John Stott compared the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3 to climbing a ladder…we’ve looked at the rungs of power and intimacy or residence, but today we come to the third rung. On the third rung of the ladder we find comprehension. Look at the end of verse 17 and go to 18,

“That you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…”

Paul is praying that they will comprehend God’s great love for them. Not just that they will love God, but that they will know just how much God loves them.

He wants them rooted and grounded—here we find agricultural and architectural terms—rooted—the roots of our life deep in the soil of God’s love and grounded—the building of our life firm on the foundation of God’s love. How do we get there? Focus on the extent of God’s love—how wide is it? It is wide enough to encompass all mankind. Anyone who will call upon Him will be saved. Ephesians 1 says it is so wide that it goes back to Eternity Past…before the world began. How long is it? It is long enough to last for an eternity…picture it going from eternity past to eternity future…no beginning point and no ending point. How deep is the love of God? It is deep enough to reach down to the most depraved of sinners (Eph 2:1ff)—to reach down to those of us who were or are dead in our sin. How high is it? It is high enough to exalt itself all the way into Heaven…Paul says we are blessed with every heavenly blessing and that our security is stored there with Him!

The love of Christ is best seen on the Cross. Go to the cross and meditate upon it, reflect upon it, and know just how much God loves you. The early church fathers said the description of Paul points us to the cross—the height and depth represented by the vertical bar of the cross and the width and length represented by the horizontal beam. Pray that others will comprehend just how much God loves them.

Verse 19, “And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” How can we know something that surpasses knowledge? Just because you can’t surpass something doesn’t mean you can’t know something about it. We will never get to the bottom of the knowledge of God’s love, but we can know as much as we want to know! We are to know it, but the word speaks of experiential knowledge. It’s like the man asking Armstrong to explain Jazz, He said, “Man if you have to ask what Jazz is you’ll never know.” It’s like love—you can’t explain how you know you are in love, but when you experience God’s love you know what it is. That’s Paul’s prayer—that they would know the love of Christ—that they would comprehend it.

In Paul’s prayer we find what Stott referred to as climbing a ladder of prayer. The first rung was power, but let’s go to the second rung today…residence. In Ephesians 3:17 Paul says, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”

There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells us the moment we are saved, but the word Paul uses for dwell gives us a clue as to what he is talking about. One Greek word for dwell speaks of dwelling somewhere as a stranger—we find it in 2:19, “so then you are no longer strangers or aliens…” The other Greek word, the one Paul uses in our text speaks of taking up residence, of being at home, of something permanent and not temporary.

Through faith Paul wants to see Jesus at home in our lives. Is He at home in your life? Do you remember the pamphlet that was out where Jesus moved into someone’s house and He began to clean out the house room by room? Look at the places in your life—what you watch, what your read, what you listen to, who you hang out with, where you go, etc.…is Jesus at home there or is He a stranger in your life? That seems to be a strange question, but if you are calling Jesus your Lord and yet living like the world He isn’t at home in your life and you are not at home in Him. Power and residence—pray for yourself and for others along these two lines, but don’t stop there.

There is nothing quite like being home! I often judge a good weekend by how close I stayed to my back yard! I love to travel, but I love being home even more and there is nothing like the feeling, the hope, the knowledge of God being at home in me as I grow accustomed to being at home in Him!

Yesterday we started looking at Eph 3:14-21. Now, let’s get down to the subject of his prayer…Stott compared Paul’s prayer to climbing a staircase with each step taking us higher and closer to God. I like that idea, but let’s look at it in terms of climbing a ladder in the school of prayer. You can take these subjects and pray for yourself or for anyone—those who are lost, those who are prodigals, and those who are walking in the Spirit. Notice the word, “that,” and you’ll find the topics of prayer.

On the first rung we find power.

“That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.”

Power is a common theme in Ephesians—we find the Greek words for power, strength, and ability in this letter and in these verses, we find all three. Paul is praying that God, through His Spirit, will strengthen you mightily with His power.

Notice two things about this power—first the measure of it—“according to the riches of His glory.” It isn’t that Paul is asking God to strengthen them out of God’s riches of glory—it is that he is asking Him to do it according to the riches of His glory. That’s two totally different things—in the past I’ve used the analogy of Elon Musk giving according to his riches or out of his riches. Would you want a gift out of the riches of a trillionaire or according to his riches? God gives according to the riches of His grace.

But notice not only the measure of it, but the location of the strengthening—“in your inner being.” We spend so much time on the outer being which passes away, but the inner being is who we are in Christ, and we strengthen that as we feed it. We find the inner man mentioned again in verse 17 when Paul says, “in your hearts.” How much time do you spend feeding your inner being? At the end of 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Feed your inner man—the soul—with time in the Word, time in prayer, time in worship, and through obedience. The divine nature is imparted to us when we are saved—we are brought to life from the death of sin and we must now realize the need to be strengthen with God’s power in the inner man. That’s the secret to our growth as children of God. Feed it and you’ll find yourself seeking God’s will and God will in turn give you the strength to follow Him. Pray that God will give you the power to do it and pray that He will give the power to others.

I was reading an article not long ago by a former Buddhist monk. I’ll have to admit that isn’t normally within my reading habit, but what he said captivated me. I often speak out about the danger of the smart phone, what it is doing to our minds, but the writer spoke of the number of times we choose notifications over presence.

