Singing with the King (11) – Where Now is Their God?

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. Why should the nations say, “Where, now, is their God?” (Psalm 115:1-2)

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That’s an interesting question to follow a verse that talks about giving God glory.

When you read this question, you probably have an idea of how they asked it (sarcastic…duh yeah!) But the definitions of this word makes the mood clear: to boast, to act proudly. Remember, we’re not talking about nations that give God glory; they give themselves glory.

So, are the nations asking that question because they’ve seen us give God glory? Or are they asking because they haven’t seen us giving God glory, and since we are inactive, then God is inactive. Or maybe they’ve seen us God glorify God, but that doesn’t square with the circumstances.

Perhaps they’ve seen the walls torn down, and cities lying and ruin, and yet there is a people who continue to glorify God.

Perhaps they’ve seen someone dying of cancer, a family who has been split apart because of divorce, or a church fall apart because of what the pastor did, and still there are those worshiping in the ashes, glorifying God.

The nations see these kinds of situations, but they cannot reconcile the actions of those in the midst of these painful situations.

But that is what we are called to do: to give God glory in the midst of pain, trial, devastation; in the midst of whatever doesn’t make any sense to those who are watching. And because of the disconnect, they cry: Where, now, is their God?

Shouldn’t people who are giving God glory be in the midst of prosperity, or blessing, or good things? This would make sense to the nations; and to those who are watching. But giving God glory in hard times does not align with the world’s worldview; and it has nothing to do with their understanding (or lack thereof). We give God glory because we must. We give God the glory because our love for Him, compels us to do so.

Singing with the King (10) – An Uninvolved God?

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Search me, O God, and know my heart – Psalm 139:23

There are those who believe God is unknowable–or at least uninvolved. Consider these lyrics by King David from Psalm 139.

You have searched me (vs.1) means to investigate, explore, and examine thoroughly

You hem me in—behind and before (vs.5) is a military term; means to confine, secure, bind, cramp, and besiege.

You have laid Your hand upon me ( vs.5) not only has to do with placing or setting one’s hand upon, but making, performing, appointing, and taking a stand.

Your hand will guide me (vs.10) means to lead, and bring.

Your right hand will hold me fast (vs.10) to seize, to be caught, to take possession.

For You created my inmost being (vs.13) besides create, the word is often used for acquiring, buying, possessing and even redemption.

You knit me together in my mother’s womb (vs. 13) to hedge about, to cover, to fence about, to protect.

All the days ordained for me (vs.16) a theological word; but for God it is a creation word. It has to do with forming, fashioning or framing; and implicit in its meaning and use is, God will form or fashion us the way He has ordained.

Search me (vs.23) Same as vs. 1

Test me (vs.23) a refining, mining word; like an assayer, the LORD tests our purity.

See if there is any offensive way within me (vs.24) inspecting, gazing, consider, and to look after.

Lead me in the way everlasting (vs.24) means to lead, guide, or bring.

Note all these are verbs, describing the LORD’s actions.

Consider some questions which should arise regarding the LORD’s actions:

Does He know you? Does He protect you? Does He hold you and guide you? Has he created you? Is there anything about you that He does not know? Do you belong to Him? If these are not rhetorical questions for you, please read Psalm 139. You will see it is impossible to regard the LORD as a distant, aloof, and uninvolved.

Singing with the King (9) – Where are You Looking?

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I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? (Psalm 121:1)

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I love rhetorical questions. There’s literally NO chance in getting them wrong (unless you weren’t listening…)

Lift is a wonderful word in the Hebrew. It’s pretty common, but has some great translations: to carry, support, sustain, to take away, swept away, forgive, and desire. Look at this verse through these other definitions:

O may I be swept away to the hills.

May I find support in the hills.

My desire is in the hills.

Perhaps the most significant translation of this word is in the following:

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; (Exodus 34:6-7a)

The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; (Numbers 14:18)

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19)

When the Psalmist penned these words, he knew that there was forgiveness in these hills. But we see from the other meanings: deliverance was in these hills; shelter was in these hills; and the One Whom we love was in these hills. If you’re looking for help, you’ll find so much more.

