Month: October 2017

Psalm for the Week – 22nd October, 2017

Psalm 3 (NKJV)

The Lord Helps His Troubled People

A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

3 Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
2 Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah

3 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
4 I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

5 I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

7 Arise, O Lord;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah

 

It has been a couple of weeks since our last ‘Psalm of the Week’ segment. Let me just say life intervened and I was unable to post what I had in mind.

By God’s grace, things are running at a much better pace now and we can get right into it. I trust we will all be blessed by this psalm.

This week, we want to consider and meditate on Psalm 3 which is one that David wrote as he fled from Absalom during his son’s rebellion against him (See 2 Samuel 15 for the full account).

I like to say there is betrayal and there is betrayal. Any one of us who has been let down by a close friend or a loved one can certainly relate with how David is feeling here. It is much worse to be betrayed by your own flesh and blood, your son and one whom his father especially loved and doted on possibly above even the rest. It also was not only Absalom, but as we read the full account, some of David’s most trusted men and counsellors had also sided with Absalom and he had been written off.

He therefore starts the psalm acknowledging the desperation of his situation and how even God, according to the mockers, would not be able to help him. I believe that is a great place to start when we find ourselves in dire circumstances. Acknowledging our helplessness is a great place to be for God to act to help. I do sometimes see a certain pride in some strands of ‘Christianity’ who will never accept any truth about their situation. They will never accept they are weak, or sick or poor or desperate claiming that is negative speech. Some call it faith but all I hear is fear and pride. Rather, it is in our weakness that God perfects strength and in that He might receive all the glory. It is like how when Jesus came, the Pharisees always accused Him of being with tax collectors and sinners. Here is His response:

Luke 5:31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

David quickly moves on and proclaims the truth that he has learned from all the years of walking with God and which is confirmed to us by His word. God is our shield. He is our strength. He is the one who is our glory and who exalts when we humble ourselves before Him. We therefore need to call out to the Lord in our problems. Is it an issue of sin we are battling? Is it one of a cry for salvation? Is it one of need? Is it one of anxiety over the future? The answer is one and the same. Cry out to the Lord for His deliverance and for Him to uphold you.

And O! How he upholds us. Sometimes, I like to jokingly (but seriously) tell people that when it is night I sleep and sleep soundly. This started because I have a good friend who was working tirelessly to convince me years ago that there were attacks of Satan which take place only at certain times of the night so I need to be awake to pray and engage in warfare. This happens when you read too many books apart from the bible or watch too many of these famous ‘pastor’s these days. Why worry needlessly when the King of the universe never sleeps and He sustains us? What really is the worst that could happen? I die and then what? I end up in heaven with Him of course. My family belongs to Him as well and if He chooses not to keep them here any longer or for our circumstances to change somehow, then glory be to His name. Like Job said, “shall we accept good from the Lord and not evil?” God is good and He is wise. Let us learn to trust Him like David.

Now I am not of course saying it is wrong to pray at night or even through the night if we have a certain burden we are carrying. We should pray at all times but always with a sense of assurance as to who is really in charge of things.

Finally, in verse 7-8, David talks about all God has done in destroying his enemies in times past and comes to the good confession we all must make:

Salvation belongs to the Lord. His blessing is upon His people! (my wording)

The question, Dear Reader, is therefore are you part of the people of God? Do you in truth belong to Him? If not, I cannot give you any comfort. God does not offer you comfort in your strife and troubles in this sin-filled world.
He has made provision for you through Jesus Christ. Why not turn to Him today and have your sins forgiven? Then even if you go through the rest of your life surrounded by issues and troubles which we will face in this world, we can have strong assurance in the words of Jesus:

John 16:33 – These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Have a blessed week and let us remember to serve our God!!!

Verses of comfort in times of distress

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

A few days ago I had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night for what I will call a “medical incident.” Don’t worry, I’m fine, and it turned out to be nothing serious in the end, but at the time I felt very, very ill and was very, very worried. But as the verse above says, the God of all comfort comforts us in our affliction, and as I sat in the taxi and then in the hospital waiting room, I found various Bible verses just floating into my mind.

and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b)

I drew strength from knowing that Christ was with me anywhere I went that night, even as we careened through the streets of Accra at 1am. Certain parts of Accra are surprisingly lively in the middle of the night…

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

It wasn’t directly related to my situation, but somehow this verse kept popping up into my mind repeatedly. I drew two messages from this verse. First, our lives are not our own. As the Bible says, we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20) and our times are in His hands (Psalm 31:15). It’s up to God to determine whether we live or die according to His love and purpose for us.