How many times have I sat with my beautiful wife across the table and found it hard to focus because I’m more worried about the score of a game or some strangers response to my social media post? I chose notification over presence and that choice doesn’t come without consequence.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t just a problem for adolescents or teens. I often sit in doctor’s waiting rooms with my dad and watch senior adults doing the doomscroll. I’ve spent time with grown men who just can’t seem to go a minute without picking up their phone. When I make the conscious choice to leave my phone in the car, I often feel like an alien on another planet!

I remember taking my youngest daughter out to dinner and watching a couple come in with what I would guess to be their granddaughter. She was young, but content with the colors and paper the restaurant brought to the table. I just glanced over and smiled remembering the time that the young lady across the table from me was doing that very thing, but then the grandmother did the most remarkable and disturbing thing…she took the paper and crayons away and gave the child her i-phone with videos cued up. She sat glued to the phone the rest of the time. The child didn’t ask for the phone, she wasn’t restless, she was enjoying a moment of creativity and that was stolen by a mindless video.

The grandmother chose entertainment over creativity. She lost the moment to engage and create and chose the easy means of wasted time. The moment was right there in front of her…as it is right in front of us.

A few weeks ago, I woke up, checked my phone to see what time it was and instead of putting it down, I scrolled. Not for long, but long enough. I got and went outside to read my Bible and spend time with the Lord and I just couldn’t focus. My brain was in a fog. I started a mental checklist…did I go to bed early, did I sleep well, did I…and I realized the only difference was I started with a scroll instead of time in the Word. It made a difference in my ability to focus and absorb.

I chose notifications and lost a sense of presence. How many times do we let screens rob us or what is right in front of us? This morning I was reading one of the Psalms and I heard a Carolina Wren singing and it seemed like she was right there…I looked up to the power line where she often sits and she wasn’t there, I looked over to the tree where she often hides and she wasn’t in an obvious place, and then I saw her fly by…she was sitting on a chair right across from me…she does that sometimes, but I missed it. How many times have I missed the manifest presence of God simply because I’m choosing the world’s notifications?

Here is the problem, we don’t live in the present. We are always looking for something that is coming, something that will be better. The monk said, we wait for the promotion to feel successful, the vacation to feel relaxed, the weekend to feel alive, but “life isn’t happening in those future moments, it is happening right now!”

I don’t know about you, but that stings me. I have a tendency to “keep treating right now as a waiting room for something better.” I’m “anxious about tomorrow” when “tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Jesus!)

Jesus said that in the context of worry, but could I put it into the context of presence? Don’t waste this moment, live in the moment you are given. Don’t ignore eternity, live in the now with eternity in mind, but realize this moment is a part of eternity…make the most of it!

Every moment doesn’t have to be extraordinary…throwing the ball with my grandson, watching a hummingbird feed, enjoying a sunset or a flower in bloom…ordinary moments that are simply extraordinary. If every moment is lived in my waiting room looking for something better, I will miss the best moment and one day look back and have a past full of regrets.

So, put down the phone, turn off the notifications, cancel some social media accounts, and learn to live in the glorious moment of right now!

Let’s change it up this week and move from the Psalms and turn to Ephesians 3:14-21 and study one of my favorite prayers of Paul. Let me start with an observation, I’ve never met a child of God that seems truly satisfied with their prayer life. Even those who spend great amounts of time in prayer never seem to feel as if they have their prayer life together.

Over the years I’ve bought and read more books on prayer than probably any other topic, but I’ve found that I learn more from Paul in the school of prayer than from anyone else. This morning we come to the second prayer of Paul in this great letter and in this prayer we much to help us in our own prayer life.

Notice, for the second time in this chapter we find the words, “For this reason.” Paul spoke of the people of God—Jews and Gentiles—as the Kingdom, the Family, and the Temple of God at the end of chapter 2. He was about to go straight into this prayer, look at 3:1, “For this reason,” but the Spirit led him to speak more about the mystery of the gospel as it was revealed to Paul, but now he comes back to his prayer.

In verses 14 and 15 we find these words,

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”

Notice the posture of prayer mentioned here—“I bow my knees.” The most common way for a Jewish man of Paul’s day to pray was to pray standing, but here Paul says he bows his knees. This isn’t a prescription for all prayer, but it is a hint to the attitude of prayer—we don’t always have to kneel to pray, but we must always come in humility and in submission to the King of kings.

Notice also the One to whom he prays—“before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named—a family is any group with a common ancestor—I really think Paul is simply saying God is the creator of all…every one in Heaven and on earth comes from Him. He bows his knees, and he prays to his Father who is in Heaven—the Creator and Lord of all. We come humbly, but as we saw last week we come boldly because He has granted us access and we come with confidence because He is our Father.

I’ll pick up here tomorrow, but if you are enjoying these please consider subscribing so that the email comes directly to you and maybe hit the share button!

I have been reading the Five Psalms a Day for so long that I often wake up thinking about which Psalm I’ll get to read on that day…for example, on the 8th day I open my Bible knowing that I get to pray with David, “O, LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”

Today is one of those days…I look forward to opening with Psalm 19 and ending with Psalm 139…what incredible words, what incredible poetry. This morning I was thinking about David’s words in the opening verse of Psalm 19 and was just amazed at his poetic abilities.

Then I got to thinking that if David was indeed inspired by Holy Spirit then the greatest Poet in existence is certainly the Holy Spirit! I love passages like psalm 19 and Psalm 139, but what about Psalms like 109?

Christopher Ash said, “Psalm 109 feels like praying… ‘Dear God, my loving heavenly Father, I want to pray about so-and-so, who is causing me problems at work. Please may he/she die soon. May his/her children become wandering beggars. May no one take pity on them. Please do that for me. Thank you, loving heavenly Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.’”

