From cover to cover the Bible is a narrative of the wondrous works of a God. Perhaps the four most important words in all of Scripture are the first four words; "In the beginning God..." You simply cannot understand yourself, your world, and the meaning and purpose of life unless you view them from the vantage point of the existence, character, and plan of God.

This grand story of the works of God that the Bible records is meant to give you:

1. IDENTITY. The only way you can properly understand who you are and what you were given life and breath to do, is when you look at yourself through the lens of the narrative of Scripture. It is only here that you will learn that you were made by God and for God; that everything you are and have comes from him and that you were made to live for something vastly bigger than yourself.

2. UNDERSTANDING: You will never know all that you need to know, in order to live as you were designed to live by human experience, research, and analysis. That is why God immediately began to talk with Adam and Eve after he created them. He knew that they were not designed with the innate ability to figure it all out on their own. So God spoke to them. In the same way, God speaks to us in his Word so that we can know and understand, and in knowing and understanding live as we were created to live.

3. COMFORT: The world in which you live can be very confusing. You see this confusion even in this Psalm, when it looks like the bad guys are winning. It often seems like the world has spun into chaos. It sometimes looks like there is little reason and purpose to the things that happen to us and around us. But the biblical narrative comforts us with another reality. The Bible story tells us that our world is not out of control, but rather, under the careful personal control of One who is the ultimate definition of everything that is good, true, wise, and loving. We can rest, not be because we understand what is happening, but because we know the One who rules it all.

4. SALVATION. Clearly, this is the ultimate reason for the Word of God. Without it we would not know how dire our situation actually is. Without it we would not know that our biggest problem does not exist somewhere outside of us. No, it exists inside of us and it is called sin. The biblical story is the world's most accurate diagnostic; telling us what is really wrong with us. And because it is the world's best diagnostic, it alone can provide us with the world's best cure. The narrative of Scripture is the narrative of redemption. It chronicles the great things God has done and is doing to rescue, forgive, and deliver us from our sin. The epicenter event of the biblical story is the cross of Jesus Christ, for it delivers to us the one thing that we desperately need, but cannot achieve ourselves; new life.

5. HOPE: The biblical story, because it is a story, has a plot. It is a story that goes somewhere. The Bible welcomes us to peer into and to listen to eternity. And as we do, we can live with the hope that what is today will not always be. There will be a day when the struggle is over. There will be a day when the sickness, sadness, and sin of this broken world will end and we will be like God and with God forever. The God, who wrote the end of the story, has guaranteed the end of the story by the raising of Jesus from the dead. The Bible says that Jesus is the "first fruit" that guarantees that we will be raised out of this fallen world as well.

Now everyday you tell stories; stories of the events of your life and the escapades of others. Sometimes these stories are funny, as you recount some human pratfall. Sometimes these stories are dramatic as you talk of the mysteries of daily life. Sometimes these stories are sad; picturing the pain and loss of life in a fallen world. Sometimes we like to tell stories that put attention on us or trump the story that someone else has just told. But, I would ask you today, do you like to tell THE story? Do you find joy in pointing to the wondrous works of your Creator, Sovereign, Savior God? Do you love to point to what he has done more than you enjoy pointing to what you have done? Do you love to help people see his works? There is only one story that imparts identity, understanding, comfort, salvation and hope. It is God's story. Has it become your favorite story; the one you can't wait to tell.

The old hymn says, "I love to tell the story of unseen things above; of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love." Do you?

Psalm 73: The Destiny Hermenuetic

"...until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I considered their end." (v.17)



There are two things that I find myself repeating over and over again:

1. No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do.
2. Human beings do not live life based on the facts of their existence, but based on their interpretations of the facts.

There is no such thing as a human being who is not an interpreter. Every human being is a theologian. In some way every person is asking and answering deeply spiritual questions. Every human being is a philosopher. Everyone seeks to understand the meaning and purpose of life. Every human being is an analyst and a researcher searching for understanding of the people, locations, and situations that they encounter every day. Every human being is an archaeologist picking through the past; looking to understand where they have been, what they have experienced, and what they have done. No one actually lives thoughtlessly. They may be unaware of their thoughts. They may not be intellectual or academic, but everyone pushes life through the sieve of the personal worldview that they have built for themselves. This worldview is authoritative and life shaping. It does not determine what we see so much as it determines how we see it.

This interpretive function is called hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. You carry around with you your own personal life hermeneutic; that is, your particular way of making sense out of life. Now let me take this one step further. Your hermeneutic is what gives sense to your behavior. Everything you do and say has underlying meaning and purpose when understood from the vantage point of your worldview. For example, if I was raised believing that a certain race of people were dangerous, it would make sense for me to be afraid of them and to do everything I could do to avoid them. If I was convinced that coffee led to cancer, then it would make sense that I would restrict my intake of coffee. The thoughts of your heart are very important because those thoughts tend to precede and determine your behavior.

Asaph's (the writer of Psalm 73) problem was not just jealousy and discouragement. No, his problem was rooted at a deeper level. Asaph's problem was a defective hermeneutic. His view of life lacked a crucial ingredient and without this ingredient he was not able to make sense out of what was going on around him. You see, he looked around and every where he looked it seemed that the bad guys were winning. The arrogant, proud, and lawless guys seemed to have all of the wealth, health, pleasure and ease. It didn't make sense. How could a just and holy God allow the bad guys to prosper and the good guys to suffer? Asaph began to wonder if it was worth it to obey God. He says in the psalm that he got so embittered that he was like a beast before God (v.22).

