Ps 17:7-8 "Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. 8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings." NIV
The wonder of God’s great love! One night I had a dream where the Lord spoke to me and said, “If you want to understand the love of the Father, meditate on Jn.3:16.” David is crying out for a revelation of God’s all surpassing love! It was an unparalleled love that motivated the Father to send us the gift of his Son. Yet the world goes on blinded to the preciousness of the gift that has been given. Let it be our prayer that the world will receive this revelation that we are loved by the creator of all things. David had such an understanding.
The Apostles make a series of powerful statements about the love of God that give us a taste of what is in God’s heart. Rom 5:5 “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” Rom 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” 1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God,” Rom 8:38-39 “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The love of God is a love poured out. The love of God is a love that is demonstrated. The love of God is lavished upon us. Nothing in heaven and earth can separate us from this great love. What is needed is a revelation of the measure of this love, the nature of this love. This was Paul’s prayer in Eph 3:17-19 “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love , 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” David understood this love and stated it very simply when he prayed, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings!” We are the center of God’s creation, the apple of his eye, loved and secure in his presence. Cry out for this revelation until your heart has been shaped by this confident assertion, that you are the apple of God’s eye!
Friday
Psalm 17:3 - February 13, 2009
Ps 17:3 "Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin." NIV
David is in a season of his life where he is living in great confidence before God. “Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing:” What a bold declaration of his standing before the Almighty God. This is either a case of great presumption or a man with a clean conscience. I Jn. 3:21 declares, “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” As we spoke of in Ps. 24, the one who ascends with God is the man with clean hands and a pure heart, the man whose words are not false. David was such a man.
Oh, to be able to declare before God, “You will find nothing in my heart when you test me!” David was living in a place of great confidence before God because of the state of his conscience. There was no condemnation in his life and so he can make this bold declaration before God. This is an expression of what is available to the believer today. He. 4:16 instructs the saints of God to “Come boldly before the throne of grace!” We have been invited into a bold, confident relationship with God but it is only accessible to those who have a clean heart, a clean conscience.
Where can I find such a heart? How do I find confidence before him? Live leaning into grace! The Word of God invites us into a lifestyle that is a marriage between the resolve in our hearts to desire purity and living in the knowledge of our imperfection and our need for grace. If we are leaning towards God, pressing for all that is available to us in God, then we can rest in the knowledge that God’s grace is covering our lives where we fall short. David resolved in his heart that he would not sin with his mouth. He understood the principle that James taught many years later when he said, James 3:1-2 “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” What a great starting place for acquiring a clean conscience, “dominion over our mouth.” Make choice today to give the words of your mouth to the Lord. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:11 “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” Let Like David, let us resolve to speak as if we are the very mouth of God and let the prophet spirit that was on him be released through us.
David is in a season of his life where he is living in great confidence before God. “Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing:” What a bold declaration of his standing before the Almighty God. This is either a case of great presumption or a man with a clean conscience. I Jn. 3:21 declares, “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” As we spoke of in Ps. 24, the one who ascends with God is the man with clean hands and a pure heart, the man whose words are not false. David was such a man.
Oh, to be able to declare before God, “You will find nothing in my heart when you test me!” David was living in a place of great confidence before God because of the state of his conscience. There was no condemnation in his life and so he can make this bold declaration before God. This is an expression of what is available to the believer today. He. 4:16 instructs the saints of God to “Come boldly before the throne of grace!” We have been invited into a bold, confident relationship with God but it is only accessible to those who have a clean heart, a clean conscience.
Where can I find such a heart? How do I find confidence before him? Live leaning into grace! The Word of God invites us into a lifestyle that is a marriage between the resolve in our hearts to desire purity and living in the knowledge of our imperfection and our need for grace. If we are leaning towards God, pressing for all that is available to us in God, then we can rest in the knowledge that God’s grace is covering our lives where we fall short. David resolved in his heart that he would not sin with his mouth. He understood the principle that James taught many years later when he said, James 3:1-2 “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” What a great starting place for acquiring a clean conscience, “dominion over our mouth.” Make choice today to give the words of your mouth to the Lord. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:11 “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” Let Like David, let us resolve to speak as if we are the very mouth of God and let the prophet spirit that was on him be released through us.