What do we do with psalms like this? I mean, aren’t we supposed to love our neighbor, love our enemy, and turn the other cheek?

Psalm 109 opens with a description of David’s crisis (1-5), turns to praying against David’s enemies (6-20), David praying for himself (21-29), and ends with David’s praise (30-31).

So, the Psalm opens and close with praise…somehow we are supposed to find a truth here…something in verses 2-29 that will drive us to praise God.

I never really understood what we call the “imprecatory psalms” which are prayers in the Bible’s Book of Psalms that call down God’s judgment, calamity, or wrath upon enemies until I watched a video of militant Muslims taking a group of Christians and beheading them. I didn’t/couldn’t watch the entire video, but I saw enough to understand how the psalmist could call down wrath. But even now, I struggle with such prayers in light of the actions of Jesus.

David opens with,

“Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”

Notice he says they are wicked, deceitful, liars, hateful, they accuse him falsely, and reward evil for good and hatred for love. I love what David says in verse 4, “But I give myself to prayer.” There is a lesson here for us…when we find ourselves in a crisis, when others are spreading lies and rumors, the first place we should run is God’s Throne.

Ash said, “Note that Psalm 109:6-20 is not a curse but a prayer.” David is presenting his case before God and asking God to move on his behalf. Verse six says, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.” If I had to go to court I’d want a lawyer on my side who wouldn’t mind gong after the accuser…that seems to be what David is asking for.

David isn’t calling down a curse, but he is praying to God about his enemies and asking God to move. He is leaving the outcome to God.

We must trust God, but we must also pray for repentance.Jesus paid for sin on the cross, he took the judgment, and even while hanging on the cross He prayed for forgiveness of those who were crucifying Him.Bring your “issues” to God, let God determine the outcome, and trust Him.Trust Him to do what is right even when you can’t see the “right” in His decision, and give yourself to prayer and seek to forgive as He has forgiven you

Psalm 135 gives us a call to praise and then six reasons to praise and the Psalm closes with a Repeated Reminder to Praise,

“O house of Israel, bless the LORD! O house of Aaron, bless the LORD! O house of Levi, bless the LORD! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD! Bless the LORD from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD!”

It ends as it begins—Praise the LORD.

He calls upon Israel, He calls upon the priests and the Levites, he calls upon the nations…all should praise the LORD!

Praise Him for He can see,

He can speak, He can hear,

He can save,

He is living, He is loving,

and He is good.

Praise Him and don’t rest until everyone joins you!

William Temple said, “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”

I love that quote…focus on the holiness of God as He has revealed Himself in the pages of Scripture, feed the mind with that truth, let the picture of God in the Word purge your mind so that you think thoughts that please Him, and open up to the goodness and love of God and praise Him.

Let me close with these suggestions:

Praise Him more fervently than you praise anything or anyone else,

Praise Him continually—make it as natural as breathing,

Praise him publicly—don’t be ashamed,

Praise Him privately—it really does start there,

And praise Him now because if you are His child you’ll do it eternally…shouldn’t we get a head start?

Praise Him

Yesterday we starting looking at Psalm 135:3-18 and the reasons to praise God. The Psalmist gives us six reasons…we saw three of them yesterday—He is good, He loves, and He is sovereign. Let’s look at the next three today.

Praise Him because He is our Savior. In verses 8-12, the psalmist takes us from Egypt to the Promised Land. Verse 4 took us back to God’s choosing of Jacob—Jacob’s 12 sons made up the Tribes of Israel. They would eventually go to Egypt where God had already sent Joseph to rescue them. 400 years later God used Moses to lead them out of Egypt, that’s verses 8-9, then in verses 10-11 we have God moving in them to strike down and judge the pagan nations, and in verse 12 we find God bringing them to the land He promised Abraham. God saved them and provided for them and that is worthy of praise.

God took Abram by the hand and called him, Abram obeyed, and God gave him a son by the name of Isaac. Isaac had twins sons—Esau and Jacob—God chose Jacob and through him God provided the 12 Tribes…the land God promised was delivered…God saved His people.

God saves us…He is good, He is loving, He is sovereign in our lives, and He redeems us…that is worthy of our praise! Many of these same examples are repeated in Psalm 136 and every single verse repeats this line, “for His steadfast love endures forever.”

Verses 13-14 tell us to praise Him because He endures forever, “Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all the ages. For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants.” The God of the OT is the God of the NT. The promise keeping God is still keeping promises. The God who watches over His people watches over us. The story of Israel is our story…it is the churches story…that’s our eternal and enduring God. Praise Him for He endures forever, and He vindicates and has compassion!

Finally, praise Him because of the impact it has on you. That might surprise you, but look at verses 15-18, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in them.” Spurgeon told the story of John Thomas, a missionary to India. He noticed a large group of people gathered at the door of a temple, and as soon as the doors opened they piled in and he joined them. An idol was set before the people and Thomas went to the front and raised his hands for silence.

He touched the eyes and said, ‘It has eyes, but cannot see!”

then the ears, ‘It has ears, but cannot hear,’

‘It has a nose, but it cannot smell,’

‘it has hands, but it cannot handle,’

‘it has a mouth but cannot speak, neither is there any breath in it.’

At the moment he fully expected to be rushed upon and killed an old Brahmin was convicted and said, “It has feet, but cannot run away.” The entire crowd felt shame and left the temple.

