Unseen But Appreciated

“He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.” (Ps 55:18 AV)

This dovetails quite nicely into yesterday's devotions.  Yesterday we saw the multitude of people God provides that we might be encouraged through difficult times.  Today, we see two truths.  The sheer number of those assigned to assist.  Many of whom we are unaware of.  But we also see the deliverance itself.  I don’t know exactly when David wrote this, but he never did have an overwhelming number of human assistance.  When he fled from Saul, he had a mere 600 men.  When he ruled Israel, he was outnumbered regularly.  Perhaps to what David is referring is not the mere human assistance he received regularly, but the angelic influences and the Holy Spirit Himself.  We simply cannot comprehend the overwhelming resources God provides for us that we might make it through this pilgrimage and wage warfare that the LORD might be glorified through it all.

We seldom think of how complicated a process is necessary to produce something we value.  All the components that go into the production of something we use regularly.  The simple hamburger we order while going through the drive-through actually got into your hands by a system of countless people and processes that brought it from the window into your mouth.  From the fields that required tilling and planting to the meatpacking plant that provided the meat to the cook who actually fried it on the hot plate, there were thousands of people who participated in the production of that simple and humble cheeseburger.  Some worked in the plants to provide the machinery that worked the ground, produced the seed, fertilized the fields, and butchered the animals.  There were all those involved in research to develop the best lean meat man could produce.  Many worked to print the packaging in which your burger was encased.  This list goes on and on.  It would be impossible to assemble all those who made your cheeseburger possible.  Yet, they exist.  They were there.  They have never met you personally, but their input quenched your hunger.

The same is true of our spiritual warfare.  When the prophet in training was concerned with the size of an invading army, the elder prophet asked that the eyes of his charge be opened.  Upon the hills, he saw the chariots of God.  Spiritual beings ready to wage war against those who would threaten God’s people.  We have just as might a force in our corner.  The LORD has not left us alone to fight a battle we cannot win.  He has granted the person of the Holy Spirit to take residence in our hearts that we might be empowered to fight the fight of faith.  Along with Himself, the LORD has granted us, strangers, unawares.  Angles are sent to assist when assistance is needed.  We will never see them on this side of glory.  But they are there.  Paul mentions spiritual warfare.  It exists.  What an encouragement to know the truth there are people and forces we don’t even know who is battling right alongside us and fight hard that we might be the person God wants us to be.  What a treasure!

Praise The LORD for Helping Hands

“Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.” (Ps 54:4 AV)

What a wonderful verse.  The understanding is simple.  God sends help by the way of others.  When He does, He is with them.  He sends His people to be an encouragement to those who are in desperate need of encouragement.  There really isn’t much explanation needed here.  Rather, a heart of gratitude to all those whom the LORD sends so that we can make it through difficult times of life.  Although I could begin the process of naming them, there would not be enough space to do so.  And I would probably inadvertently leave someone out.  David went through some very deep waters.  Seldom did he do so alone.  There seemed to always be someone there to keep him from sinking into despair.  The only time I can recollect him being alone was just before his ascension to the throne.  He had a little band of men and their camp was invaded.  They lost their families and belongings.  It was at this point, after years of wandering, his men finally gave up on him.  The Bible tells us David has to encourage himself in the LORD.  To my knowledge, that is the only time.  He was constantly surrounded by others who would urge him on.  He was surrounded by an incredible network of people who cared for his person and success.  God provided when David needed it most.

Several years ago, I watched an incredible sight in the pasture across from our house.  There was a cow who was in distress.  I don’t know if she was calving or suffering the bloat.  At first, I didn’t know what was going on.  I watched this scene unfold and what really struck me was the behavior of the other cows.  The other cows encircled this heifer in distress.  They gathered around her as she lay in the mud.  It was so interesting to see how the herd behaved when one of their own was down.  It was in their nature to gather around her.  Maybe they were protecting her from any predator that would take advantage of the situation.  I don’t really know.  The farmer arrived and tried to get the cow back on her feet.  All to no avail.  He called for help.  At least a half-dozen men could not budge her.  So, the plan was to bring in a loader and hoist her up.  The problem was, there was a herd of bovine in their way.  They stood there watching all this in what appeared to be deep concern over one of their own.  The men herded the group into another field and lifted the sick one with the loader’s bucket and straps.  I didn’t see the final outcome, but what struck me above all else was the behavior of the herd.  They lent whatever support they could to one of their own.

This is what the body of Christ does.  They lend support when one of their own is down.  At least that is what is supposed to happen.  That is what does happen a vast majority of the time.  I for one thank God for the countless people He sends to keep me going.  The thing is, I have to realize that is exactly what I am experiencing.  God is sending these people and He is with them to help.  Rarely is it a situation similar to Job wherein they send themselves as a self-ordained counsel to find fault and cure something beyond their ability.  Almost always, those who arrive to lighten our load are sent by God to do so.  They may not always say the right things.  Or do the right things.  But it is their sincerity that counts.  Praise the LORD for the Aarons and Joshuas who know the leader’s burdens are heavy and he cannot bear them alone.  Praise the LORD for family and friends who are the hand of God in a time of deep need.