But Asaph was making a devastating interpretive error. His view of life was missing a piece that must be included in order to understand correctly what is and what God is doing. Asaph's view of life had no destiny to it; no eternity it was marching toward. You see, without eternity, Asaph was right. If this present physical world is all we have, then all life is about what you can experience, acquire, and enjoy in the here and now. If this life is all that there is then you would expect a good God to bless those who follow him right here, right now and curse those who mock him right here, right now. But this is not all there is. From day one the world has always been marching toward a destination. Life was never meant to be understood and lived without a final destiny in view. The only way to understand life is to understand that this (the right here world you are now living in) is not meant to be a destination, but a place of preparation for a final destination.

This means that you can't live today with a destination mentality as if this is all that is. You can't live with a destination mentality expecting to experience all of God's good things right here, right now. You can't live with a destination mentality that forgets that God will do whatever he needs to do in the here and now to assure that you will be prepared for then. You can't live with a destination mentality that allows you to envy people who have what you don't, right here, right now, but who are marching toward an eternal disaster.

You and I must live with a preparation mentality. The trials, injustices, hardships of today do two things for you and me. They remind us everyday that this is not our final destination. You can't look at the personal and societal brokenness and suffering that is all around us without remembering that the God who made this world and everything in it, this God who is the definition of everything that is good, wise, loving, and true, could not be satisfied with the world as it is. The trials of today remind us that our God has promised to one day make all things new. But there is another thing the difficulties of today do for you and me. They drive us to the end of ourselves. They drive us beyond our autonomy and self-sufficiency. They drive us beyond our own righteousness, strength, and wisdom. And in so doing, they begin to mold us into what God intends us to be doing; preparing for our final home.

So, today as you look around and it seems as though the bad guys are winning, put on your destiny glasses and look again. Grace has given you something better than they are now experiencing. Grace has given you eternity; a destination so glorious the most eloquent words on a page could not do it justice.

Psalm 73: The Wrong Guys

"For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (v.3)


I think about it all the
time.
It doesn't seem
fair.
It doesn't seem
right.
I try to make the equation work
but it doesn't.
They don't give you
the time of day.
They couldn't care less
about your law.
They are proud
of their pride.
They are so arrogant
their tongues
strut.
They mock your
existence.
They scoff at your
boundaries.
They not only make threats,
they resort to
violence.
Their boasting is their
bling.
I usually swallow
my questions,
but I'm roaring
inside.
It makes me tired to
think about it
and it does make
my obedience
seem like a waste.
They seem to have little
trouble.
They seem to seldom
suffer.
But I do!
And while I suffer,
they are
fat and happy.
Then in my
confusion
it hit me; this is but
a moment
a dream
a mist
a vapour
a quick passage through
a temporary place.
This is not
my home.
This is a journey
toward home.
They think this is home
but this is not
home.
Please guide me on
my way.
Please hold me with
your hand.
And when I am
weary
and my heart is about to
fail and my reserves of strength are
gone,
please help me to
remember
that they have ease and riches
but
I have You
and you will be my
Strength and Portion
forever.

Psalm 73: Envy is a Window

"For I was envious of the arrogant." (v.3)

This side of heaven all of us do it and most of the time we do it without knowing that we are. It is such a natural thing for sinners to do. Perhaps every day, someplace, at some moment we want what someone else has. Everyday we are jealous for the possessions, position, or prominence of another person. There is probably never a day when we are free of envy.

Maybe you're standing on the corner and someone drives by in a BMW and you say to yourself. "It must be nice!" Or, maybe you see someone coming out of an upscale restaurant and just for a moment you want their life. Or maybe you've just heard about you neighbor's vacation and you wonder how they pulled that off. Or perhaps it's dreaming of being your boss's boss. Or maybe its a dark moment when your mind thinks about being with another man's wife. Or it could be as mundane as wishing that you were as slim as Sally or as athletic as Josh. Or perhaps you spend too much time being a YouTube voyeur on the lives of the rich and famous. Or maybe your struggle with envy is not so well defined. Maybe it shows itself by making complaint the default language of your daily talk. Perhaps it shows itself in constant feelings of dissatisfaction. Or maybe it's revealed by irritation that bubbles below the surface all the time. It is safe to say; if you're a sinner, envy lurks around the corner all the time.

You see, envy gets right to the heart of what sin is about. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says that Jesus came so that "those who live should no longer live for themselves." The inertia of sin is inward. It causes me to shrink my world down to the size of my life. It causes me to daily worship at the altar of my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Sin puts me at the center of my existence; the one place that neither I nor any other human being should be. Sin causes me to be obsessed with what I have and don't have, with what I have in comparison to what others have, and with what I've determined I need to have in order to be happy. Sin causes love of others to be replaced with entitlement, and service of others to be replaced with demand. Sin makes me quickly impatient and easily irritated. Sin makes it easier for me to complain than it is to praise. Sin makes complaining more natural than thankfulness. Sin causes my eyes to be bigger than my stomach and my "I wants" to constantly outsize my "I haves."

Why does sin do all of this? Because the DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin is about the higher law of self. Sin puts you and me in God's position. Sin is self-focused and self-possessed. That dark day in the Garden, Adam and Eve didn't eat that forbidden fruit out of love for God and one another. No, these people, created to live for God and with others, stepped over created boundaries in an act of outrageous selfishness. We are still paying for their selfishness today! Loving God above all else means submitting all I want, all that I think I need, and all that I feel to his good, wise, loving, and holy lordship. Sin causes me to quest for lordship and imprisons me in bondage to me. I have written again and again about the redemptive implications of this, but here is one thing that you and I need to recognize and humbly accept everyday; the thing that Jesus came to rescue us from is us!