Our idols seem a little more sophisticated don’t they…they come in the form of bank accounts, homes, cars, teams, sports, hobbies, and people…but none of it will lead us to praise the God of this psalm. The impact of our worship is found in verse 18, “Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.” You and I will become like that which we worship. If too much time around a person changes you for the worse, too much time around an event…you have an idol on your hands. Worship God! Be like Him!

I love the scene in Lord of the Rings when King Aragorn honors Frodo and Samwise after the defeat of the dark lord with the rallying cry: "Praise them with great praise!" Surely they deserved great praise, but have you considered just how great our praise should be toward our Father.

I often rise before the sun comes up, but I love the moment when the light begins to appear and the feathered chorus strikes up the note and they sing…they sing praises to their Creator…how much more should we!

Yesterday we turned to Psalm 135 and saw the call to praise the Lord, but in verses 3-18 we are given the reason to praise the LORD. He gives us six reasons. Verse 3, “Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to His name, for it is pleasant!” Notice the little word “for.” It gives us the first reason and in it helps us throughout this section. We praise God because He is good.

In the Garden, Satan came to Adam and Eve and tempted them along these very lines…you won’t surely die, God knows that if you eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you’ll be just like Him. He is holding out on you, He is trying to keep you down, He isn’t being good to you…we’ve swallowed that line ever since.

The beginning of praise is to know the goodness of God. God is good…all the time; all the time…God is good. We don’t always see the goodness of every action…we are not omniscient, we don’t see the eternal ramifications of what He is doing, but we must start here…praise God from whom all blessings flow. Every good and perfect gift you have is from above…praise God because He is good.

Notice, it is pleasant when you do this. It is pleasant to praise God…if you are walking without joy or happiness…start by praising Him and reminding yourself of His goodness and the good things He has done.

Second, we praise God because He first loved you. That’s what John says in 1 John 4:19, “We love God because He first loved us.” In verse 4, “For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as His own possession.” Paul uses this same logic in Romans…why Jacob? God chose Jacob over his brother Esau while they were still in the womb…before they had done anything good or bad. They had the same parents—it wasn’t like Ishmael and Isaac. Jacob was the younger of the two—the older was supposed to be the chosen son. Why Jacob? It is the mystery of God…but Deuteronomy 7:6-8 takes up the idea of God choosing the entire nation…,

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

God’s choice was a choice of love and grace and it is left within the mystery of His own decisions but make no mistake just as God chose them—the NT says He chose you and that is a humbling thing of which should constantly be a matter of praise from your lips. Praise Him for He is good. Praise Him for He first loved you. That leads to the third reason to praise Him.

Third, praise Him for He is sovereign. Look at verses 5-7, “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our LORD is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.” Simply put…the fact that God is sovereign means He is on the Thone and He is in charge. That is a matter worthy of our praise…especially when we consider that this comes after the first two.

Imagine a God fully sovereign who isn’t good. Imagine a God fully sovereign who doesn’t love. But imagine a good and loving God on the Throne moving this world toward His own purposes. Look no further than the exercise of His providence as he moved from man’s first sin to the cross and ultimately to the New Heaven and the New Earth. His sovereignty is a reason for great praise…He is the King, we are in His kingdom, and His kingdom is advancing.

We will pick up with the next three reasons tomorrow, but spend some time praising Him for His goodness, His love, and His sovereignty!

The last of the five Psalms I read this morning was 135…let’s spend the week seeing what we can learn. Calvin said, “The World is a theatre for the display of the divine…and the Church is the orchestra!” I love that thought…God created this world to display His glory and the center point of His creation was man and woman…we were created to bear His image, to worship Him, to show His glory in our actions, to praise His glory in our words, and to sing of His glory and to love Him with all that we have, but we fell and we constantly need to be reminded to praise the LORD!

That’s what we find here in verses 1-2, The Reminder to Praise. What a shame that we have to be reminded. Plummer said, “It is a sad fact and affords proof of a very fearful alienation from God that inspired men call upon us so often to do this work, to which we are criminally indisposed. Surely the holy creatures in heaven require no such perpetual call this this work.” And yet we must be constantly reminded to “praise the LORD.”

Three times in these verses the psalmist says, “Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD, give praise,” the three-time repeated word is the root of the word hallelujah, but it what does that mean. Ultimately, the idea of praising God is to boast in God, to brag on God, to make much of Him. What is the central focus of your boasting?

I often beat this drum, but what do your social media pages reveal with regard to your boasting? What does your money trail reveal? What does your thought life reveal? What makes you jealous? What makes you envious? What really gets under your skin?

Is God the center of your praise? Is He the center of your decisions, your thoughts, your love, your life? That’s the call we find here in our psalm and it will be repeated over and over again throughout the rest of the book…praise the LORD…give praise to Him. We praise Him…we boast of who He is, and we boast of what He has done. We boast of what He is doing, and we boast of what He has promised to do. That’s the reminder…praise the LORD.

Let’s pick up with the next verse tomorrow. If you’d like a direct email with the blog…hit the subscribe button and if you like it…hit share!

Let’s go back to Psalm 8:5-8 where we find God’s Image.

“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Here we find God given dignity…not man earned, or man supplied dignity, but God given dignity. It is beyond what we might expect…the word for “heavenly beings” is actually Elohim…David says, “Yet you have made him a little lower than God.” He looks up to God’s glory in verses 1-2, then he looks to God’s creation and back to the Fall in verses 3-4, but here he will take us beyond the Fall and back to Genesis 1 where God created us in His image.

Our dignity is wrapped up in this—we were created as image bearers of God…we were created in His image. God has given man a dignity that is second only to His own glory.