So… where are you looking?

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. (Hebrews 12:2 CEV)

Singing with the King (8) – Be Still 1.2

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Cease striving and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)

Abide

Other definitions for cease striving or be still are to sink down, relax, and let down, like sinking down into one of those old-fashioned over-stuffed chairs. Place yourself into the bosom of the Father, and wrap yourself up in His cloak. There you will find comfort; there you will know the intimacy, and the love of our Heavenly Father.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’…He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge. (Psalm 90:1-2)

Are you bringing something to do with your hands or all they full of stuff? Be still also means to let go, to go limp, and lay down the stuff, so you can hold on to your Heavenly Father.

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. (Isaiah 1:15-16)

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. you. (James 4:8-10)

Be still also means enfeebled and frail. You are incapable of lifting your hands for rescue—or for worship. When we are too weak to do anything, He shows Himself to be strong.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

May you be still before Him today.

Singing With the King (7) – God is Good

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Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. (Psalm 73:1)

standing tall Do you have a foundational belief on which you stand? Something you can cling to regardless of what is going on around or within you? The Psalmist did—he made a declaration—and made his stand: Surely God is good to Israel.

The Hebrew word for surely has two uses: one is emphatic, the other is restrictive. So you can put an exclamation point behind the emphatic version: Surely God is good! Or because we understand Who God is and how He works, we use the restrictive version: Only God is good.

Christ Himself, the Son of God spoke to this: “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)

The Hebrew word for good has numerous translations; the most frequent are: better, best, pleasing, and favorable. It describes excellence of quality, excellence of character, and that which is of a higher nature (a vague way of saying God…).

This verse has the only occurrence of God is good in the OT. However, the Lord is good occurs seven times:

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. (Psalm 34:8)

For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. (Psalm 135:3)

The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works. (Psalm 145:9)

Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever. (Jeremiah 33:11)

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. (Lamentations 3:25)

The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)

So, how can you experience God’s goodness? In His refuge. In His love. In His faithfulness. In His mercy. In His care. And when you do, you will sing His praises—forever.

Singing with the King (6) – Day & Night Delight

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But his delight is in the law of the LORD and in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:2)

Lion at Sunset IS your delight in the Law of the LORD? The Hebrew word for it is also translated as: pleasure, desire, please, purpose, and care. Two well known verses show how this word is used in other parts of Scripture:

She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 3:15)

But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, he will see His offspring, he will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

So what is it we are delighting, desiring, and pleased about? The torah—which is Hebrew for law.

Not only must we delight in the law, but we meditate on it. Meditate is a colorful word; it means to moan, growl, utter, muse, mutter, devise, plot, speak, to roar, groan, and imagine.

One ancient saint translated it as chatter, much like the birds. Is the Law of the Lord something we talk and chatter about; but unlike the birds we do it day and night. Do we roar the word at night, much like the lions? Do we mutter, growl and moan when we wrestle with it until we find a blessing? Do we devise and plot ways to extract its meanings and applications?

The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. (Psalm 104:21)

The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. (Psalm 145:15)

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

All these actions we should carry out day and night. We meditate on the Word during the day, so that men might see our good works. We meditate on it throughout the night so we do no deeds that are dark or are done in darkness.

Let your de-light shine!

Singing with the King (5) – Songs of Deliverence

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You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. (Psalm 32:7)

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In this Psalm, it is not God specifically who surrounds us—rather we are surrounded by His songs of deliverance. Now I suppose one could make the case that these songs are a result of the deliverance, but that seems to be a disservice to the songs of the Lord. There seems to be something more tangible and protective to these songs than just a post-deliverance celebration.

And why do I say that we do the Lord a disservice? What a marvelous and wondrous thing to have the Lord of Hosts sing to you! It brings to mind that passage from Psalm 46:10—Cease striving and know that I am God. Could it be that if we were quiet, we might hear the Lord singing to us? If the Lord created music, why wouldn’t He sing to us?