So, it is no wonder that envy is such a problem for us. But your Lord has the power to redeem your envy as well. By his grace he can help you to see what your envy reveals about your heart and your continued need of his rescuing, restoring, empowering, forgiving, and transforming grace. Here's what you need to understand. Your particular struggle with envy is a window into the real struggles of your heart. Let me explain.

1. Envy is a window on the true treasures of our heart. Oh sure, we would all like to think that we love God above all else. We all want to believe that his plan is more important to us than anything we would plan for ourselves. We would like to assume that what God promises us is more precious to us than anything we could ever set our eyes on. But envy reveals that these things are not yet completely true to us. Envy reveals that there is still a war of treasure raging in our hearts. Envy exposes the fact that the treasures of this physical, created world still have a powerful ability to seduce, tempt and side-track us. Envy tells us that we still look for satisfaction to things that do not have the organic capacity to satisfy the craving of our hearts. Who or What you envy tells you what you treasure.

2. Envy is a window on how easily and consistently we forget. We do have the amazing ability to stand in front of a closet that is bulging with clothes and say that we don't have a thing to wear. We do have the capacity to stand in front of a refrigerator filled with food and say there is nothing to eat. And we do have the ability to stand in the middle of lavish blessing and feel as if we are poor and needy. The sin of forgetfulness is one of the root sins of envy. We forget that, in God's grace, we have been given what we could not earn, achieve, or deserve. We forget that the Creator of all things and the Controller of all that is, is our Father and he is not only able to meet all our needs, he is willing to do so. Envy forgets blessing and in forgetting blessing assumes poverty and in assuming poverty gives way to hunger and this feeling of hunger tempts us to look to and long for what simply will not satisfy.

3. Envy is a window on the war within. Envy is a reminder. Envy is a warning. Envy is the sounding of an internal alarm. Envy tells you that you must not live with a peace-time mentality. Envy tells you that this is not the time to chill and relax. Envy reminds you that there really is a war that is still raging for the rulership of your heart. Envy calls you to be a humble and disciplined soldier. Envy calls you to examine your heart and interrogate your desires. Envy calls you to live watchfully and prayerfully. Envy warns you to reject assessments of arrival. To the degree that you crave what you Father has not chosen to given you, to that degree you heart is still out of step with him. The fight still goes on.

Now, maybe after reading this you're thinking, "Wow, Paul, that was really discouraging!" Here's what you and I need to remember. Our Savior walked on this earth where the war of envy rages, but he was envy free. Why? Not because he had it all, but because he was willing to forsake it all for you and for me. Think about this; rather than wanting all that was his right as God, Jesus was willing to forsake it all so that the battle for our hearts could and would be finally won. He walked away from glories our minds are to small to conceive in order to deliver to us these glories that our minds are to small to conceive. He was not propelled by envy. No he was propelled by love and that love is the most powerful reason for hope in the universe. So, we can affirm the struggle. We can confess when envy yanks us off his pathway. And we can know for sure that there will be a day when envy is no more and we will live forever in the kingdom of his love, fully and completely satisfied.

Psalm 73: To Good to be True?

"Truly God is good to Israel..." (v.1)

I don't think we have categories that get at what these words are saying. The words roll off your tongue so easily your mind barely has time to consider their content. The words are so familiar and mundane they barely draw interest out of us, let alone awe. At breakfast you'll say something like, "Wow, this cereal is good!" Or, "We had a good time at the park." Or, "Let me tell you where to get a good cup of coffee." Or, Sam is really a good husband." So maybe when we read that God is good what is supposed to happen inside of us doesn't happen.

When you read the words, "God is good," your heart should be filled with wonder, amazement, gratitude, humility, and love. Or to capture what our response should be in one word; AWE. Now, this is where the problem lies. I am convinced that many of us live day after day without any awe whatsoever. We live days, maybe even weeks, without wonder and amazement. We walk through the situations and locations of our daily lives without an overwhelming sense of gratitude. We don't notice the glory display that is all around us that points us to the one glory that is truly glorious; the glory of God. No, we see:
a busy schedule,
dirty dishes,
bills to be paid,
competitive children who are fighting once again,
the mean neighbor,
the hard boss,
too much traffic,
laundry that is piling up,
the car that needs repair,
the movie we have to see,
the blogs we can't live without,
the cool restaurant we can't wait to visit,
the vacation around the corner,
the relative who is mad once again,
the championship season,
the garage that is too full to house the car anymore,
the problems at church,
the weight we didn't mean to gain,
the dreams that are slipping through our fingers...

For sinners, the road between awe and complaining is very short. You and I were created to live our lives in the shadow of awe. Every word we speak, every action we take, every decision we make, and every desire we entertain was meant to be colored by awe. We were meant to live with eyes gazing upward and outward. We were meant to live with hearts that are searching, and hungry and being satisfied. Bad things happen when human beings lose their sense of awe. Bad things happen when we have no wonder inside of us. Bad things happen when we are no longer amazed. Bad things happen when we look around and nothing impresses us anymore.

When sin takes awe away from you, that sense of divine wonder that is meant to shape every person's life, you look for ways to fill the void. Now think about it, if you are not getting your wonderment vertically, that is, from the Creator, then you will look for it somewhere in the creation. You will be shopping for the buzz of wonder where it simply is not to be found. Your friends and family cannot give you the awe you seek. That new restaurant will blow you away, but it won't introduce you to the heart satisfying wonder of God. That new car will make you happy for a while, but it has not the capacity whatsoever to fill your soul with glory. The Psalmist here gets at the dilemma in a single word, "good." You're looking for "good," pure, unadulterated, imperishable, unending, and unfailing good; because you're wired that way. You're looking for the kind of good that can lift you out of your boredom and quiet your longings. And that good is only to be found one place; God. God is good in every possible way. He is good in righteousness. He is good in power. He is good in grace. He is good in his faithfulness. He is good in mercy. He is good in holiness. He is good in justice. He is good in his rule. All his words are good and true. All his actions are good and right. When he is angry he is good. When he preserves life, he is good. When he takes life he is good. When his words are hard, they are good. When his words are gentle, they are good. His promises are good. His provisions are good. His plan is good. In all of the universe, you can only say this about God; he is good all the time and in every way.