Thursday
Psalm 16:11 - February 12, 2009
Ps 16:11 "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." NIV
With God is revelation for life! What a hope, what a promise. Those who live in relationship with God have the knowledge of the path of life. To know and embrace the truths of God’s word is to know the way of life. In Mt. 7:14 Jesus taught his disciples that “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” If this is indeed true, and it is: then what a privilege to have received the revelation of the truth from the Lord. David continues on to express the impact that this knowledge has had upon his soul. The result of a life lived in the path of life is a joyful experience of the presence of God!
It is God who gives us the ability to enjoy him! He. 11:6 shares with us that God rewards those who diligently seek him. The good news is that the reward is God himself. To those who choose the right path the fruit is a joyful encounter with God flowing out of a clean heart that can have confidence before him because we have not embraced wickedness in our hearts. An additional source of this abiding joy is the knowledge of the eternal pleasures that we will share with our heavenly Father.
David’s joy flowed not only from security in the path of life, nor an intimate enjoyment of God. David was also filled with joy because of the knowledge of eternity. David had a pre-Christ understanding by the Spirit, of the reality of the eternal kingdom of God. His joy and contentment flowed out of the knowledge that eternity was waiting for him. In much the same way Hebrews tells us that Christ embraced the cross, despising its shame, because of his confident expectation of a joyful reward in the eternal realms of God. We have a two-fold blessing before us: Joyful experience of God now and eternal pleasures at his right hand in the life that it is to come.
With God is revelation for life! What a hope, what a promise. Those who live in relationship with God have the knowledge of the path of life. To know and embrace the truths of God’s word is to know the way of life. In Mt. 7:14 Jesus taught his disciples that “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” If this is indeed true, and it is: then what a privilege to have received the revelation of the truth from the Lord. David continues on to express the impact that this knowledge has had upon his soul. The result of a life lived in the path of life is a joyful experience of the presence of God!
It is God who gives us the ability to enjoy him! He. 11:6 shares with us that God rewards those who diligently seek him. The good news is that the reward is God himself. To those who choose the right path the fruit is a joyful encounter with God flowing out of a clean heart that can have confidence before him because we have not embraced wickedness in our hearts. An additional source of this abiding joy is the knowledge of the eternal pleasures that we will share with our heavenly Father.
David’s joy flowed not only from security in the path of life, nor an intimate enjoyment of God. David was also filled with joy because of the knowledge of eternity. David had a pre-Christ understanding by the Spirit, of the reality of the eternal kingdom of God. His joy and contentment flowed out of the knowledge that eternity was waiting for him. In much the same way Hebrews tells us that Christ embraced the cross, despising its shame, because of his confident expectation of a joyful reward in the eternal realms of God. We have a two-fold blessing before us: Joyful experience of God now and eternal pleasures at his right hand in the life that it is to come.
Wednesday
Psalm 16:7-8, February 11, 2009
Ps 16:7-8 "I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." NIV
Lifting up a thankful heart brings peace! Living a life of praise brings joy! One of the values of praise is that it causes us to reflect on the good things that God has done for us. It causes us to consider his goodness in our lives. David is finding thankfulness in this psalm for the Lord’s counsel and direction in his life. As we develop a listening ear we grow in our ability to receive the counsels of God. Jesus himself is called the “Wonderful Counselor” … and “Everlasting Father” in Is. 9:6. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor who will come in Jn. 14:16 and later in verse 26 he instructs us that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to teach us and to remind us of the words of Jesus.
This passage is clearly an exhortation to each one of us to develop our listening skills. To all who have received the Holy Spirit through salvation in Christ the counselor has come and is abiding within us, speaking, teaching, but are we listening? David identifies the nature of the Lord’s counsel as he tells of how his own heart instructs him in the night. In that quiet place, in the night season, David is listening to an internal voice of counsel and reflection. This is one of the many ways that the Holy Spirit will speak to those who would hear. Impressions upon the heart, gently, sometimes insistently reminding us and/or confronting us with truth are the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the sensitive soul.