Angels are ministering spirits with no earthly bodies,

animals have bodies but no spirit,

but man has both spirit and body. We are the crown jewel of God’s creation—the apex of all that He made—look at what David said, “and crowned him with glory and honor.” These are words used of God and yet God shares that with us.

Now you must see Jesus here…in Hebrews 2:6-8 the writer quotes Psalm 8:4-6 and applies it to Jesus and then says at the end of verse 8 and verse 9, “At present, we do not see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” These verses in our Psalm apply to us before the Fall, but they are fulfilled in Jesus in the Incarnation.

Plummer said, “There is no greater gulf than that which separates the created and the uncreated, the finite and the infinite, man and God,” but this verse shows us how fallen man is restored—Jesus suffered in our place so we could be declared righteous. That’s the dignity we were given but notice verses 6-8 and you’ll also see God given dominion. We should never worship the creation—the Creator gave us dominion over it.

We looked at the God given dominion yesterday, but I wanted to come back to this because I am convinced we will never be caretakers of this earth if we do not see the dignity in which we were made.

There are those who seem to worship the earth. I’m not sure the Church has adequately been as active in caring for the environment as we should be…in fact I am quite sure we have not and when I saw we I include me! The difference I think in caring for the world God has given us and in many environmentalists today is that they are striving for what is going to come only after Jesus returns…a New Heaven and a New Earth is coming, but until that day we should care for those made in God’s image, but also for the Creation which yearns with us for the Creator’s redemption.

Psalm 8:6-8, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”

How are we doing with our dominion? In one sense you’d have to say we are doing well—we plant gardens, we tame our yards (though the more I read about that, the less I am convinced that is a good thing); humanity has written poems, painted beautiful pictures, sculpted art, created incredible buildings, composed symphonies; we fly across the world, communicate face to face thousands of miles apart, a while back an astronaut recently called in to the chapel service at SBTS from outer space; we’ve even walked on the moon…we have done well in some areas, but we would have to admit that while we produce we also pollute, while we heal we also harm, and while we educate we often exterminate…the same people who build…bomb…but if we were honest we’d have to admit that while we have made significant progress in our task of dominion over the creation there is one major area we have failed miserably, we have not taken dominion over ourselves.

We have the Spirit and yet we still walk in the flesh; we were saved and yet we are still prone to wander; we have the Word of God—His self-revelation and yet we are still ignorant of Him in all of His majesty and glory.

Can we dare settle for so little holiness when the Creator of all is mindful of us and cares for us? Can we look at the One who set the moon and the stars into place and know that He indwells us and be content living defeated lives? Can we know that He made us in His image and accept the fact that so much of our lives bear the image of the world?

Look to the One who cares for you…the majestic One, the glorious One, and know that as 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” You are the crown of His creation—He made you and then bought you back—He cares for you—so much so that He poured out the wrath you deserved upon His Son so that you might be righteous…He took the image that was tarnished by sin and made atonement so that you could live with Him glorified in His glory. What a God! What a life that He has set before us!! O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! May we make that name known in our hearts, in our city, and in our world!

In verses 1-2 of Psalm 8 we saw God’s Glory. In verses 3-4 we saw God’s Creation. In verses 5-8, we find God’s Image.

“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Here we find God given dignity…not man earned, or man supplied dignity, but God given dignity. It is beyond what we might expect…the word for “heavenly beings” is actually Elohim…David says, “Yet you have made him a little lower than God.” He looks up to God’s glory in verses 1-2, then he looks to God’s creation and back to the Fallin verses 3-4, but here he will take us beyond the Fall and back to Genesis 1 where God created us in His image.

Our dignity is wrapped up in this—we were created as image bearers of God…we were created in His image. God has given man a dignity that is second only to His own glory. Angels are ministering spirits with no earthly bodies, animals have bodies but no spirit, but man has both spirit and body. We are the crown jewelof God’s creation—the apex of all that He made—look at what David said, “and crowned him with glory and honor.” These are words used of God and yet God shares that with us.

Now you must see Jesus here…in Hebrews 2:6-8 the writer quotes Psalm 8:4-6 and applies it to Jesus and then says at the end of verse 8 and verse 9, “At present, we do not see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” These verses in our Psalm apply to us before the Fall, but they are fulfilled in Jesus in the Incarnation.

Plummer said, “There is no greater gulf than that which separates the created and the uncreated, the finite and the infinite, man and God,” but this verse shows us how fallen man is restored—Jesus suffered in our place so we could be declared righteous. That’s the dignity we were given, but notice verses 6-8 and you’ll also see God given dominion. We should never worship the creation—the Creator gave us dominion over it.

Let’s look at the dominion tomorrow.

Yesterday we started looking at Psalm 8 and stopped with verse 1….verses one and two show us God’s Glory. Jesus quoted verse 2 in Matthew 21. He entered the city on Psalm Sunday to the praises of man, He entered the Temple and drove out the money changers, He healed the blind, the lame, and 21:16 says the religious leaders saw the “wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’” They were indignant and questioned Jesus and Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2—in doing so He gave validity to the praises of the children, He claimed to be the Son of David, He claimed to be the Majestic One of Psalm 8, and He declared the religious leaders to be the enemies and the avengers. David looks and sees God’s Glory, but he doesn’t stop there.

Second, we find God’s Creation, in verses 3-4.