What God Does Not Despise

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Ps 51:17 AV)

There is much to be said of what God prizes.  This psalm is David’s confession and desire to reconcile after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his disposing of her husband.  Some may think it impossible to come back from such an extreme impulse of the flesh.  It would be hard to fathom what David did here and the ability to reconcile with God.  Yet, this psalm is a record of David’s brokenness before almighty God.  There would be some who would never believe David.  Bathsheba’s grandfather, Ahithophel, never did.  He harbored ill will towards David for a very long time and when the occasion presented itself, he allied with Absalom against him.  Man can despise a broken and contrite heart.  But God never will.

There is a great example of this principle found in the story of the prodigal son.  The younger of two sons felt he wanted to flee his father’s authority.  He demanded of his father his inheritance in advance.  This son took off with his newly found wealth and squandered it on riotous living.  Having wasted all his money, he was brought to the point of begging for food from pigs.  That is pretty low.  He came to the end of himself and realized the servants of his father do no lack for food and it would be better to be a bond-servant to his father than have his liberty among the pigs.  So, he journeyed home.  He practiced over and again what he would say when he met his father.  He would confess his sin, seek forgiveness, and ask for reconciliation to the lowest level.  If he has to remain a bondservant, that was ok with him.  As long as he was reconciled to his father.  As the son approached, the father ran to him and fell upon his neck.  They embraced.  The son gives his speech and meant every word of it.  However, out in the field, there was the older brother.  The faithful one.  The one who would never think of abandoning his father.  He resented the welcome his younger son received.  I am sure he questioned his brother’s sincerity.  Did he return just because he was hungry and only wanted to use their father again?  Was he going to take off again once his belly was full? 

The sincerity of our hearts is not for others to judge.  Or at least, not for us to get obsessed with.  It is the LORD who matters.  He will not despise those who come to Him with a broken and contrite heart.  The motive does matter.  But the condition of the heart matters more.  We may return to the LORD because the consequences of which we are suffering are simply too much to bear.  We may be suffering want because we turned our back on God.  Perhaps it is overbearing guilt that drives us to reconcile.  The motives can vary.  However, it is the brokenness that resulted from those circumstances which God will not despise.  Sure, we would hope we are driven to reconcile for the most mature of all motives.  We would hope we would reconcile for no other reason than that we offended God and He deserves our broken heart.  Yet God is more compassionate than this.  All He needs to see is a heart that is broken over our sin and a heart prepared to accept the judgment and mercy of God.  We can go to Him with an assurance that our hearts will not be abused.  We can approach Him knowing that He shows gratitude towards those willing to humbly seek His mercy.  This is what God does not despise.

No Better Than My Cavalier

“Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” (Ps 49:20 AV)

The writer’s son pens a book entirely with the thought above.  The book of Ecclesiastes is written with the assumption or conclusions as if God does not exist.  It looks at life through the lens of pure secularism.  If God does not exist, then what is the point of life?  All the pursuits of life are explored from the reference of pure naturalism.  If there is no God, then there is no eternity.  If there is no eternal life, then all that we do in life has no real meaning.  This is the understanding above.  Man, that is God’s honorable creation, is no better than the mightiest beast if he does not live in the knowledge of God.  Man was created in the image of God, and to that point, he is the manifestation of the glory of God.  Yet, we allowed sin to enter His creation and have marred it.  We may be held in honor compared to the rest of the natural world, but if we do not live in the reality of God, we are no better than the most majestic beast.

I grew up in the city, so being around majestic beasts happened only when we went to the zoo.  I never saw a beast in the element that elevated his nature to the best it could be.  I never heard to sound of a thundering steed running across a field.  That is until I moved to Kentucky.  Right across from the parsonage was a pasture.  The owner traded in stock.  He would buy young calves, feed them, and then resell them at the stockade.  He had a large turnover of bovine.  However, he also had one lone painted horse among all those cows.  There is a difference between hearing a galloping horse across a pasture than the sound of a horse in a horse show.  It just doesn’t sound the same.  When that painted horse felt like running, it was such a sight to see.  The sound coupled with his galloping was majestic.  Head held high, tail draped out straight, and the sound of the pounding of those hooves was something I could watch all day.  Even though that horse was about one hundred yards away, the sound of his hooves pounding the ground went right through our front window.  The thing is, when it rained, that beautiful painted horse was a muddy mess.  Gone was the majestic sight of a glistering white and brown steed.  Covered in mud and his tail all matted and crusted, that horse was not something to admire.  When that horse passes, it will be butchered and ground up for its parts.  All the majesty it once possessed would be reduced to a lot of Elmer’s glue.

