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Although real life is much messier, a normal sequence of events often works out as follows: sin and rebellion – trouble and distress – prayer for help – promise of deliverance – rescue and salvation – praise and thanks. Then the cycle repeats.

How the believer sees life with God: First, the resolution of the crisis in my life is interpreted as engineered by the Lord. “On the day I called you answered me, and increased my strength.” My prayer and your answer was not coincidence.

Second, God’s attributes of steadfast love and faithfulness (grace and truth) have intervened in my life to deliver me. Though far off in distant power your have come near to deliver me.

Third, I believe your lovingkindness lasts forever. I see the pattern of delivering love in the past and I am bold to ask for continuing care in the future. He will preserve me from my troubles, save me from my enemies, and fulfill his purpose for me. And that is a forever promise.

Therefore, I will praise Him with my whole heart. I will praise Him in front of all demons and false gods, and I will proclaim God before kings and rulers. God is good forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

War is hell! War is violence. It can’t be romanticized or glamourized; there is no two ways about it. War kills people, breaks things, and causes years of untold trauma. Spiritual warfare is the same. Killing babies is an act of total warfare (to prevent a rising of the next generation). Spiritually, little sins grow up to be killer sins; so stop it now. The Sin and Death Enemies (called Edom and Babylon) must be violently overthrown. The most violent overthrow and total destruction was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was violence to our enemies and it was hell for them.

The heartfelt passion that the Exiles felt toward enemies was caused by being blocked and removed from the Presence of God in Zion. (They did not yet know that the Presence could be recovered in the Word of God.) This passion drove them to pray a violent curse on the enemies of God. They were too weak to take vengeance into their own hands so they wisely left justice up to the Lord.

We also can ask to feel this kind of violent passion for the presence of God, seek Him with our whole heart, and not be squeamish about hellish spiritual warfare.

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading Psalm 136: Saving Love is Eternal

Praise the Lord because He is good and because His Name is pleasant. Usually when the psalmist calls to praise he gives a reason. First, because He is good: this should go without saying, but it still needs to be said; this should never be doubted, but at certain times it needs to reaffirmed strongly over against the negative feelings of real life. If God is good (and He always is), then life is good (so praise Him).

Second, His Name is pleasant: the name of God is the Presence of God. If the Lord is present then everything is pleasant, that is, gracious joy and pleasing peace fills the room. There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place (so praise Him).

The two specific reasons for praise are creation of nature and the creation of Israel. Both creations are a result of prevailing over enemies: the empty darkness and the chaotic deep, and the gods (demons) of Egypt, Pharaoh, Og, Sihon, and of the Canaanites. Then He could give the Land to the People = promise fulfilled.

The triangulation of the Lord, the Promised Land, and  the Covenant People comes together at a point. That point is the Cross where God, Kingdom and Church meet. So at the “crossing” praise Him.

 

 

 

 

“Bless” means essentially to say or do good things to someone; as a result both the one who is blessed and one who gives a blessing normally feel better. This is how it usually works in human interaction. One can only imagine how wonderful life would be when people experience constant interactive, reciprocal blessings.

A believer’s relationship with God is similar except that God by nature doesn’t “feel better,” for He does not change and He cannot be improved; although He is pleased with faith in His Son and He is grieved with sin. In life we are continually blessing God and He is always blessing us. In worship, as in this Psalm, we bless the Lord and the Lord blesses us. We feel better.

Worship is like a doorway that opens out into the power and love behind the world. The One who made the heaven and the earth blesses the worshiper out of Zion, the church, the place of His Presence on earth. We receive the Gospel blessing in faith, and in turn, bless the Lord in an unending cycle of well-being. “Bless the Lord; the Lord bless you.”

 

 

 

 

Unity, peace and harmony is beautiful to behold and a wonderful thing to experience. It is beautiful like the anointing oil poured over Aaron and like the heavy morning dew that glistens on Mt. Zion.

You know it when you see it, but you can’t understand it, explain it or even describe it; and furthermore, you cannot make it happen. Unity and oneness is a gift and blessing from God alone.