First, David looks up, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place.” It must be evening, a clear night, where the stars seem just out of reach, and David takes it all in and further glorifies God—he calls it all the “work of your fingers.” He is speaking poetically, but he is doing something amazing—the universe seems larger that our minds can comprehend, but when compared to the glory of God it is small—it’s the work of His fingers. It doesn’t require God to strain, it doesn’t require the flexing of His arm, or even the involvement of His shoulders or legs…He does it all with His fingers…billions and billions of stars and billions and billions of galaxies and He set them all in place and calls them by name.

But then David looks down, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” If the moon and stars are small things compared to God…what is man? If the stars and moonseem insignificant when compared to God…what is man? God, if you made all of that…why do you care about us? The first word for man speaks of mortal man in his weakened condition, but “son of man” speaks of being the son of Adam…I think David is looking back to the Fall. “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of Adam that you care for him?” David looks up to God’s majestic creation and His power and then looks down to fallen man, but he doesn’t stop with God’s Creation…come back tomorrow and we will continue!

What do you think of when you think of the word “majesty?” I often think of the view of Yosemite when you come out of the tunnel. The picture above is much better than the ones I took, but there is majesty and then there is Majesty. That’s the topic of our psalm this week.

I think you’ll understand what I mean when I say there are Psalms and then there are Psalms! Some just jump right off the page and get our attention—Psalm 8 is one of those Psalms. Kidner said, “This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be—celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who He is and what He has done, and relating us and our world to Him.” He went on to point out that the range of thought expressed in these words take us above the heavens, back to the beginning, and on to the very end. It is an incredible example of the work of the Holy Spirit as He inspired David.

The incredible thing about this Psalm is that it not only points us to the majesty of God, but it also shows us our place in this world. It helps us know who we are, and it gives us a Biblical self-image that starts not from looking within ourselves, but by looking to God. That’s what David does first and what he sees is incredible.

In verses 1-2 and in verse 9 we find God’s Glory.

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”

He then closes the Psalm with the same words, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” CS Lewis described this a “Short exquisite lyric.” O LORD, notice it is in all CAPS which means David uses the covenant name of God—Yahweh. Then he says, “our Lord,” and this time he uses the name Adonai which speaks of God as our Sovereign Master. Notice the intimacy of it, “O LORD, our Lord.” And then he says, “How majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” The majesty and glory of His name is revealed to us in His Word, but it also shouts to us in His creation, but the Creation itself isn’t enough to contain the Creator’s glory.

His name is the sum-total of who He is, and He reveals himself to us as the majestic, the excellent, the glorious, and beautiful One! In Psalm 19 we find, “The heavens declare the glory of God,” and here we find His glory is above the heavens. The Jewish mind thought of heaven in terms of three arenas, the atmosphere where birds fly, the stars, and then the Heaven above heaven…the place where God is said to dwell and where we will spend an eternity. To truly understand who we are we must first understand our Creator…the all glorious and majestic One.

How glorious is He? When others rise up against Him—His glory is secure even with the weakest and most vulnerable—“Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” The chorus of praise is heard from the insects and birds all the way to the babies and infants. The Message Bible translates verse 2 like this, “Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.” He is able to defend His glory with something as simple as the babble of infants and babies.

Let’s pick up with verse 2 tomorrow, but pray these words, sing them, memorize them, and hide them deep in your heart!

There was chaos in the Thweatt back yard Tuesday night. We were sitting outside watching the grandsons play and suddenly two blue birds started going crazy. I knew it had to be a snake and Kim saw a tail going through the hole of the bird house.

I grabbed the fire poker we have by our fire pit and tried to get it out…started by hitting the sides, the top, the bottom, stuck the poker in the hole, but outside of tearing the house apart there he wasn’t budging. I even squirted water from the hose, but he or she wasn’t budging. The parents watched us, flew down and fluttered in front of the hole, but it was over. After about an hour the guilty snake slid out and went on its “full” way.

To be honest, I know the snake was just being a snake, but it was heartbreaking to watch the birds…we have watched them build the nest and make countless trips back and forth feeding the babies and they just couldn’t do anything, and neither could we.

Wednesday morning, I sat outside reading my Bible and the parents were back, flying down, looking in the hole, but they knew they were gone. It got me thinking about another snake who came into a Garden and ruined everything.

Unlike the baby blue birds, our grandparents were not helpless, and unlike the blue bird parents our God was not helpless, but they kept their eyes on the snake and listened to his lies and forgot the beauty of the Father and His commands.

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. How many times do we cuddle with the snake thinking he will satisfy? How many times do we look away from Beauty and Glory and get bedazzled by the eyes of the destroyer? Has the snake ever really brought satisfaction? Maybe moments of happiness, but never true joy. His moments are followed by years of shame and regret.

I’m going to change the bird house situation in our back yard this winter. I’ll put up some higher poles and do some other things, but ultimately, the snake will always be the snake, but the Father will be the Father and we must keep our eyes on Him.

George Herbert said,

“If Thy first glance so powerful be,

A mirth but open’d and sealed up again,

What wonders shall we feel,

When we shall see Thy full-eyed love?”

The glances I share with the Father are marvelous. Can you imagine a “full-eyed love?” It will be like the “delight more than a thousand suns disbursed in light in Heaven above.”

(Note about picture…not from Tuesday and not same snake, but maybe his brother or sister on the same birdhouse from a few years ago!!)

I picked up a book two weeks ago by Stephen Witmer which is a devotional book from the poems of George Herbert. I read the following poem on Monday morning and I’ll leave it with you this morning to read and hopefully meditate upon!

The Call

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love.