Nothing in creation is like him. Everything around us is flawed in some way. And even before the fall, no glory in creation compared to the glory of the Creator. But sin makes us blind to the glory of God and because we are blind, it causes us to live without awe.

No, it is not too good to be true. There really is a God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, who is the sum and definition of all that is good, true, and loving. He is not only good, but he places his goodness on us! Not because we deserve it in any way, but simply because he is good, gracious, loving, and kind.

Think about it. The One who is the sum and definition of all that is truly good has placed his goodness people like you and me. Now that's a reason for AWE! And remember that is good news that is not to good to be true!

False witnesses

"Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence." (v.12b)

It really does hurt when you've been falsely accused. It's painful to think that someone is convinced that you did something that you didn't do. It's frustrating to be accused of a wrong you had nothing to do with. It's maddening when you seem to be able to do nothing to explain or defend yourself. All of us have experienced it. We play the accusation over and over in the DVD player in our brain. We rewind the accusatory conversation. We wonder what people think about us, haunted by the soiled reputation that we're convinced that we'll now carry around. We look for ways to justify ourselves. We search for things we can say and do to restore our reputation. It's painful to be innocent, yet unable to life with the charges that have been made against you.

Your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was in that place, but he put himself there on purpose. Confused? Let me explain. Jesus came to earth knowing exactly what he was going to be facing. He came as an act of submission to the Father's great redemptive plan (See John 6:38.) He came with a willing spirit; willing to face the very things that we all work to avoid and find so painful when they are unavoidable. Passages like Isaiah 53 and these verses in Psalm 27 give us a window into how deep the love of Christ.

It's almost impossible to conceive that the King of Kings, the Great Creator, the Sovereign Son of God would submit to this:

He would submit to being betrayed by a close friend.
He would submit to being led away toward a wrongful trial.
He would submit to being forsaken by his closest followers.
He would submit to false accusations.
He would submit to gross injustice.
He would stand silent as he's being mocked.
He would submit to slaps on the face.
He would not defend himself against physical torture.
He would submit to a mob that would call for his death.
He would submit to the pain of a crown of thorns.
He would be willing to drag his cross to the place of his execution.
He would submit to being identified with criminals.
He would submit to nails being driven into his limbs.
He would be willing to have his Father turn his back on him.

Yes, he knew the cruelties and injustices that he would face. And he was willing. In that final moment before he faced the unthinkable, Jesus prayed something very similar to Psalm 27:12, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." Or in other words, "Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes." But then he added these words of amazing submission, words that made our salvation possible, "...but not my will, but yours be done."

Jesus knew the plan. From the first moment of his life on earth, he knew that he was marching toward that moment when he would be turned over to the desire of his foes. He knew false witnesses would seal his death. He knew, but they did not. They didn't know that they weren't in charge. They didn't know that they were part of a greater plan. They had no idea that long before they were born; God had chosen to turn their moment of deceit and injustice into a moment of triumph and salvation.

He knew false witnesses were in his future; he was the Savior and he was willing.

Rest

"...be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." (v.14b)

Rest:
a faint dream for many
a treasured commodity
in a fallen world,
a thing so needed,
yet so easily interrupted.
The Garden was a place of
rest,
no violence in creation
no weed or thorn
no cleft between God and man
no reason to hide
no cause for fear
no need unmet
no grief to face.
Bright sun
pure love
unfettered peace
unstained beauty
man and God
worship and love.
But a voice
interrupted the rest:
strategies of death
words of deceit
actions of rebellion
fingers of blame
expulsion from the Garden
judgment and death
rest interrupted
rest shattered.
So we wait for the Lord.
His grace strengthens
His presence comforts
His promises assure
His power activates
His rule guarantees
that someday rest,
real rest
pure rest
eternal rest
will reign once more.
No violence in creation
no weed or thorn
no cleft between God and man
no reason to hide
no cause for fear
no need unmet
no grief to face
between God and man.
Yes, rest, true rest
will live again
and last forever.
So we wait for the Lord
to restore us to that place.
Bright Son
pure love
unfettered peace
unstained beauty
God and man
together forever.
Until that day,
with hearts
that are strong
and hope
that is undimmed
and joy
that embraces the future,
We wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27: A Plan for Your Life

"...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his holy temple." (v.4b)

Now, admit it, you love you and you have a wonderful plan for your life. Somehow someway we all are too focused on our own lives. All of us get captured by what we want, what we feel, and what we have determined we need. Everyone of us is a dreamer. We've all been given the amazing capacity to envision the future and to plan toward it. A dream is imagination, coupled with desire and projected into the future. There are things that you'd love to have as part of your life. There are things that you'd like to accomplish. There are locations you'd love to experience. There are relationships you'd like to enjoy. There are situations you'd like to avoid. Every day you get up and you work toward some kind of dream.

But dreamers don't just dream their dream, they also dream to be sovereign. In some way, at some time, all of us have wished that we'd enough control over our lives to guarantee that the things we've dreamed, we'd be able to experience. We'd like to control people and situations just enough to ensure that the "good things" we've dreamed would actually come true. What does the Bible call all of this? The Bible calls it worship.