This is Man without the LORD.  He may rise to glorious heights.  He may reign in the highest kingdom.  He may solve the greatest puzzles of mankind or cure all known diseases.  He may go to a distant planet and return unscathed.  Man has accomplished great things.  He is held in honor among all the natural world without any other creature coming close.  Yet, if he does not know God, then he is like that painted horse.  No matter how much honor he may possess in this life, he will rot in the grave just as much.  He will go on in life knowing only his own honor with no thought of what lies beyond.  The irony of it is, the painted horse has no ability to a conjecture of eternity because he does not have an eternal soul.  Yet, Man who is given an eternal soul should naturally think on eternal things.  Yet he does not.  In some way, the painted horse who lives to his fullest potential and then dies is more honorable than Man who lives according to what he thinks is his potential yet falls short in not living with eternity on his mind.  If we do not live in the knowledge of God, we are no better than one of those cows I saw every day who had no idea the butcher was waiting for him.

Faith When Your World Falls Apart

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;” (Ps 46:1-2 AV)

What a statement!  If we take this literally, which we should, the writer is saying if there was an earthquake so intense as to level mountains, he would not be afraid.  Now that is faith!  This psalm is clearly a prophetical one pointing to the seven years tribulation wherein the faithful remnant are cared for by the LORD Himself.  When those who have received Christ see the abomination of desolation sit in the temple on the mercy seat, they flee into the wilderness.  It is there God cares for them and protects them.  Some surmise they flee to Petra.  Others suggest they flee to Masada.  Both are sanctuaries carved into the rock.  They are strategically efficient.  This makes the above even more impressive.  Sort of like the fall of Jericho.  Rahab’s house was the only one to stand.  All the others collapsed with the wall.  If the saint can remain in a cave while the world around him is crumbling, that is impressive.  This is the faith that every saint should strive to attain.

One of the hardest things to do is to stay put.  Especially when things are deteriorating all around you.  I know I have related this story before, but it is entertaining and illustrated the point rather well.  Years ago, I had a turkey hunting partner who was a bit of a practical joker.  Lawrence knew how to have fun.  Even if it was at my expense.  One spring morning, he set me and my son, Joshua, in the corner of a pasture.  As turkey hunters know, you have to get out there well before the sun comes up.  You pick a spot with a large enough tree to hide your profile.  You sit about twenty yards off the edge into the woods to hide a bit better.  Turkey have very keen eyesight.  This particular morning, as we sat there, I saw this white patch of something out in the field.  It didn’t move, so I figured it was a small patch of some sort of white flowering weed.  As the sun began to reach the horizon, this white patch became a distinct pattern.  As the sun rose even further, I noticed the white patch was attached to the face of a bull!  There was nothing significant between me and that bull.  Joshua, bored as usual, was playing with his phone.  The screen was all lit up and moving.  There was no way I was going to shoot anything that morning.  Then it began to rain.  Lightning and thunder were getting very close and I was sitting against a very tall tree.  A cow noticed us and began to close in.  If the bull noticed what that cow noticed, we could be gored to death.  We couldn’t communicate lest the bull notices the activity.  All we could do was sit tight until the bull wandered off.  Sitting there while conditions deteriorated was difficult, to say the least.

It is hard to stay put when it seems as though it wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do.  When the whole world crumbles around us, the first thing we want to do is flee.  We what to do something that keeps all things within our ability to control them.  Israel is told to flee into the wilderness and stay put.  They are told to seek refuge in the presence of the LORD.  They are encouraged even though they will feel the rumbling of the earth under their feet.  They stay.  They do not move.  They trust the LORD to care for them and rejoice as He does.  Taking things into our own hands often causes more harm than if we simply let go and allow God to handle it.  When life seems out of control, that is a perfect time for the LORD to show strength to His children.  In a chaotic world, the only constant we have is the LORD.  Let us learn to increase our faith commensurate with the trail that is set before us.  He is a great God.  Greater than anything we will ever face.

Sticking with God

“All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.” (Ps 44:17 AV)

David is speaking of all the chastisement or trials of faith that have come his way.  He has testified of Israel here as well.  In general, this is true.  Israel has not completely forgotten God.  They may have rejected Jesus the first time.  When He returns, however, they will not.  There will be a remnant from every tribe that will accept their Messiah and enters into the millennial reign with Christ.  This covenant, on both parts, will not fail.  God will honor His promise to the seed of Abraham.  He will not cancel His agreement with Israel.  No matter what they have done or failed to do, Israel will still be reckoned as God’s chosen people.  Conversely, there is hope for Israel.  They show maturity here in that even though God has dealt harshly with them, they have not lost their faith in Him.  They have not turned a corner of absolute rebellion.  There is still a glimmer of the faith Abraham exercised.  So much so that when the time comes, they will also honor the covenant God made with them.  What we want to consider this morning is the maturity it takes to remain faithful to God even though He must sometimes deal harshly with us.