There is a Unity in many living things that we cannot understand, create or control; these things are mysteries that we can believe, enjoy and sometimes experience: the Trinity, Christ the God-man, one flesh marriage, family ties, church fellowship, body and blood in the bread and wine, God in you, you in Christ.

God allows to humans the power to divide and separate and destroy the unity that God creates. Sin and death separate, and the devil divides incessantly. God holds it all together if we but repent of divisiveness and believe the Gospel: God’s Love alone has the power to hold together what He has joined. There, on Zion, the presence of God, He has commanded the blessing of life forevermore.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord God promises to establish a place for His Presence on earth and set up a King to rule His kingdom on the earth; He uses David to initiate and secure the Place and the Throne; this Temple and King is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David, the Anointed One. He replaced the temple Presence and fulfilled the throne promise. This Man, the Son of God in human flesh, stood on the dusty earth and proclaimed the kingdom of God: “Repent and believe the Gospel.”

The Anointed would be given a horn and a lamp: the power to rule God’s people on earth and the light to shine on a darkened world. On Him the crown would sparkle and flourish, but His enemies will be clothed with shame, humiliation and defeat. He will gather a kingdom of priests (His followers and subjects); we the priests will be clothed with righteousness and with salvation while the people shout for joy.

The Anointed will live and rule among us, defeating our enemies, providing our needs, and giving the joy and blessings of righteousness and salvation. The Zion presence of God and the David rule of God is always and forever with us.

 

 

Pride is one of the most difficult enemies to overcome out of all the enemies that arise from the sinful self. It is sometimes called the first sin, and often it is referred to as the primal cause of Satan’s rebellion. Selfish ambition comes naturally to every soul; everyone craves recognition, attention, honor, importance, power and control; each of us loathes humiliation, disgrace, dependence, insignificance and and weakness.

However, our loving Father is relentless in his pursuit of humble trust. He never stops allowing humbling experiences to come into our lives in order to root out pride and instill quiet dependence and calm trust in our inner being. His goal for His children is to see them resting peacefully and contentedly in His arms “like a weaned child.” Jesus sees the same picture.

This battle between pride and humility, between flesh and spirit, between God and Self will never end until complete submission is attained; when that goal is reached we experience humble trust, quiet confidence and peaceful rest. And although we sometimes experience the peace of complete submission, we can never reach the final goal until we go through death and resurrection. Meantime, we “die daily.”

 

 

 

 

Out of the depths One cries for mercy and the crier hopes in God’s Word of promise because he knows the essential character of God: with the Lord there is forgiveness, mercy, and redemption, because that’s who God is and that’s what God likes to give. Therefore, one can hope in God in the dark and dangerous night just as surely as he knows the sun will come up in the morning.

“Depths” means coming close to death which means sensing separation from God, which is caused by Sin. The despairer turns to God and away from sin for he desperately needs to be “with Him.” Forgiveness, mercy and redemption turns away Sin and Death. The NT believer finds God at the Cross.

The experience of knowing I am with that kind of God  causes me to know that He may be feared, meaning I now strongly desire to obey Him. Shakespeare was wrong when he wrote,”Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.” Truth is the opposite: substitute “obedience” for “sin” in that quote. In fact, mercy is the only means to produce change for the better; the Gospel is the only power to effect proper Fear of God.

Our Lord has freed us from the slavery of our enemies in the past; He free us from present crises and He will crush our enemies in the future. Many times they have afflicted me, beating my back with whips, but they have not prevailed. I have suffered many afflictions at the hands of sin, death and devil, but my righteous Lord has cut their whips and scourges and ropes when He died for me and set me free.

This same God who defeated my enemies and rescued me before will do so again. They will be confounded and turned back that hate God and His Presence and His people who trust in His Presence.

We will continue to be afflicted, but we have a future under the promised blessing of the Lord; our enemies have no future for they wither and die without a harvest. We, however, will grow and flourish and we will be harvested and brought into the Eternal Blessedness of the Kingdom.

The Lord Jesus Christ is The Overcomer, and He is our Hope for years to come. By faith we are in Him, in Zion, in His Presence, in the safe place.