You see, you and I are worshippers. This is one of the things the separates us from the rest of creation. As worshippers we're always living for something. Something is always laying claim to the affection and rulership of our hearts. There's always something that commands our dreams. There's something that we look to to give us identity, meaning and purpose, and that inner sense of well-being that everyone seeks. Now, Scripture says that there are only two choices (Romans 1:25). You're living in pursuit of the creation or the Creator. You're looking for your satisfaction and meaning in the physical created world, or you're finding it in the Lord.

What this means is that there's a war of dreams that rages in our hearts, and in the middle of the fog of this war it's so easy to get it wrong. It's so easy to think that because I have my theology in the right place, because I am biblically literate, and a functioning member of a good church, that my life is shaped by worship of the Lord. But, that may not be the case at all. On closer inspection, it may actually be the case that underneath all of those things is a life that's driven by personal success, or material things, or the respect of others, or power and control, etc. I am deeply persuaded that there's a whole lot of idolatrous Christianity out there. The most dangerous idols of all are those that fit well within the culture of external Christianity.

It's here that Psalm 27 is so helpful and convicting. What's David's dream for his life? What's his plan? Well, it sounds so spiritual as to be impractical, but it gets right to the heart of why we were created in the fist place. David says, in Old Testament language, "I want to spend my life in worship of the Lord. I want to dwell in his temple and gaze upon his beauty." The shekinah glory presence of the Lord filled the holy place of the temple, like a cloud. It was a physical picture of God dwelling with his people. David was saying, "I want to be where God is. I want to do what I was created to do."

No, David isn't some super-spiritual mystic. David gets it right. His quest is for a life that's shaped and directed by a daily worship of the Lord. David knows who he is: a creature created for worship. David knows who God is: the only "thing" in the universe that's truly worthy of worship. His dream is the best dream that you could ever dream. Far from being impractical, this dream, if lived out at street level, will bring purity and peace to your life.

What's your plan for you life? How close is your plan to the plan God had for you when he gave you life and breath? Is there, perhaps, something in your plan that competes for the place that only God should have?

May your plan for you be identical to his plan for you!

Stumbling at the Cross

"When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall." (v.2)

What is it that the Psalms look to? What's the theme that courses its way through Psalm after Psalm? What gives the Psalms their meaning and depth? The things that the Psalms point to again and again aren't things at all. No, it's a person and his name is Jesus. It's not as though some of the Psalms are Messianic. All of the Psalms point to the person and work of the Savior in some way! Psalm 27 is a powerful example.

You can't help but think of the cross when you read the words of Psalm 27:2. There was a dramatic moment in time when evil men advanced against Christ. It was a moment of jealous injustice. It seemed unthinkable that this could actually happen to the Messiah. Yet, this horrible moment wasn't outside of the sovereign plan of the God of grace. What seemed like the darkest moment in all of human history was in fact a bright and shining moment of redemptive love. What seemed like a sad moment of defeat was, in fact, a moment of eternal victory. Psalm 27 looks forward and captures what New Testament passages look back at about the cross. Here are two examples.

From Peter's first sermon in Acts 2:23-24:

"This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him
to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him
from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because
it was impossible for death to keep it's hold on him."

And Paul's words about the cross from Colossians 2:14,15

"Having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that
was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away,
nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and
authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing
over them by the cross."

Doesn't Psalm 27 predict exactly what these passages look back to and say about the cross? These words, "when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall," mirror Paul's words, "he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." The cross wasn't an unexpected moment outside of the plan of God where Jesus faced temporary defeat. On the contrary, it was the ultimate moment of stumbling for the forces of darkness. In what looked like the enemy's time of triumph, he was actually being dealt his ultimate defeat. From the moment of the fall of Adam and Eve, the enemy was destined to stumble at the cross. There was no possibility that Jesus would be attacked and defeated. Peter makes it clear that the outcome had been determined before the foundations of the earth had been put in place. God had controlled the forces of nature and written the events of human history to bring the promised Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb, the hope of the world to this point. The hope of the universe rested on this moment. Yet, there was no doubt his moment of suffering would be the universe's moment of victory and freedom. This circumstance of death would be a triumph of eternal life. It was destined to be; it would not be Christ, but the enemy, who would stumble and fall.

Read Psalm 27 and see your suffering Savior. Read Psalm 27 and celebrate your redemption. Read Psalm 27 and remember that in the stumbling of the enemy, your life and hope is to be found. Read Psalm 27 and be filled with deep appreciation for sovereign grace.

The enemy stumbled at the cross so that your hope would never stumble and fall. If you have hope in Christ, you have hope that's guaranteed and sure.

Psalm 27: Functional Blindness

"...to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his holy temple." (v.4b)

I would like to think
that others are blind,
but I am not.
I would like to think
that I have
clarity of vision,
a penetrating insight
that lights my way.
I am good
at recognizing
the sight problems of others.
I am skilled
at pointing out
the gaps in their vision
and the blind spots
that alter how they
see
and the way they
respond.
I would like to
believe
that I have 20/20 vision,
but the evidence points
to the sad fact that
I don't.
I have the stunning ability
to look around
and not see You.
I see my
busy schedule
tasks to complete
problems to solve
people to see
demands to be met
things to repair
pressures to face
temptations to fight
pleasures to consume
things to build
things to tear down
plans to make
difficulties to survive
huge responsibilities
and short days.
I gaze at my life
every day
and again and again I fail
to see You.
It is a scary
reality,
humbling to admit.
Though this world
is filled with
Your glory,
I exist
so much of the time
glory blind.
In Your love
You created a world
that is a sight and sound
display
of Your magnificent
glory.
No matter from what perspective
we're looking,
no matter what vista
we're taking in,
no matter
where we're standing
and which way
we're gazing,
Your glory is visible
and evident.
Yet, again and again
I fail to see
Your beauty.
So I seek Your
healing
one more time.
Please place Your
powerful hands
on my broken eyes
and give me sight again.
Please place your
powerful hands
on my wayward heart
and make it seek again.
Don't let me be
so blinded
with me and mine,
that I fail to see
You.
For it's only
when my eyes
see Your
beauty,
and my heart
is filled with Your
glory
that I'll quit
seeking
identity
meaning
satisfaction
purpose
fulfillment
and life,
where it can't be found.
So I would pray
this simple prayer,
"Please touch me by
Your grace
so that there'll never
be a day
where I haven't
somehow
someway
gazed upon
Your beauty."