One thing about the Lord singing songs of deliverance; I believe we might consider them like we do prophecy. If the Lord has said it will come to pass, then it will happen. And if the LORD sings songs of deliverance to us, then we are delivered.

It should be noted that this is the only appearance of this particular Hebrew word for songs in the OT. So if creation was an unique event, what about your deliverance?

Now you may be saying that being surrounded by songs of deliverance is a rather flimsy shield, and songs are not much of a means of deliverance. But consider: if He Who created all things with just a few words, how much more could He accomplish with a song!

We end with a pause—Selah—perhaps you might hear Him sing.

Singing with the King (4) – Acts & Attributes

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Praise Him for His mighty deeds, praise Him according to His excellent greatness. (Psalm 150:2)

greatness2

Several years back, I led a chapel at the Intentional Living Center, and we focused on the above verse from Psalm 150. This verse focuses on two things: Praise Him for His mighty deeds—WHAT God does; and Praise Him according to His excellent greatness— WHO God is.

We started with WHAT God does first. It’s relatively easy to recite the works of God, either those you have seen for yourself, or have heard about from others, or have seen in Scripture. And whether you know it or not, we have all been recipients of mighty deeds. As such, we were able to fill up an entire side of whiteboard in a short time.

But when I flipped the whiteboard and asked them to recount WHO He is, it took significantly longer, and we came up with maybe only a third the number of examples.

Why was that? Many of the works of God are tangible; they can be seen, touched, heard, tasted and smelled. His attributes however may not fall within the physical realm, and require a bit more study on our part. The good news is His acts are entirely consistent with His nature; so if you have to start with WHAT He has done in your life—if you look—you will find a divine attribute behind that act.

Mighty deeds – most often, this Hebrew word is translated as power or strength, and what we can learn from its various definitions is, God’s power not only proclaims who He is, but what He has done. And when He empowers us, it reveals who He is, and what He has done—in us:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

Excellent in excellent greatness is most often translated as abundance, and can also be translated as greatness; so verse two could say: Praise Him according to His great greatness. But the psalmist was seeking to convey a “better” superlative; sort of a super superlative. That makes sense when you’re talking about the Lord. Language tends to fail us when we describe Him. Which only points us back to my introductory post: Be still and know that I am God.

Get caught up in WHAT He has done… This Is My Father’s World by GLAD

Singing with the KIng (3) – Blessed is the Man

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Blessed is the man… (Psalm 1:1)

Blessed is the Man

The Hebrew word can also mean happy. It could easily be followed by an exclamation point. There are essentially three ways to receive God’s blessing:

The first is that we are blessed because that is in His nature, and is what He has done for us because of our relationship in Him, in Christ.

Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. (Psalm 144:13)

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1-2)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

The second is that we are blessed because we do what is right.

Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways. (Psalm 119:1-3)

“Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8:32-35)

So, the first is our relationship, the second is our righteous actions that accurately reflect that relationship, and the third is our righteous inaction, resisting to do evil: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

The great privilege of being blessed by the LORD is blessing Him.

Singing with the King (2) – Be Still 1.1

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Cease striving and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)

sunset Many times have I looked at this verse, and myriad are the translations in numerous versions of the Bible: be still, cease striving, be silent, and stand silent. All of these are most appropriate and have a lot to do with the worship of the LORD, which is explicit within this verse. A friend of mine even had her own take on the verse: Shut up and know that I am God. But the Hebrew is more than just the cessation of activity (or noise). There are also some pained and exposed translations: helpless, discouraged, feeble, fail, fall limp, let alone.

But even in these translations, we can find insight. Without God, if we do not know God, then we are helpless, discouraged, feeble, failing, limp and alone. Yet even in these vulnerable positions, we are to know God; indeed, because of these vulnerable positions, we are to know God. When we are at our wits end, when we are at the end of our strength, when all the distractions and excuses are exhausted, when we are helpless, then we are to know God.

He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:29-31)

For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. (Isaiah 25:4)

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

There is a Gospel song from several years back by Annie Flint that says:

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.