I love the poem. The first stanza is a not too subtle reminder of Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” But look at what he says about each of these…such a Way, as gives us breath…there is no life outside of breath. His way is the Way, the only way to life. Such a Truth, as ends all strife. Strife with whom? It can’t be strife with our fellow man…that strife is here to stay, especially if we are following Jesus as the Way. The strife that is ended is the strife we experienced when were were at enmity with God. Such a Life as killeth death. What a Life! I’m alive, I’m breathing, my heart is beating, but death is promised for me…or is it? Jesus said, “If you believe in me you will never die.” That isn’t to say followers of the Way never physically die, but we never truly die. To die as a follower of Jesus is to take our last breath here and our next breath in Heaven.

I don’t intend to try to explain each line, but the second stanza takes us to Jesus as our Communion. He is our Light, our Feast, and our Strength. Finally, He is our our Everything. Our Joy, our Love, and our Heart…in Him we move and have our being. In Him we find true Love and true Joy…He is everything and without Him we have nothing!

Psalm 91 closes with God’s personal assurance of satisfaction.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Look at that promise! The key here, as in verse one where we dwell and abide, is that we hold fast to Him in love. If we do that, He promises to deliver us, to protect us, to answer us, to be with us in trouble—notice, He doesn’t promise to keep us from trouble, but to be with us in trouble, to rescue us, to honor us, to satisfy us with long life, and to show us His salvation. What more could we ask of Him?

Notice verse 16—this doesn’t mean that God promises to add years to all of our lives, but it does mean He will add life to all of our years. I’d rather live a complete life full of service to God and go to Heaven at a young age than to live to 100 and look back with regret! Only one life, twill soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last.

John Paton lived to be 83—he suffered much for the kingdom. God protected him in supernatural ways, He used Him to accomplish supernatural things, but he also suffered much in the journey. At the end he wrote,

“Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining cannibals on the New Hebrides. But since that may not be, may He help me to use every moment and every power still left in me to carry forward to the uttermost that beloved work.”

Go and read Psalm 91 and pray it. Quit asking for the safe and easy way—embrace the cross and follow Jesus. The only question we must ask of our lives and of the lives of our children is what is God calling us to do?

We must repent of the desire for safety.

We must repent of the desire for comfort.

We must repent of the selfish desire to keep everyone close and under our control and seek to live under the King’s command and if that means that we or our children will go to the Nation’s then hold your head high—we are soldiers of the Cross!

When we consider eternity—when we consider that to die is gain—when we consider that to die to self is to live in Christ, then we know that verse 16 is true—He will satisfy us with long life—eternal life, and in that eternity, He will show us His salvation and we will dwell in His shelter and abide in His shadow forever and no one will be able to snatch us out of His hand.

CS Lewis said, “Die before you die. There is no chance after.” Another said, “You cannot avoid death, but you can avoid the death after death. Paul said, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” There is nothing to lose and everything to gain!

As we continue to look at Psalm 91, let’s go to the second stanza found in verses 3-13 where we find the Psalmist’s powerful sermon on trust. His point is simple—if you trust in God, you can find verses 1-2 to be true for you and here is how He does it.

In 3-6, we find the many ways God protects. In verse 3 and verses 5-6 there are two types of dangers—one is subtle, “He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,” “the terror of the night,” but the other is obvious—“and from the deadly pestilence,” “arrows that fly by day,” and pestilence and destruction. The enemy attacks us from every angle, but God is able to protect us, and we can walk in confidence because we trust Him…He is able.

In verse 4 you find two ways God protects—like a bird covering her babies with her wings—this is close and personal. There are times God protects us simply by holding us near to Him, but other times He protects us with His faithfulness which is compared to a shield and buckler…this is nothing short of God’s armor.

A few years ago I read the biography of John Paton, the one who said he would just as soon as get eaten by cannibals as worms…he found himself barricaded in another couple’s home as a war like people were trying to kill them. They set fire to a part of the compound and waited for it to spread to the thatched roof of their house where they knew they would soon flee and then they would kill them. John left the house, and tore down the burning fence, and found himself surrounded—they were shouting, “kill him, kill him,” and John said, “Dare to strike me and my Jehovah God will punish you…” At that moment, they all heard a roaring sound rushing toward them…a tornado struck, swept the flames away from the house, and the rain soaked the house where it could not burn…Paton and the warriors stood in stunned silence and soon they ran away knowing God was fighting for them. That’s the protection of Almighty God.

And then he continues with examples of God’s protection. Verses 7-8 continue—a thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but if God desires your to be protected the enemy will not come near you…you will see His protection and His judgment of the enemy. Verses 9-10 state it even more emphatically and then verses 11-13 tell us that if God so chooses, “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.”

That’s the power and authority of God—should He choose to command His angels or should He choose to do it personally…nothing will stop the child of God from doing what God calls him or her to do. But, let’s stop for a moment…how do we justify these words with Hebrews 11 where God did mighty things, but some “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword…?”

Psalm 91 isn’t a magic charm that promises God’s children will never suffer…Jesus said in Luke 21:16-19, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.” How can He say you will be put to death and not a hair of your head will perish? He is talking about death and ultimate death…He is talking about this life and the life to come.

Psalm 91 is simple—there is not one thing that will happen to you that God does not allow and if He allows it you can rest in the knowledge that He is going to use it for His glory and for your good. How can we explain the protection of John Paton and the death of Jim Elliot? The deliverance of one and the murder of another. Even on Paton’s island where he ministered, he was delivered while others were killed and even eaten.