Life as a Student

"Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors." (v11)

Do you think that you've arrived? Do you tend to think that you've learned what you need to learn and now know what you need to know? Do you see yourself as having more answers than questions? Do your carry around a hunger to know? Do you want to understand more deeply and more fully? Do you have a humble, open, and seeking heart? Are you approaching life with the mentality of a student?

Here is a prayer to be taught. Do you pray this? How often? I think there's much pride of knowing and the accompanying mental lethargy in many of us. There was a time, in the early years of our faith, when we couldn't get enough. We had a voracious hunger for truth and a lively fear of falsehood. We lived with the humbling realization that there was so much that we didn't know. We loved walking through the gallery of God's wisdom, taking in the treasures there. We loved listening to fellow students who were further along the path of wisdom than us. We loved to be pointed to nuggets of wisdom that could have only come from the mouth of the Divine. We loved to study the Word of God; to examine each phrase, comparing Scripture with Scripture. We could not get enough, we were not satisfied, we were students.

But something happened along the way. Perhaps we got distracted by the physical pleasures of the created world and began to live more like tourists than students. Perhaps we got discouraged by the troubles of the world and felt our study was not helping us. Maybe we got sidetracked by our own purposes and plans and had little time left to be students. Or perhaps our hunger was blunted by assessments of arrival. Perhaps we came to think that we knew all that we needed to know.

Yet, there are two reasons that remain to pray this prayer; depth and danger. Why would I pray to be taught again and again and again by the Lord? Because his wisdom is just that deep and vast. His wisdom has no boundary. His wisdom has no bottom. His wisdom has no ceiling. If for 10,000,000 years I would sit for twenty-four hours a day at his feet and listen, I would only scratch the very surface of the wisdom that is his. If I gave every day of my life to study only the wisdom that is captured on the pages of Scripture, I could study until my very last day and not have mined all the treasures of wisdom that's there. So, once more, I pray to be taught because the wisdom of God is just that deep.

I also pray this prayer because I live in a world of danger. It's a world where the sounds of falsehood echo more loudly and repeatedly than the sounds of wisdom. Living in human culture is like sitting in a 20,000 seat arena just before the concert begins. Everyone is talking at once, a den of voices so loud and pervasive you can barely hear yourself think. Every day a thousand voices speak into my life and the vast majority of those voices have not gotten the flowers of their insight from the wisdom garden of the Lord. They tell me who I am. They tell me what life is about. They tell me how to invest my time. They tell me how to use my resources. They tell me how to conduct my relationships. They tell me what is true and untrue. They tell me what my goals should be. They tell me what the good life looks like. They tell me what I should be, and do, and want. They offer me a comprehensive system of wisdom, that's well thought through and that's attractive on many levels, but that competes with the true wisdom that can only come from God. It's so easy to be taken captive. It's so easy to have Divine wisdom corrupted by human wisdom. It's so easy to breathe in the polluted air of a culture that no longer actually thinks that God is, let alone that he is wise.

So, with a lively acknowledgment of the vastness of the depth of God's wisdom and a healthy fear of the germs of falsehood that are everywhere around me, I accept the fact that this side of eternity I live in the middle of a raging wisdom war. So, I pray for the strength, protection, direction, and encouragement that can only be found when I am a student of the Lord. Morning after morning I bow my head and humbly pray, "Lord, please teach me your way."

Psalm 27: Breathing Violence

"...for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence." (v.12)

"Breathing out violence," perhaps no two words in Scripture more dramatically capture the powerfully damaging presence of sin than these two words. Imagine a human being, who was made in the image of God, made for loving worship of the Lord and loving community with others, getting to the place where they've fallen so far from God's original intention that they actually exhale violence! You don't have to look very far to see the dramatic damage that sin does to human beings. The high rate of divorce, the violence that is present in every major city in Western culture, the scourge of physical and sexual abuse of children, and something as common as the high level of conflict that exists in all of our relationships in one form or another.

You may be thinking, "Paul, I'm not sure how it's going to help me to think about all of these terrible things." Here's what's important about these two scary words and what they depict; you and I will never understand and celebrate the magnitude of God's transforming grace until we understand the deep damage that sin does to the human heart. You see, sin isn't about human beings being basically okay and just needing a little tweaking in order to be what they were meant to be and do what they were meant to do. No, the damage of sin reaches to every area of our personhood, deeply altering what we think and what we desire.

