the extent of Your reign

Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of joy!

For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,

a great king over all the earth.

Psalm 47:1-2

Sometimes I forget, Lord

that You are King of this whole earth

that nothing escapes Your rule

my perspective sees a remnant in worship

but Your command is global

All peoples are called to praise You!

There is no hermit nation

there is no isolated island

that You don’t control fully!

You are the Great King

I remind myself that You reign

and despite nations raging against You

despite the gospel often hated

millions ARE turning to You

and Your glorious kingdom stretches broad

You command our history.

You control our destiny.

You provide our eternity.

The world is Yours!

Great King over all the earth… rule on!

what to give to make a difference

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.”

Leviticus 23:22

At the most crucial moment of annual blessing in the agricultural rhythm of ancient Israel, the nation was called to care for the neediest as they reaped the yield of their hard work. Two commands are given by God and emphasized as absolutely crucial as God invokes His covenant name. First, farmers were to leave rows of unharvested produce at the edges of their fields. Secondly, the needy among them were to be given access to ALL of the field to glean remnants behind the harvesting crews. This way all could work for their bread… even the destitute and the immigrants could work at harvest time. A culture of care was mandated by God. He insisted that the resources be made accessible so nobody needed to go hungry.

Now I know this is a command to Israel in a culture of agriculture. Times are certainly very different now. Most of us are far removed as consumers from the production of the food we eat. Yet I believe some principles must carry over to help Christians have a godly response to poverty in our times. With the holidays soon upon us, some folks will at least have a passing thought for the less fortunate. Some actions we might want to consider are… First and foremost God seriously cares about the poor and wants His people to care about them too. It is the very root of the gospel that God gave His Son completely to care for ALL of us at the deepest place where we could not in our soul poverty care for ourselves. Jesus saves sinners from their eternal, ultimate poverty. God gave Himself to make the difference. 

In an extension of this, God also expects that we provide ways for the needy among us to be involved in their own provision and care. The workers in Israel LET the poor into the field to glean and left places for them to harvest for themselves. And however Christians adapt that principle to make choices to help those in need, we need to do so in a manner that dignifies the work so that people can own their own recovery efforts. Bottomless handouts are not the solution and do nobody any good in eliminating the problem. Being generous in providing opportunity to help the poor and the needy seems to be the call and the principle to keep clear. It extends in Christian charity today. 

Yes, we must give. God will make a difference as we do. But we should also counsel, care, educate, providing work skills and money management skills, supporting the poor through hard work and celebration of their accomplishments, and we must work hard ourselves to diminish the suffering of poverty in the richness of God’s kingdom.

not sensing God

Rise up; come to our help!

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Psalm 44:26

Life with God is wonderful, but this psalm reminds us that it is not easy, and sometimes our experience of God doesn’t quite jive with our expectations from God. The psalm is a cry from a perplexed people, who though to the best of their reckoning believe they are committed to obeying their covenant with God, aren’t really experiencing much from God in return. Read the psalm. They feel defeated and rejected. They admit their bewilderment while still stubbornly clinging to their faith.

There has been a contemporary saying I’ve heard most of my Christian life: “Trust God when you cannot trace Him.” Yes, I know Jesus has sent His Spirit and is “with us always”. Yet there are indeed real seasons I have experienced the power of that truth because God felt distant. There can be times where I am puzzled at God’s lack of activity, praying hard in that season, but finding very little in terms of answers. I may feel God’s seeming absence. 

And just as this psalm reminds us, when I can’t sense God I must still surrender to Him. Faith presses into these seasons… crying out for help… asking God to rise to the occasion… appealing to His purposes and trusting His amazing grace. And eventually those times will turn. They always do. I’ve experienced them, and God never fails. Never. 

My feelings fail me. My faith may feel inadequate and totally stretched. I may falter. But God is always faithful. So in seasons of God’s seeming disregard, trust Him all the more! Appeal to Him! Ask God to be God… and you can know for sure that He will.

the reward of discipleship

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

Matthew 19:27

Peter’s question may sound selfish or out of line, but Jesus does not rebuke him for it. The question was legit based on the events that proceed it. It is a rare recorded instance in the gospels of Jesus inviting someone into discipleship and them turning Him down. For that reason alone we should really make sure we understand what is going on.

A young man came to Jesus sincerely wanting an answer to the MOST IMPORTANT of all questions: “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus pointed him first to God’s Law as the standard for “good deeds” and the young man welcomes the authority of God’s Word. He knows keeping God’s commands is what God required of the Jews, but he also knows something was still incomplete as he asks Jesus, “what do I still lack?” Matthew 19:20. He sees in Jesus a glimmer of the “something more” his soul is missing.

Jesus then powerfully makes this young man the same offer he made all twelve disciples: “Go, sell everything, give it all away, and follow me.” If this young man had followed through, church history would have been different. We would always have a list of 13 apostles instead of twelve. So this is significant. There is a decision made at that moment that is heartbreaking to read. This rich, young, influential (he was a “ruler” according to Luke 18), moral, and seriously religious man walked away from Jesus. The one thing he still lacked, he chose to still lack at the end. Wealth was his stumbling block.