David enlightens us about the nature of his attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. He speaks of the constant place of remembrance that he lives in before the Lord, “The Lord is always before me.” It is this place of consistently giving place to the knowledge of God’s abiding presence that secures David’s heart in a confident relationship with God. Jesus taught us in Jn. 14:26 that the Holy Spirit will abide with us forever. His presence is not transient, but rather consistent and it is this knowledge that is the beginning of an abiding relationship. It is the fact that he has chosen to abide with us consistently that empowers us to abide with him consistently. Jesus continues in Jn. 15 to teach us the nature of this abiding and the fruitful life that flows from this consistent experience of the presence of God. Today, consider meditating on John 15 and the nature of an abiding relationship with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lifting up a thankful heart brings peace! Living a life of praise brings joy! One of the values of praise is that it causes us to reflect on the good things that God has done for us. It causes us to consider his goodness in our lives. David is finding thankfulness in this psalm for the Lord’s counsel and direction in his life. As we develop a listening ear we grow in our ability to receive the counsels of God. Jesus himself is called the “Wonderful Counselor” … and “Everlasting Father” in Is. 9:6. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor who will come in Jn. 14:16 and later in verse 26 he instructs us that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to teach us and to remind us of the words of Jesus.
This passage is clearly an exhortation to each one of us to develop our listening skills. To all who have received the Holy Spirit through salvation in Christ the counselor has come and is abiding within us, speaking, teaching, but are we listening? David identifies the nature of the Lord’s counsel as he tells of how his own heart instructs him in the night. In that quiet place, in the night season, David is listening to an internal voice of counsel and reflection. This is one of the many ways that the Holy Spirit will speak to those who would hear. Impressions upon the heart, gently, sometimes insistently reminding us and/or confronting us with truth are the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the sensitive soul.
David enlightens us about the nature of his attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. He speaks of the constant place of remembrance that he lives in before the Lord, “The Lord is always before me.” It is this place of consistently giving place to the knowledge of God’s abiding presence that secures David’s heart in a confident relationship with God. Jesus taught us in Jn. 14:26 that the Holy Spirit will abide with us forever. His presence is not transient, but rather consistent and it is this knowledge that is the beginning of an abiding relationship. It is the fact that he has chosen to abide with us consistently that empowers us to abide with him consistently. Jesus continues in Jn. 15 to teach us the nature of this abiding and the fruitful life that flows from this consistent experience of the presence of God. Today, consider meditating on John 15 and the nature of an abiding relationship with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Tuesday
Psalm 16:5-6 February 10, 2009
Ps 16:5-6 "LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." NIV
In this passage David is rejoicing in a blessed life. However, what makes this Psalm truly powerful is the paradox of its message. Evidently David’s circumstances warrant his cry in the first verse of this chapter, “Keep me safe, Oh God, for in you I take refuge.” In the first verse he is appealing for protection from apparent danger and/or fear and yet his focus in this passage is on the provision of God and the pleasant place in life that God has allowed him to enter in to. One of the foundational messages of this paradox has to be the reality that joyful contentment is not dependent upon ease
of circumstances.
David states “You have assigned me my portion and my cup.” This teaches us the first reality of a contented heart; acceptance. David has embraced his life and circumstances. Yes he is crying out for deliverance from evil, but even so he is doing it from a heart that is confident in God’s goodness and thankful for God’s provision. David is living in the knowledge that he is secure in God. The Psalmist reflects on this in Psalm 119:57 when he says of God, “You are my portion.” It is God himself that he has given to the saints as our anchor, our security, and our joy. The inheritance of the saints is God himself. The boundary lines that are in place for the saint are to live in the knowledge of God’s pleasure over us and the knowledge of his abundant supply for us. It is God who is our delightful inheritance.
In this passage David is rejoicing in a blessed life. However, what makes this Psalm truly powerful is the paradox of its message. Evidently David’s circumstances warrant his cry in the first verse of this chapter, “Keep me safe, Oh God, for in you I take refuge.” In the first verse he is appealing for protection from apparent danger and/or fear and yet his focus in this passage is on the provision of God and the pleasant place in life that God has allowed him to enter in to. One of the foundational messages of this paradox has to be the reality that joyful contentment is not dependent upon ease
of circumstances.