Isn't it a stunning fact that after Adam and Eve fell, the very next generation was stained with sibling homicide! And consider what Genesis 6:5 says about the impact of sin on human culture. "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of his heart was only evil all the time." Let that divine report of the damage of sin on the human heart sink in, "that every inclination of his heart was only evil all the time!" Could the statement be any stronger? This is what sin does. Its effect is so pervasive and so comprehensive that it influences everything we do and everything we say. It causes us to think, desire, choose, say, and do things that are the polar opposite of the way we were created to function. So, we don't actually love our neighbor. No, we're jealous of him, or we see him as an obstacle in the way of what we want, or we treat him as an adversary, or we ignore him altogether. And we don't love God with our whole hearts. No, we put creation in his place. We'd rather have the temporary pleasure of physical things than the eternal satisfactions that can only be found in him. Sin causes us to place ourselves at the center of our universe. Sin causes us to be obsessed with what we feel, what we want, and what we think we need. Sin causes us to set up our own little kingdom of one, where our desire is the functional law of the land. And as little kings, we want to co-opt the people around us into the service of our kingdom purposes, and when they refuse or unwittingly get in the way of what we want we rage against them. Sometimes it's the quiet rage of bitterness. Sometimes it's the vocal rage of angry and condemning words, and sometimes it's the physical rage of actual acts of violence against another. This is what sin does to all of us.

In light of the fact that sin brings all of us to the point that we all "exhale violence" in some form at some time, it's amazing how much peace and cooperation exists in our relationships. What's the explanation for this apparent contradiction? It can be said in one word: grace. There's not a day where you and yours are not protected by the most powerful, protective, and beneficial force in the universe; the grace of God. Every situation, location, and relationship you're in every day is made livable and tolerable by his grace. In the majesty of his love, God causes his grace to restrain us, just as he causes the sun and the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust. Why does he do this? He does it because of his great love and for the sake of his own glory.

This means the every day you experience the power of his grace. Every day God keeps us all from being as wicked as we have the potential to be. And if he would for a moment withdraw his hand of grace, this world would explode into chaos and violence unlike anything any of us could conceive. You see, you only ever begin to really celebrate grace when you begin to understand how deep and pervasive the effects of sin are. As Jesus said when that woman washed his feet with her hair, "The one who has been forgiven much, loves much."

Take time to consider the ravages of sin on us all because when you do, you'll leave with a deeper appreciation of grace than you've ever had. And that appreciation won't only cause praise to come out of your mouth, but it will also change the way you live.

Realistic Expectations

"For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling..." (v.5)

It's a problem as people face marriage. It's a problem as people think about the workplace. It's a problem as couples anticipate the birth of their first child. It's a problem as we think about our friendships. It's a problem as people think about their life in the church. What is the problem that I'm talking about? It's the problem of unrealistic expectations. Why do we have unrealistic expectations for all of these inescapable dimensions of human life? We have them because we don't take seriously what the Bible has to say about the condition of the world in which we live. Here it is; sin has cast this world into trouble.

There's no escaping it, this world isn't functioning as it was designed to function. The Bible warns us that we're living in a world that's literally groaning, waiting for redemption. We live in a world where disease and death exist, neither one of which was part of the initial plan. We live in a world of deceit and disappointment, neither one a part of God's original intention. We live in a world of rebellion and sin, neither a part of the "good" that God created. We live in a world of suffering and loss, both so far from God's plan. We live in a world of violence and war, surely not the handiwork of the Prince of Peace. We live in a world where lust and greed motivate hearts, not what God intended the heart to do. We live in a world where all of these things touch all of our lives. No relationship is free of disappointment. No institution is totally free of corruption. No location is free of difficulty. No moment in our lives exists untouched by the fall.

Why is this so important to acknowledge? First, much of the disappointment we face is that we've carried unrealistic expectations into the situations and relationships of our daily lives and we do that because we've not taken seriously what the Bible says about the fallen world in which we all live. Here's an example I've seen again and again as I've worked with struggling husbands and wives. Couples enter marriage not taking seriously the fact that they're both flawed people, living in a fallen world. Because of this they don't prepare well, as individuals or as a couple, for the difficulties of building a healthy, God-honoring relationship. Consequently, they're caught short and unprepared as sin within and difficulty without rear their ugly heads in their marriage. Their unrealistic expectations lead to a lack of preparation, which cause them to react rather than act carefully. In the end they're not only suffering the troubles of life in this fallen world, but also they're suffering the fact that they've troubled their own trouble. All of this creates the tendency for a husband and wife to play to one another's weaknesses instead of their strengths, instead of preparing themselves with the wisdom principles of God's Word and seeking the enabling power of God's grace. God's Word is very, very honest about how broken the world we live in actually is. This honesty is God lovingly helping us to be aware and prepared as we live with one another and wait for the ultimate restoration of everything that is.

But there's something else. Unrealistic expectations cause each of us to live more independently and self-sufficiently than we ever should. In reality, we're all in need of daily rescuing, forgiving, and empowering grace. We need that grace because none of us is free from the presence and power of sin. This means that, moment by moment, we need to be rescued from us! We also need the grace of God so that we'll be able to love the weak and failing people that we're always in relationships with. But there's something else here. The Word of God is intended to be a "lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway." We'll only live properly in this broken world when we're being guided and protected by the light of its wisdom in the situations and relationships we live in every day. When I live unaware of how profound my need is and how broken my world is, I don't hunger for the brilliant wisdom of God's Word and I'm left to my own foolishness. And in my foolishness, I respond to things in a way that only deepens and complicates the troubles that I'm already struggling with.

You can be sure of this; your day of trouble will come. Yet, in your trouble God hasn't left you alone. What is it that he gives you in your trouble? He gives you himself! He is what will keep you safe. He is near and he comes to you armed with transforming grace and liberating wisdom. But its vital that you live with eyes and heart open to what Scripture says to you about you and the world in which you live. If you do, you'll live in a way that's humble and needy, seeking the grace and wisdom that you so desperately need and that God so willingly and lovingly gives. Be realistic. Remember, there's amazing grace for every realistic thing you'll be called to face.

