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At sunrise God calls his people to come into His Presence to renew their covenant relationship with the God of Love and Salvation. Sunrise is a reminder of the Lord’s coming into our lives to make a promise, whether at Sinai (for OT believers) or Golgotha and Garden (for NT believers).

He set up an elaborate sacrificial system, and now he says he doesn’t need your sacrifices. You need it, and God wants you, in a loving relationship with him. Since Jesus’ once for all sacrifice for your life, your sacrifices are no longer needed. Ah, but you do need to make daily sacrifices, because you forget. How do we sacrifice today? Remember your Baptism by repentance and thanksgiving and renewing a relationship of pure Grace. Sacrifice is dying to self, surrendering self-will, giving up control, being willing to let go, laying down life for the sake of others; in other words, repent and believe the Gospel. Then Thanksgiving erupts from a life full of joy, and “call on Him in the day of trouble.”

Coming into the Presence also involves a warning and a judgment against hypocrisy and ritual and disregarding the relational consequences of the Ten Commandments; these are defeated enemies. We Worship in Spirit and Truth.

Death is the Last Enemy, that is, the last enemy to be destroyed chronologically. Death is a person and he must be seen as an enemy of life that one must fight, except that no person can defeat him. Death is the human condition and everyone (poets, philosophers, scientists, wise men, theologians, lawyers, doctors, rich and poor alike, high and low and in between) knows it.

Death is an obvious truism, so why even teach it? “Wisdom” says, “You will die.” I already know that, but Wisdom still expounds this riddle. All the money in the world can’t buy life for it is too precious. All that Wisdom can offer is the advice not to envy the rich since they can’t buy life and stop Death either. The only solution is to fear the Lord and trust Him: “God will redeem me from the power of death, for He will receive me.” The Old Testament believer expresses this truth as a hope; the New Testament believer can express this as a certainty: Jesus redeems; He has bought my life; what He has I also have; what He is I shall become like. This Truth gives Life and overcomes Death, guaranteed. Today I can live.

God is great! He is to be praised greatly for many reasons; one reason is that He keeps his people safe from the enemies that would destroy life. It is the Presence of God that protects. His presence on earth is in the Tabernable, then in the Temple, then in Jesus of Nazareth, then in the Church of God’s believers as they gather together in Jesus’ name, and so also within the physical body of each individual Christian.

The Temple of God is within the Mt. Zion fortress complex in Jerusalem, thus, the City of God. It is pictured as impregnable to enemy attack; even more, Zion strikes fear and  trembling into the enemy so that he flees. This painful scare is like a woman in labor and like an ocean-going ship broken by a strong wind.

Sin, Death and the Devil will attack the Jesus believer, so he “goes to church,” finds refuge in the Word, seeks the Lord in prayer, and praises the name of Jesus. He enters into “heaven on earth” and there experiences protection, safety, comfort, and the spiritual force to frighten away Sin and Evil. This great God is forever, an ever available guide. Praise the Lord!

“It’s not the end of the world,” so they say when troubles swirl around. But even if it were we will not fear: because our God is with us where we are on the earth; because God is our Refuge and Strength; because God provides an Edenic river to flow by us; because God is a very present (in our time and in our space) help in times of trouble.

Unimaginable judgments will come upon our earth and the world at the “end of the world,” but before then portents of that Final Judgment will appear during our lifetime. We will experience great natural disasters, wars, political tumults, and the breakdown of peace and stability in our time and space.

But worse than that, our Enemies will bring trouble and turmoil into our personal lives at unexpected times and places to disturb our peace and security. It is these disturbances in the soul and in relationships that is our common experience. That is when and where the Lord comes to be our Very Present Protection and Help. That is when we are invited to come into that Very Present Presence by our gracious Jesus. “Relax, and know that I am God.” He is in control.

 

In a beautiful depiction of the King and his Bride (Christ and His Church) King Jesus is described as ruling with a sword and arrows. The arrows pierce the hearts of the King’s enemies for the protection of the people He rules. The sword is girded as He majestically rides into battle for His Church. He rides prosperously, successfully, for the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness. He overcomes the enemies with great victories.

Our Lord crushes with the Word of God; Jesus simply but powerfully speaks with the words from His gracious lips. First, he speaks Truth to handily dispense the Lie and the daily lies coming from the darts of the Evil One. The Truth: Jesus loves you and forever forgives.

Second, he rules in Meekness and humble, suffering service to smash Pride and Self spawned by crouching Sin, as it attempts to elevate self over God and others to exert control. The Meekness: Jesus died for all on the cross.