David states “You have assigned me my portion and my cup.” This teaches us the first reality of a contented heart; acceptance. David has embraced his life and circumstances. Yes he is crying out for deliverance from evil, but even so he is doing it from a heart that is confident in God’s goodness and thankful for God’s provision. David is living in the knowledge that he is secure in God. The Psalmist reflects on this in Psalm 119:57 when he says of God, “You are my portion.” It is God himself that he has given to the saints as our anchor, our security, and our joy. The inheritance of the saints is God himself. The boundary lines that are in place for the saint are to live in the knowledge of God’s pleasure over us and the knowledge of his abundant supply for us. It is God who is our delightful inheritance.
Monday
Psalm 16:2-3 - February 9, 2009
Ps 16:2-3 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." 3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. NIV
This psalm is a psalm of surrender. It is a confession of need! “You are my Lord!” Oh, that the saints of God would live from this place in their hearts. An acceptance of Christ’s Lordship over us is the foundation of security and peace. David concedes God as his sovereign and God as his supply. The second part of this phrase, “apart from you I have no good thing” is reflected in the words of James in James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
The revelation that all good things come from a loving heavenly father provides an anchor for both our emotional security and our practical confidence that provision has been made for us through faith in Christ. This is the benefit of accepting someone’s right to Lordship over your life. The one whom you accept as Lord is then obligated to provide for all of your needs. In this truth is also found the consequence of rejecting God’s right to rule in our lives. If we reject his Lordship, we forfeit his obligation to provide. The one whom we place in his stead as Lord in our hearts is now responsible for us with great consequence to our well being. If we choose ourselves as Lord, we choose someone who is unable to fulfill this role since nothing good can come from us apart from God. If we choose another, either a person or submission to Satan’s dominion we choose to subject ourselves to an imperfect and untrustworthy rule with no guarantees or security afforded to us.
As a reflection of our embrace of God as Lord, our hearts are then liable to embrace that which pleases him and honors his values and will. This aspect is reflected in the second portion of this passage as King David expresses his delight in the saints. The implication of David’s statement that the saints are “glorious ones in whom is all my delight” is that David has chosen to esteem that which God esteems. David considers glorious the life that is lived for God. He asserts by the implication of this passage that he chooses not to find pleasure in the acts of the wicked but in the high standard embraced by those who live for God. He reflects this earlier in the Psalms in Psalm one when he praises those who distance themselves from the wicked, the sinner and the mocker. To delight in the things that God delights in and reject those things that God rejects is a living demonstration of embracing the Lordship of Christ in our lives.
This psalm is a psalm of surrender. It is a confession of need! “You are my Lord!” Oh, that the saints of God would live from this place in their hearts. An acceptance of Christ’s Lordship over us is the foundation of security and peace. David concedes God as his sovereign and God as his supply. The second part of this phrase, “apart from you I have no good thing” is reflected in the words of James in James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
The revelation that all good things come from a loving heavenly father provides an anchor for both our emotional security and our practical confidence that provision has been made for us through faith in Christ. This is the benefit of accepting someone’s right to Lordship over your life. The one whom you accept as Lord is then obligated to provide for all of your needs. In this truth is also found the consequence of rejecting God’s right to rule in our lives. If we reject his Lordship, we forfeit his obligation to provide. The one whom we place in his stead as Lord in our hearts is now responsible for us with great consequence to our well being. If we choose ourselves as Lord, we choose someone who is unable to fulfill this role since nothing good can come from us apart from God. If we choose another, either a person or submission to Satan’s dominion we choose to subject ourselves to an imperfect and untrustworthy rule with no guarantees or security afforded to us.
As a reflection of our embrace of God as Lord, our hearts are then liable to embrace that which pleases him and honors his values and will. This aspect is reflected in the second portion of this passage as King David expresses his delight in the saints. The implication of David’s statement that the saints are “glorious ones in whom is all my delight” is that David has chosen to esteem that which God esteems. David considers glorious the life that is lived for God. He asserts by the implication of this passage that he chooses not to find pleasure in the acts of the wicked but in the high standard embraced by those who live for God. He reflects this earlier in the Psalms in Psalm one when he praises those who distance themselves from the wicked, the sinner and the mocker. To delight in the things that God delights in and reject those things that God rejects is a living demonstration of embracing the Lordship of Christ in our lives.
