Tag Archives: Psalm 34

Who am I fooling?!

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I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me: let us exalt his name together.

(Ps 34.1-3)

Jesus told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ’Oh God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, crooks, adulterers, or heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

(Lk 18.9-14, the Message)

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift…. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.

(Rom 3.22,23,24&27)

Everything that we have – right living and right thinking, a clean slate and a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ, that’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

(1 Cor 1.31, the Message)

Truly, God’s word penetrates deeply and illumines the realities of our private thoughts, cherished pet sins, and ungodly desires. We can be putting on a great act for those around us, but God is never fooled by that, and some of Jesus’ strongest words of condemnation were for the hypocrites, whose religiosity masked hearts of stone, adamantly resistant to his message of the kingdom of God.

I was brought up short recently during preparation for our study in Romans, by that simple assertion that boasting – in race, in covenant promises, in possession of the Law – all so dear to the Jewish people – is totally excluded by the reality of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. I am not a Jew, but a Christian, who has known so many blessings and privileges through her life, protected from so many of life’s trials. On one level, I know that I have nothing to boast about – as a sinner I am utterly dependent on grace.. but I know my heart and my fears and insecurities, and I know the conversations that happen in my head. I know that inner voice of self-congratulation and the subtle judging of other people which goes on, it sounds very like the pharisee in Jesus’ story.

Am I the only person who goes into a social gathering protecting herself from hurt and rejection by an inner assertion of her own moral worth and innate value? How easy it is to make assumptions about those around us, and silently, with quiet inner relief, to add up the sums and decide we’re ok, because of something, anything in others that doesn’t quite meet our approval – morals, habits, characteristics. How deadly is this temptation to continually compare myself against others in a critical way, looking for things that will enable me to feel a bit better about myself! Human pride is so devious, continually changing ground and colour, hiding in plain sight because we simply don’t recognise its latest disguise! It is my pride which drives me down this horrible, mean path of inner judgement and self-elevation; it is pride which wants to think well of myself and which writhes under the weight of gospel truth – that truth which demonstrates that I have simply no reason whatsoever to be pleased with who I am… who I am apart from Christ that is!

I want to learn to live differently, now that I have been shown this fact about myself and see it for what it is – sin. I want to be changed by the inner working of Jesus’ Spirit, to abhor such behaviour, and instead to embrace his love for my fellow sinners. And I think one of the most powerful means to changing is to embrace the things I can boast about more effectively! I can and must exalt my Saviour, praising the love with which He loved and loves us, praising his saving power and complete work on our behalf; praising his perfections which are ours by faith in him. He is altogether worthy of praise and adoration, and absolutely worth boasting about! Not in some possessive way, but in the best kind of boasting – we have this gift, this good news which is for everyone who will believe, and so we shout about it in order to invite those who do not yet know him to come and find out.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your mercy in showing me the truth about the way pride still pollutes my behaviour and my thinking.

Thank you for the forgiveness which Jesus has won for this sin, and for the power of your Spirit within to transform and purify me, so that I become victorious over it.

Go on driving out false human pride, out of every place that it hides, and fill me instead with that humble thankfulness which sees my need, and then rejoices in my Saviour’s complete provision. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Trusted to be truthful..

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And Job continued his discourse: “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty who has made my life bitter, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies… I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.”

(Job 27.1-6)

Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry…

(Ps 34.11-15)

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us… Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.

(2Cor 1.8-10, 12)

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

(Phil 2.12)

Can I be trusted to be truthful? Can God have any confidence that his reputation and character, the great narrative of his work in creation and redemption, are honoured by me in word and deed?

When Job came under extreme trials, he clung to his belief that God was good, was just and righteous, and also that Job himself had not committed sins which ‘deserved’ the judgement under which he suffered. In all these things, we are told that Job did well, speaking truth and not lies. Job proved himself trustworthy under his sufferings, honouring and rightly fearing God.