Psalm 27: Fearless Forever

"The Lord is my light and salvation - whom shall I fear?" (v.1)

In a world that is held
in such deep darkness
where the light of truth
often seems more of a flicker
than a flame,
in a world where
deceit
dishonesty
falsehood
and foolishness
divert and distort
the lives of so many,
in times when a myriad
voices
say so
much
about so many things,
where confusion seems
readily available
and clarity seems
hard to find,
in a world where opinions
rise to a place
where only truth should be,
and every voice
seems to get an equal hearing,
in the constant cacophony
of ten thousand
contradictory voices,
it is a wonderful
and amazing thing
to be able to say
with rest and confidence,
The Lord is my Light!
My heart has been lit
by the illuminating
and protective glory
of His
powerful and transforming grace,
my mind has been renewed
by the luminescent presence
of His truth-guiding
Holy Spirit,
and my life has been guided
down straight paths
by the ever-shining lamp
of His Word.
I am not afraid,
but it is not because
I am strong
or wise.
I am not afraid,
but it is not because
I have power
or position.
I am not afraid,
but it is not because
I have health
or wealth.
I am not afraid;
but it is not because
my circumstances
or relationships
are easy.
I am not afraid
for one glorious reason;
I have been lit by the
Lord of Light.
In the darkness
of this fallen world,
I no longer walk
in the night,
but I have been given
the Light of Life.
I am not afraid
because Light lives in me.
This one amazing reality
gives me rest;
I have been rescued from
darkness
and transported into the
light
and I am not afraid.

Psalm 27: The World's Best Security System

"The Lord is my light and salvation - whom shall I fear?" (v.1)

It was only the second house we'd ever owned and we thought we ought to take all the necessary precautions to keep our family, our possessions and our investment safe. So we contacted the local security company and had them revitalize and update the security system that had been previously installed in the house. It should be called an insecurity system. It's never quite worked the way it was designed. The crucial motion detector that was installed in the living room malfunctioned quickly. The system is still there, but we never use it anymore.

There are all kinds of security systems that you can look to in your life. Perhaps you look to your investments; you track their growth, and you dream of the life they'll provide for you in the future. Yet in your heart of hearts you really do know that there is no such thing as a truly secure investment. Occasionally you do face the fact that the comfortable future that you've envisioned you may never experience because the return on those investments are determined by things that are way outside of your control. Or maybe your security system is your relationships. You've sought to build around yourself a circle of loving people. You're thankful every day for your family and friends. You find real comfort in their presence in your life and the love they seem to have for you. You do everything you can to make those relationships healthy. Yet in your quiet and reflective moments you know that you can't depend on the permanence of those people in your life. An accident or a disease could remove a loved one very quickly. Sin could do irrepairable damage to one of those relationships. A necessary move could put distance between you and someone you thought you'd always have near. Perhaps your security is in the body of Christ. You're deeply thankful that God has gifted you with a church that has practical biblical preaching and solid Christian fellowship. You should be thankful, but you should also face the fact that this side of eternity the body of Christ is marred by difficulty. Our family was in a wonderful church that radically changed with the removal of a leader due to ongoing sin.

Perhaps your security system is actually you. Maybe you live with lots of self-confidence. You had a plan for your life and so far you've been able to pull it off. You've been able to be successful at the things you've attempted. You've built business and economic success that appears to bode well for your future. You've learned to trust yourself. You've learned to trust your intuition and your instincts and you've learned when to act fast and when to hold your cards. You're pretty secure with the way that you've conducted your life. I had an investment banker who controlled the portfolio of many people tell me that he was at the top of his game. He had confidence in his own ability, as did many investors. But, it all came crashing down with one mistake. His error cost a client his fortune and his other customers quickly abandoned him.

Or maybe you have no security system at all. Maybe your days are a cycle of concern, fear and dread. Perhaps you hyper-analyze every decision you make and you brutalize yourself with doubt after you make them. Perhaps you look back with regret at past decisions. Perhaps you give yourself way too much credit for the development of your story. Maybe, if you were able to be honest, you'd have to admit that you not only fear people, circumstances, and the future, but you fear something nearer, you fear you. You've no confidence in yourself and you look at life as a big minefield. You're just working hard to not get blown up!

Deep in our hearts we all know that the typical places we look for security really offer us little of what we seek. That's why this Psalm is so practically important. The very first verse of Psalm 27 introduces us to the world's best security system. It isn't to be found horizontally as you scan all the potential places where security can be found. Deep and lasting security, resilient hope, and sturdy rest of heart and mind, can only be found vertically. You'll only know the rest for which you seek when you begin to embrace the astounding reality of who you are as a child of God. If you're God's child you're the object of the love of the person who rules everything that there is to rule. It's fundamentally impossible to be in a situation, location, or relationship where he's not present. It's impossible for anything to exist outside of the sphere of his control. It's impossible for anything or anyone to be more powerful than him. It's impossible for anything or anyone to be wiser than him. It's impossible; for what he desires, has chosen, and has planned not to come to be. He rules every microbe of physical and spiritual creation. There's no rule of law that stands above him. There's no one to whom he must answers. His is perfect in every way, existing entirely without flaw of will or character. He's the beginning and epicenter of everything that's good, loving, wise, and true. He never forgets and his never fails to deliver on any of his promises. And Scripture says that he exercises his rule for the sake of his body, the Church. (See Ephesians 2:22, 23.)

You're secure not because you have control or understanding. You're secure even though you're weak, imperfect, and short-sighted. You're secure for one reason and one reason alone. God exists and he is your Father. He'll never leave your side. He'll never fail to provide. He'll make good on everything he's promised. And he has the power to do so; HE IS LORD!