Sunday
Psalm 24:3-5 - February 8, 2009
Ps 24:3-5 "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. " NIV
This question, “who may ascend, who may stand in the holy place”, is by its very nature, both the raising of a standard, and an invitation to come. Ascend the hill of the Lord, come up higher, live a life that is elevated by your encounter with God! The invitation to come raises up for the people of God a standard for coming to him. We are invited to a place of intimacy and elevation, ascending the hill, standing in his presence. These images are reflections of the ascent unto God and the holiness of the ground we are standing on. They are a reminder that even in the midst of grace God is holy and to come to him is to rise up above the things of this world. Is this your desire before God today, to arise and draw near?
Access to God is held out to us as a destination of glory and worth, but it is also held out to us as one that is conditional. Clean hands and a pure heart, reflected in the desires that inhabit our soul and the words that flow from our mouths is the standard of God. Relationship with God is centered on the direction of our hearts. David, the psalmist, understood the nature of purity. Ps 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight”. He cared greatly that his words and his desires brought pleasure to the Lord. We are invited into this same place of encounter and intimacy, this place of experiencing God. Coming near to God is a matter of the heart. God is very gracious with human weakness, yet he looks upon the heart with a standard of holiness that we can only achieve through grace empowered yielding to God. Clean hands, a pure heart, a soul that is aligned with godly desires, and a love for the truth, expressed in how we speak are the standards that God is looking for.
The great news that comes with these standards is that for those who choose to ascend a blessed life is waiting. For those who choose to leave behind the things of this earthly values system and rise to the heights of glory with the living God there is waiting the favor of God poured out on you. This is not to say that life will have no struggles, but that in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of this dark world there will be the presence of an abiding grace that enables us to stand in his presence even while faced with the circumstances of this life. This is so beautifully reflected in Jesus when we see him faced with persecution and coming death, yet he is living constantly before God, not before man. Out of pain, God brings glory, out of suffering God brings victory. This is the favor that is upon those who dwell in the secret places of our God.
This question, “who may ascend, who may stand in the holy place”, is by its very nature, both the raising of a standard, and an invitation to come. Ascend the hill of the Lord, come up higher, live a life that is elevated by your encounter with God! The invitation to come raises up for the people of God a standard for coming to him. We are invited to a place of intimacy and elevation, ascending the hill, standing in his presence. These images are reflections of the ascent unto God and the holiness of the ground we are standing on. They are a reminder that even in the midst of grace God is holy and to come to him is to rise up above the things of this world. Is this your desire before God today, to arise and draw near?
Access to God is held out to us as a destination of glory and worth, but it is also held out to us as one that is conditional. Clean hands and a pure heart, reflected in the desires that inhabit our soul and the words that flow from our mouths is the standard of God. Relationship with God is centered on the direction of our hearts. David, the psalmist, understood the nature of purity. Ps 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight”. He cared greatly that his words and his desires brought pleasure to the Lord. We are invited into this same place of encounter and intimacy, this place of experiencing God. Coming near to God is a matter of the heart. God is very gracious with human weakness, yet he looks upon the heart with a standard of holiness that we can only achieve through grace empowered yielding to God. Clean hands, a pure heart, a soul that is aligned with godly desires, and a love for the truth, expressed in how we speak are the standards that God is looking for.
The great news that comes with these standards is that for those who choose to ascend a blessed life is waiting. For those who choose to leave behind the things of this earthly values system and rise to the heights of glory with the living God there is waiting the favor of God poured out on you. This is not to say that life will have no struggles, but that in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of this dark world there will be the presence of an abiding grace that enables us to stand in his presence even while faced with the circumstances of this life. This is so beautifully reflected in Jesus when we see him faced with persecution and coming death, yet he is living constantly before God, not before man. Out of pain, God brings glory, out of suffering God brings victory. This is the favor that is upon those who dwell in the secret places of our God.
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