In fact, it is Job’s integrity which holds him right in the centre of the storm, wrestling with the unanswered questions, wondering what God is doing and why, longing for a chance to argue it out but never doubting that there is some hidden purpose. Such mature faith comes only as we in turn wrestle with our circumstances, refusing to speak lies about God – his holiness and justice, his love and mercy – or about ourselves, as his people and those on whom his favour rests.

In his letters to the churches in Corinth and Philippi, Paul speaks truth about his trials too – both their severity and also his conviction that they were part of God’s work in  spreading the gospel and in glorifying his power through his servants as they depended on him for deliverance and hope. Paul reassures the suffering saints in Philippi that as they ‘work out’ or discover in practice, what it means to be saved by Christ in the midst of trials, their experience will be of God working in them by his Spirit to fulfill his glorious purposes.

Job did not know that the advocate in whom he trusted was Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, but he clung to that hope and was sustained through his trials. We have the great revelation of the Son, of our loving Saviour who always lives to intercede for us and the Spirit who minsters to us continually. Why then should we not find that whether prosperity or trials come, we can be trusted to speak truth about our God, in all his holiness and the mysteries of his providence?

In plenty or in want, in sickness or in health, in time of peace or time of war, I am in Christ. I am redeemed, justified, and adopted into the family of God. My circumstances do not define me; my sins no longer define me; my own strengths or weaknesses do not define me. By grace, I am a child of the Most High, and whether he appoints my path to peace or troubles; to bright calm days, or the darkness of suffering, I will speak truth about him, and about what he has done for me.

May God grant each of us grace to accept prosperity or trial from his hand with humility, and with the desire to use all that he sends as means to glorify him and serve others.

Making marks in eternity..

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I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord, let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

(Ps 34.1-3)

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

(Ps 33.20-22)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground….

(Eph 5.10-13)

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

(1 Pet 1. 6&7)

It is easy to forget that our lives as followers of Jesus are acted out before a great audience of spiritual beings, and yet the bible makes it plain that this is the case – think of Job, and of how God calls Satan to witness the faithfulness and true quality of that much tried saint. Paul also, in writing to the believers in Ephesus, points out that they operate in spiritual realms, not just the physical; so that their enemies while appearing in human form, or in the guise of the troubles of the world, are actually spiritual.

This invisible reality is enormously relevant for our attitudes to our daily lives, so often seemingly mundane, with petty troubles, and common challenges to overcome, and nothing very significant going on. The truth is that every day brings us fresh opportunities to make choices which will glorify our God, causing the angels to rejoice in the power of Christ in a person’s life to transform them completely. We may not see or hear the joy, but that doesn’t mean that it is less real!

As we grow in faith and understanding, our lives will come to reflect the pattern of Christ-likeness which is God’s ideal for his children, but we will also increasingly be out of step with the spiritual tone of the world, which is still so much in thrall to evil. Our growth in faith may not even be evident to us, as we feel increasingly that we are struggling with many trials arising from our choices and our beliefs. In reality, the spiritual reality which we do not see, that very consciousness of struggle is a sure sign of growing faith – if we did not so ardently long for holiness, we would not react so strongly against all those things which would drag us down. It is therefore possible for a faithful saint to look back over many years of following Jesus, and fear that they have made little progress, when in reality, their continuing struggles to choose purity, honesty, faithfulness and integrity are a sign that they have never been closer to him. It is the very precious reality of our faith which makes the fight against sin most bitter and prolonged.

Since this is true, we can encourage one another with the fact that every time we make a decision for Christ in the midst of the trial – choosing to think, speak and act according to his pattern – we are making our own mark in eternity, our own contribution to the great structure of worship and praise to the Saviour which is the work of the church. It is indeed all by his grace and indwelling spirit that we are able to do these things, and so all the glory goes to him when his followers prove his strength and faithfulness.

Although we may feel that our trials are secret, ashamed that we continue to face the same troubles over and over, yet we may rejoice that in the eternal story, our part is valued, and our own small experiences of his enabling will be significant. It is all worthwhile, nothing is wasted! All will be to our blessing, and to his glory: Amen, so let it be!