Chains of the MIND

 

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Rescue me from my enemies, O God.  Protect me from those who have come to destroy me.  Rescue me from these criminals; save me from these murderers.  They have set an ambush for me.  Fierce enemies are out there waiting, Lord, though I have not sinned or offended them.  I have done nothing wrong, yet they prepare to attack me.  Wake up! See what is happening and help me!  O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, wake up and punish those hostile nations.  Show no mercy to wicked traitors.  Psalm 59:1-5

King David seems just a little paranoid (OK…a LOT paranoid).  He cries out to God for rescue from the “enemies” who are coming after him to destroy, to murder by ambush…fierce enemies!  David even tries to be God’s alarm clock…wake up, wake up, God…RING….RING….RING! 

To be tormented by an enemy face-to-face is bad enough, but the faceless enemy in the night that keeps you awake is the border of madness.  As a boy, tending his father’s sheep in the wilderness, David had plenty of encounters with ferocious beasts – lions, and bears.  As a youth he stood before the gathered armies of two great nations, facing a giant of a warrior (Goliath).  David and his sling faced the taunting sneers of this towering, grizzly, battle-hardened war machine with only a sling and a few small stones, and he gave no ground.  Fast forward a few decades and now King David is a heap of shivering night sweats, fearing enemies he can’t see.  The mind of a warrior king, can be chained like any of us.  Fear cannot read your resume’. 

But that fear, as genuine, or imagined as it can be, has the potential to be the greatest teacher at any stage of life.  David’s imprecatory plea that God might wake-up and clean house of these enemies, is uttered in the wake of fear and faith.  His fear awakens his own fight-or-flight response, but his faith holds it in check, calling-out for protection and justice to the only One who can give it.  And the result is what David’s son, Solomon, who watched his Dad’s faith growing up, would write later, the calmness of an untroubled soul:

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.  Psalm 127:2

This is full cycle for anyone who lies awake, fretting over what might happen.  We awaken to our fears, face them like the Goliath that threatens, and offer the outcome to the hand of He who loves us best.  After that, there’s nothing left to do but enjoy a good night’s rest.

And that is precisely what David did, his untroubled soul resting in the night, and rejoicing in the morning!

But as for me, I will sing about your power.  Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.  For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress.  O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.  Psalm 59:16-17

For You Today

My friend and mentor from seminary days was Dr. Charles Graham.  One of his favorite expressions of faith which overcomes worry was:

If something bad is going to happen…that will be a bad event;

Worrying is a second bad event;

One bad event is enough!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Misplaced Trust

 

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Psalm 33:12-22

What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.  The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race.  From his throne he observes all who live on the earth.  He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.  The best-equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.  Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory—for all its strength, it cannot save you.  But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.  He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine.  We put our hope in the Lord.  He is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.

One of the (generally) misunderstood issues of the relationship of Christian faith to military prowess is assigning naïveté to the former, and complete trust in the later.  The Psalmist, probably King David, is no stranger to military ventures.  His remarkable career started in a tussle with a giant, and David was celebrated for victories aplenty…so much so, it drove King Saul crazy.  David understood battle, and he understood the value of military might.  But, even with the start of the skirmish with Goliath, David trusted God much more than any earthly strength:

David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head.   1 Samuel 17:45-46

We know David wasn’t perfect; later his mistakes with his family and his fidelity proved that he was an imperfect man, capable of messing up more than most.  But, at least at this point, David had it together, using strength, but trusting in God.

Fast forward several millennia and you have the world’s population on its knees, not necessarily praying.  We’ve been knocked to our knees by a bug so small we cannot see it without a microscope.  COVID19 has taken over the economy, our activity, and news cycles unending.  The debate rages about how to act, what to do, and whom to avoid.  And our trust may be misplaced.

I say that because some advocate throwing caution to the winds, simply, and naively trusting that they don’t have to use common sense.  They act as if being a person of faith guarantees them an immunity from biological attack.  On the other hand, there are those who imagine the entire effort rests with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and all the technology man has marshalled against the demonic bug.

It’s time to remember that David took a big risk fighting Goliath, but he also packed more than one stone.  And the boy who took down a 9-foot battle-hardened enemy, was fighting with faith and a plan.  There was nothing naïve in a kid accustomed to facing “hairy” nightmares.  As a shepherd, David knew how to go up against the odds.  When King Saul questioned him about his chances against the giant Philistine, David replied:

“I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said.  “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth.  If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.  1 Samuel 17:34-35

Let’s Pra y

Father, God, we know our trust is to be entirely placed in You, alone.  You have also given us common sense and strength.  Help us to keep enough common sense to use our strength, and place our trust in You, and not the other way around, placing our trust in strength, and using Your promises like a vending machine.

For You Today

Whether our enemies are armies or viruses, our trust is misplaced to think we can handle it in our own strength; we must always come to the battle in the name of He who is the Lord of Heaven’s armies.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Psalm 33 see Total Trust and Meeting With God and Broken Pieces

The Secret to King David's Greatness

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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

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Teach me your decrees, O Lord; I will keep them to the end.  Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart.  Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found.  Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money!

Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.  Reassure me of your promise, made to those who fear you.  Help me abandon my shameful ways; for your regulations are good.  I long to obey your commandments!  Renew my life with your goodness.  Psalm 119:33-40 ^(NLT)

In the New Testament, ^{(Acts 13)} Paul preached the Gospel to the synagogue at Antioch.  In that sermon He pointed out to the Jews that their great ancestor, King David, one whom God declared a man after God’s own heart, was also the ancestor of Jesus, the Son of God, who had been crucified. 

If there was a hero in ancient Israel, it was David.  And the secret to David’s greatness is found not so much in events like his successes in battle, or taking out Goliath, the giant Philistine, or his rule as the king.  These were merely events that displayed David’s greatness, but were only the natural results of the source, which was the heart of a man devoted fully to JHWH.

In this Psalm (attributed to David) we see several clues to that greatness:  humility, desire to know and understand God’s ways, and a willingness to be taught how to honor God in everything he did.  These are the keys to a great heart.

For the next few days let’s look at a few of the keys to transforming human nature into Godly nature – turning the heart towards God’s will.  The first quality is:

David was Teachable

Teach me your decrees, O Lord; I will keep them to the end.  Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart.

To be teachable does not mean you are willing to sit and accumulate knowledge; it means the disciple is willing to understand as God imparts knowledge AND then put it into practice in his life – wholeheartedly.

I knew a young man once who told me he had come across the Biblical command to tithe.  He wanted to know all about that, because he wanted to be obedient, but it seemed rather a large demand that God was making on his life.  After we talked about it for a while, it seemed to dawn on him that his initial question to me, does God expect me to tithe on my net paycheck, or the gross, had revealed that his so-called willingness to be obedient was a sham.  He had come asking the preacher how little he could give and still be a tither.  He really didn’t want to know how much he could give; he wanted to know what he could hold onto.

I’m happy to report that young man truly began to understand God’s instruction that the tithe is a beginning place, and as you grow on the inside because of faithful tithing, the joy from obedience becomes a hunger to give as a blessing to other’s needs.  I’m still in touch with that young man (who is now an old man), and his hunger to BE a blessing has left his desire to hold onto God’s blessings in the dust.  And God’s faithfulness in meeting that man’s needs – well that’s a whole book to be written!

Tomorrow we’ll look at another key – the pro-active walk.

For You Today

When it comes to being teachable, you can start with small things if you want – but that is only if you want to keep doing what you want…and live in your own strength…and wind up not listening to God at all. 

Rather, start rather with the largest issue – start with your heart!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:   By Jastrow, via Wikimedia Commons