Remember those days when you resented those authority figures who had to deal with your behavior?  A parent; a teacher; a pastor; even the law?  This immaturity does not end once we turn 18.  Depending on the infraction, we can resent authority if we are caught in our faults.  A child may turn the shoulder when punished by his parent.  The student might gossip or post a comment regarding how unfair a teacher or principal was.  Even adults, who should know better, will explode their social media account when they are cited for some infraction of the law which they deem to be unfair or unreasonable.  Before you ardently disagree, there are times to exercise civil disobedience.  We are not talking about reasoned or faith-motivated non-compliance.  There are times when we must do so because our conscience demands it.  To what we are referring is loyalty to an authority figure when they do not perform as we wish they would.  A great deal can be determined by someone’s reaction to the exercise of authority.  Maturity does not lie.  One can observe the lack of it when a regulation is passed down and we are unwilling to comply.  If they exercise judgment regardless of our motive for non-compliance, it shows a great deal of the depth of our maturity.

When it comes to God, I have seen many wilt away with the heavy hand of God actively on them.  They give up on God because they believe God to be too harsh on them.  They do not like being told no.  They do not like correction.  They do not like the depth of the trial of faith and seek a means out of this relationship that causes them so much trouble.  David, and the nation of Israel at the time, stuck with God.  They did not allow the circumstances of life to dissuade them from faithfully following God.  They did not wilt under the pressures of life and give up on the only One who could help them through it.  They stuck with God.  No matter what.  If they had to go through deep waters, so be it.  If they had to face Goliath, bring it on.  If they had to battle the Philistines for decades and often lose a bit of ground, it is what it is.  They did not quit on God.  This shows a great level of spiritual maturity.  Job comes to mind.  No matter how hard life got, he would not sin with his lips.  He stuck with God in good times and in bad.  He stuck with God even though it hurt to do so.  This is the mark of a grown-up saint!

Medicine for the Soul

“I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.” (Ps 41:4 AV)

The effect of sin goes deeper than the flesh.  We see the external consequences of sin because they are easily discerned.  We see that lying comes back on us and we are caught in our deception.  We see pride harms us by a lack of deep friendships.  We see our lust as a problem because it adds pounds or strains our relationships.  We see the lack of discipline manifest itself in our checkbooks.  The list goes on.  What we do not consider is the internal consequences of sin.  Sin is a disease.  A disease of the mind and heart.  These are affected by the sin which comes from them.  Our minds become warped.  Our hearts become hardened.  In short, sin harms the soul.  Deep down inside, the part that is truly us is damaged.  The good news is, the soul can be healed.  Our bodies will fail.  But the soul will live on.  Our minds weaken.  But our souls can continue to grow.  The soul is the one part of us that can heal this side of glory.  It starts with confession and forsaking.

I have broken a few bones in my time.  I have broken a finger.  I have broken a toe.  And, I have broken my wrist.  I won’t bore you with the details of how that happened because I am sure that the details of that event have been shared in a previous post.  What I can tell you is the pain from a broken bone is unique and hard to describe.  Most injuries are external.  Cuts, bruises, and burns are common.  These types of injuries can take topical treatments for almost immediate relief.  We can dress them with bandages and salve.  We can nurse them back to health and quicken the healing process.  But when a bone is broken, it is in a place that is hard to access.  The pain is deep, intense, and throbbing.  The pain goes to the depths of one’s person.  I cannot adequately describe that pain other than to say it is in the center of the body and permeates outward rather than inward.  To that end, this pain is something that is not easily mitigated without the help of drugs.  This pain is deep and almost impossible to quickly mitigate.

So it is with our souls.  When we sin, the consequences go deeper than what is easily seen.  There is damage to the very person that we are.  This truth is not readily contemplated.  We often treat the external consequences of sin.  We go on a diet.  We remove all enticements to lust.  We get help balancing the checkbook.  We change our behavior towards others to present a more humble spirit.  The fact remains there is still damage that no one sees.  There are still deep down issues that remain.  There are still hurts we have caused that must be addressed.  These hurts can only be healed by a source that can reach them.  The Bible divides asunder soul and spirit.  The word of God, ministered by the Spirit of God is the only salve that can heal a sin-sick soul.  Counsel at the hands of those with the gift of discernment and extensive working knowledge of the word of God is a tool oft used to heal the sick soul.  Our choices have harmed us more than the outward man.  Many go through life never addressing the damage choices have made to the inner man.  David cries out for healing.  Healing that only God can provide.  Healing that can only mend the soul sickened by one’s own wickedness.