Third, he reigns in Righteousness establishing order and security in the daily affairs of life in place of Chaos and Confusion, with which the Evil One has been destroying souls since the Fall. The Righteousness: Jesus is risen and ascended and sits.

There is an immense mystery in God and His ways, but one must continue to trust and pray to him anyway, no matter what. God has been faithful in the past numerous times and He has led me on from victory unto victory, but now, this time, I have suffered a terrible defeat in a spiritual battle, and I can find no reason for it since I have been faithful. Sin is having its way with me; the devil keeps prowling and roaring; disease is running rampant and death is looming. I am like a sheep to be slaughtered.

Why? What’s going on? Where is my Overcomer now? No answer comes; there is just mystery. Sometimes it is hard to keep faith when there is disappointment with what I expected from God, and when the crushed enemies keep rising up to tempt and torment.

But God is still my God; God is still good, all the time, no matter what. I will still trust in His faithful, unconditional, total, and permanent love. Therefore, I will still pray, “Awake, O Lord, from slumber; Arise from hiding. Help now and redeem because of Your mercy and unfailing love in Christ Jesus.”

A depressed person in dialogue with his soul remains downcast and in turmoil until he remembers that a caring God is near whom he can bring into the dialogue. “Soul, why are you so sad when your God of hope and joy is so close by?” The Holy Spirit is able to turn him from looking down to looking up.

He tells himself, “Hope in God!” He prays for light (Jesus) and truth (also Jesus) to lead him into the presence of God where there is refuge and strength. This Shepherd leads into pleasant meadows, where he finds God is his exceeding joy. Turning produces a turning. Prayer becomes praising and rejoicing.

Why should I mourn because of the enemy when I have a God who pleads my cause and delivers me? The key is recognizing that the enemy of joy is Sin and the Devil, which has already been overcome; and recognizing that the Flesh (complaining) and the World (blaming) are pawns the enemy uses for temptation. Pray instead of complain and blame; Jesus goes right to the source of the problem and turns downcast into upcast.

Both God and the devil are ever and always in and around each person; both Jesus and sin will never leave anyone. I may be aware of the presence of one or the other at any given time; it is helpful to be aware of which one is most present to me.

When God feels absent Sin and Satan fill the apparent void with sadness, turmoil, despair and chaos inside the self and the Enemy taunts, “Where is your God when you need him?” Then I miss the Lord and yearn for His peaceful presence; then I turn to my hope, my health, my joy and my life: my living God; then I repent and believe the Gospel and He is there with all I need.

A water metaphor describes the experience: tears are my food while waves of disorder (deep calls to deep) threaten the soul. I am in desperate need of the refreshing, tranquil, ordered and gentle brook.

In Jesus, God gives the grace to go from chaos to order, despair to hope, sadness to joy, tears to smiles, and from the Absence to the Presence of God through forgiveness and life freely gifted.

Sickness and weakness of body and soul remind the suffering person that He has three enemies that bring trouble and misery, and it reminds him to turn to his Lord who forgives his sin, delivers from the devil, and triumphs over death.

The Lord answers with forgiveness of sins which is real enough to restore body and soul to health. God answers by not allowing the devil and the deadly demons to have their will and their way. Jesus answers by mercifully earning deliverance from sickness, weakness and death. The Enemy is overcome and the sick person is brought into the presence of God where life is enjoyed to the full forever.

“O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up” is the prayer that can be used in repentance and faith in the Gospel any time one is afflicted by the enemies. God shares His life with him and keeps pouring it on since He is from everlasting to everlasting. Jesus says authoritatively, “he shall have eternal life,” now.

I praise the Lord for who He is: righteous, faithful, loving, kind, merciful, truthful, saving. I thank the Lord for what He has done for me in the past: He delivered me from the miry pit, the danger of death, and in fact, His wonderful works saved me numerous times and His kind thoughts and plans are too numerous to count. He did it before; now I need Him again in the present moment. Help me.

In the present moment of need (which happens to be every morning) I am surrounded by the devil’s demons and overwhelmed by sin’s sins. They seek to destroy my soul and wish me evil, again. O Lord, confound them and drive them away, again.

How does He do this? By sacrifice and obedience, by the sacrifice and obedience of Christ. To make that my own and apply it to my present need I come with the instructions of the Book. I “sacrifice” by remembering Jesus’ sacrifice for me, and I “obey with my heart” by the serious intent to repent and believe. I am a have-nothing person, but the have-everything God “thinketh upon me” and hears my prayer, again.