The disciples are amazed at both Jesus’ offer AND this guy’s rejection of Jesus. They marvel that Jesus demanded such a price. It moves Peter to ask his question. After all, the twelve of them HAD all left past careers behind to follow Jesus when He chose them. What were they going to get? 

Jesus gives them two answers. First, in the kingdom yet to come 12 apostles will serve as ruler over the 12 tribes of Israel. That’s the eschatological far view of the end game. More immediately, a second answer was that any person who will surrender life to follow Jesus receives blessing now and eternal life. The reward of following Jesus is Jesus… now and forever. It is that second answer that all followers of Jesus can know right now. My life is magnitudes better following Jesus! My life in Him grows, stretches, expands, and matures in a glorious present of worship RIGHT NOW and forever with Jesus. Jesus now and forever is the reward of discipleship.

talking to myself

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:5

This refrain rings twice in Psalm 42 and it is quite interesting and very practical. It is spiritual self-counsel that I am reminded I need. The psalmist is confronting his emotional state. He is questioning his soul and pushing beyond an emotional perspective to deeper truth. The psalm does not deny the reality of feeling depressed. It sums it up succinctly. There were two symptoms of deep sadness described early in the psalm: 1) tears flowing easily any time of day or night. 2) wishful thinking focused on a perceived better past.

So the self-counsel asks “why”. Why am I so down? But is also maintains true faith perspective beyond just a mere emotional outlook - “Hope in God!” Yes, it is okay to talk to yourself… to ask yourself why you feel how you feel. And in doing so, lean into faith beyond your feelings! God is your hope. God is bigger than this for He is worthy of praise. He is salvation. He is God.

I have seasons of possessing a downcast soul like this. In fact, what medical prognosticators call “Seasonal Affective Disorder” is something I experience to one degree or another at this time of year. Some years it is mild. Some years it is worse. I know this about myself. It is one reason why I have been hovering in the Psalms lately. As daylight shortens I catch myself feeling sad at losses, dreading longer nights, even angry that my “free time” mornings and evenings are spent in darkness. Even now, my early morning devotional time is surrounded by darkness as sunrise is still a ways away. It feels so long. 

During late fall and early winter I can slip into comparison with the past as well, tending to remember decades past with a wistful sadness, grieving life change. Feeling like pre-empty nest parenting was the fun and easy summer of life. Unrealistically comparing past decades of ministry as “better” (wake-up call: they were hard too!). Just feeling wistful over nearly everything! Feeling like the best of times are gone for good. But that is not true. Those are feelings, and attributing actual fact to them is a lie. When I cherish these feelings in my heart, I am no longer hoping in God.

To “put my hope in God” involves repenting of my false treasures of long days or past ministry experiences. Instead I trust God to keep doing the new thing even in what feels like shorter days… He commands His grace now. His song is with me now. (Psalm 42:8). And talking to my soul, I choose to trust God. And the earth will turn by His command… the coming winter will be spring soon enough. God… not time… not my feelings… not my wants… is my salvation.

unrestrained mercy; faithful grace

As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

Psalm 40:11

King David was not tenuous in his bold trust in the saving grace of God. His confidence came from a firm faith in God’s deliverance of His people (Psalm 40:9). As a result, David was an exuberant worshipper, telling God’s good news and celebrating God’s faithfulness in worship with the congregation gathered in corporate praise (Psalm 40:9-10). David penned this psalm with specific instruction for it to be given “to the choirmaster”. His desire was for all of Israel to praise God’s saving work as enthusiastically as the king himself did.

God is worthy of our praise. David’s observations of God’s mercy, grace, and faithfulness are magnified by massive degrees of magnitude in Jesus Christ! We ought to feel overwhelmingly excited when we think about the gospel. Unrestrained mercy flows from the cross to sinners! His mercy saves all who will turn to Jesus from their sins, believe the gospel, and start following Jesus as Lord. Never again does sin condemn them to judgment. Instead mercy covers us! All of us! All parts of us! Amen! God is great in mercy.

Faithful grace also preserves us in Jesus. He who began our salvation is faithful to complete it! We can confidently praise the God Who sustains, keep, beautifies, and transforms our lives by His steadfast love and everlasting grace. God is great in grace.

Brevity: reflections on the 39th Psalm

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

and my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

Psalm 39:5

What is the measure of my days?

It is fleeting.

…small enough to hold in my hands.

…nothing in comparison to You, Eternal One!

All human history is a short exhale and is gone.

What is the impact of my life?

This shadow of a man

only seen by Your light,

will one day simply fade

with only Your glory in sight,

…remembered no more.

What is the reason for my work?

…toiling in turmoil

…heaping up worldstuff

like mounds of sand.

But someone else will receive it at shadow’s fade.

What now should I wait for from my God?

…deliverance from transgression

…silence from the enemies He has shut up

…answered prayer from a God Who hears

I am a sojourner, a guest on this planet, in brevity, destined for eternity.