Secondly, Jesus loved us enough to give His own life up for us. Whatever happens to us in this life, we must remember that someone who loved us enough to go that far will never act in anything other than our best interests, eternally speaking. Even when we don’t understand what’s going on we should trust in that much.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

The love of Christ was the theme of the Accra Reformed Conference in 2016. I thought I appreciated the message at the time, but strangely enough it meant much more to me when I could barely keep my head up than when I was sitting comfortably in a church pew. Or maybe it’s not so strange, because as another verse that came to mind says,

It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. (Psalm 119:71)

Earlier that evening when I was feeling fine (oh, how quickly circumstances can change), my mind was on every other thing but God’s word. On my schedule, on my plans for the weekend, on money, on business… It took disaster striking to focus my mind back on Christ like a sharp knife cutting away unneeded fat.

If God were a human being he would say “Ahaa, so you have remembered me now, eh?” But praise be to God that He is not like us. Instead of letting times of affliction distract and confuse us, I pray we will use them as an opportunity to drive us and our hearts back to God. And I’m praying for myself that this focus on the things of God will remain even now that I am feeling so much better by God’s mercy.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride (Isaac Watts).

Last but not least, this beautiful hymn by Isaac Watts that I hummed to myself once I was feeling well enough to hum. Why that hymn? I don’t know. I like it well enough but it has never been one of my favourites. Perhaps it was my way of reminding myself of what really matters in this world and in our lives.

Conclusion

Don’t wait till you get into trouble to call on the name of the Lord. But trouble can’t be avoided in this world, the Lord Jesus told us as much (John 16:33). That’s why, as the opening verse said, I wanted to share with you the comfort that God gave me. It is my hope that you will be comforted in your own times of distress and will be able in turn to comfort others.

Grace be with you all.

Psalm for the Week – 1st October, 2017

Psalm 2 (NKJV)

1 Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”

7 “I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break[a] them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,[b] lest [c] He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

 

I have always found Psalm 2 fascinating in light of Psalm 1. Whereby Psalm 1 gives great blessing to those who have submitted to the word of God, Psalm 2 shows the great opposition in the human heart against the sovereignty of God.

I know of no other psalm which more accurately describes the widespread rejection in the human heart for the authority of God. This is the source of all sin. Right from the garden, we see the point of attack which Satan used. He basically asked, “Has God really said…” and we know the rest of the story.

The human heart is evil and there is rebellion from the onset to any symbol of authority. Consider the heavens and all that is in them. God commands the sun, moon, stars, seas, wind, plants, animals and they all obey Him. It is only in the human heart where there is any form of dissent.

So in the first 3 verses, you see what man has agreed to do and indeed do we now see signs of that in various places physically and in some countries even, public prayer to God is more and more out of favour and even in Ghana, trying to insist that you live for the glory of God can and will attract mockery among co-workers, school mates or even family members.

Even some ‘churches’ have not been spared in this regard and you find many such institutions no longer governed by the word of God but more by majority decision or by what is popular in the culture at the time to make decisions. That is tragic!

However, God is not in the least bit bothered by the futile plans of human beings because they ultimately fall short. Verses 4-6 make this abundantly clear. God has determined what he is going to do and all the counsel and scheming by the kings and rulers and wise men of the earth will come to nothing.

Even more significantly, Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm and points ahead to the true King and Anointed One of God, Jesus Christ. From verse 7, Christ speaks about the declaration the Father has made concerning Him and the promises that He has received after His suffering. The nations belong to Him even though some of them do not realize it yet.

There is a warning of judgment at the end of the psalm for all those who do not make peace with the Son of God. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day when grace has been extended. Kiss the Son for the time is coming when His wrath will be unleashed upon all the children of wrath and it will be justified.

What about you today? Do you truly know Christ or are you still fighting God at every turn of your life?

Fellow Christian, I leave you with this:

1 John 5:3-4 (ESV)

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

 

Every word He has spoken is designed for His glory, our good and our flourishing. Do not allow the world to influence your thinking that it is oppressive somehow. Rightly divide the word and obey! God bless you this week!