The only explanation is the strange Providence of God. You can rest in this—you are immortal until God says otherwise. If you walk in God’s will and do what God calls you to do you will do so in His protection. In one case Paton was surrounded again by those seeking to take his life. He said the Lord gave him this assurance, as if a voice came from Heaven, “not a musket would be fired to wound us, not a club prevail to strike us, not a spear leave the hand in which it was held vibrating to be thrown, not an arrow leave the bow, or a killing stone the fingers, without the permission of Jesus Christ…”

There is a confidence that comes from knowing that. Paton buried his first wife and baby on that island…on another island he and his second wife buried two children…Judson buried wives and children and suffered in ways we cannot understand. Lottie Moon basically starved herself to death caring for the people. Elliot and four friends were murdered on a sand bar where they were attempting to bring the Gospel. And yet Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he could never lose.”

Is it worth it? Ask John Paton now, as he is in Heaven with not only those of his family he buried, but an entire Island who came to Christ…ask Elliot, ask Lottie, ask Judson and Carey…it was worth every drop of blood, every drop of sweat, and every tear. Why? Because to live is Christ but to die is gain…oh, that we would come to know that.

Yesterday we introduced Psalm 91. There are three stanzas and they are marked by pronoun changes…I and my in verses 1-2, you or your in 3-13 and then I over and over in verses 14-16.

The first stanza hold some of my favorite verses and in them we find the Psalmist’s Personal Statement of Faith.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.’”

These are incredible verses…in the face of multiple dangers the Psalmist declares his trust in God and there is a laser focus on His divine charter.

Notice first the four divine names of God—Most High, Almighty, LORD, and God. In Hebrew the names are Elyon, El Shaddai, Yahweh, and Elohim.

These names speak of possession—the Most High possesses Heaven and earth;

They speaks of provision—El Shaddai not only possesses everything He is able to give all things for His glory.

Then we come to the name of Promise—Yahweh is the covenant name God gave to Moses, and that is followed by

Power—our God is the Creator God. He has all things, He can give all things, He makes promises through covenant that cannot be broken, and He is all powerful. That’s a pretty strong confession of faith. (alliteration from John Phillips! ?)

But the four divine names of God are accompanied by four words that speak of God’s protection. We are said to dwell in the shelter of the Most High, and to abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I love what Matthew Henry said, “They shall not only have an admittance, but a residence, under God’s protection; He will be their rest and refuge forever.”

Dwell, abide, and then in verse 2 God is our refuge and our fortress. Once again, a refuge is a place to flee for protection, and a fortress is a stronghold. It is one thing to say that you have a place to dwell and abide and that the place is a refuge and a fortress, but when you add to that the divine name…shelter of the Most High, abiding in the shadow of the Almighty, and your refuge and fortress are found in the LORD who is God…that changes everything.

I think Spurgeon was right when he bases the hope of these verses on the words dwell and abide. He said, “The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God.” When you are abiding in Him…you can trust Him…you can rest secure in Him because you know He is working in your life to conform you into the image of Jesus.

I try to read 5 psalms a day. Today is the 1st day of the month so I read Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121. It is one of my favorite days in the Psalms simply because of Psalm 1 and 91. Let’s spend the week in Psalm 91.

Verse one opens with these words, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” Maybe you recognize the title of this blog and the words from verse 1 as the title of a book by Elizabeth Elliot in which she wrote of the life and testament of Jim Elliot. On January 8, 1956, Jim and four friends were killed as they tried to make Gospel contact with a tribe in Ecuador. Years before his death, Jim Elliot prayed a prayer,

“Lord, make my life prosperous, not that I achieve high station, but that my life may be an exhibit to the value of knowing God.”

What does it mean to live our lives in the shadow of the Almighty?

Our Psalm’s author is unknown, but his relationship with God is evident through these words. As you study the Word of God you have to learn to look for certain things—in this Psalm there are clear movements throughout the text, and they are marked by pronoun changes…those changes mark the stanzas of the Psalm—they outline it for us.

Look at verses 1-2, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,”and you’ll find the personal pronouns, “I” and “my.” I will say, my refuge, my fortress, my God, and in whom I trust.

Then in verses 3-13, you find the pronoun “you” over and over again…in fact you find you or your 19 times in these verses, but then in the last three verses you find the word I again…I will deliver, I will protect, I will answer, I will be with him, I will rescue, I will satisfy…but this I is a divine I because the speaker is God. So, with that we come to three stanzas.

We will pick up here tomorrow, but let me outline out for you:

The Psalmist’s Personal Statement of Faith (1-2)
The Psalmist’s Powerful Sermon on Trust (3-13)
The Psalmist’s Personal Assurance of Satisfaction (14-16)

Yesterday we started looking at Exodus 3. I shared the following about a theophany, almost every one is looking for an encounter with a Spiritual Reality. As we approach this we need to ask a few questions about encountering God or being encountered by God: How do we do it?, What is it?, Why is it possible?, and When do we know it has happened? To answer those questions God gives us this text.

Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. The bush tells us how it happens, but the fire tells us what is happening. When you encounter God—you are crossing the threshold of the holy. RC Sproul said,

“The composition of the earth at this spot was no different from the earth on the rest of the desert floor. The sacred character of this spot was not intrinsic but extrinsic. That is, it was made sacred by a super-added presence. The event that occurred there loaned an extraordinary dimension to the ordinary. The common space had become uncommon by virtue of God’s appearance at that spot.”

God not only became visible, but he outwardly manifested himself as holy.

Why fire? There are many places in the Bible where God is revealed in fire—the mountain, the fire by night, the smoking pot, and the fact that God is called a consuming fire. Why fire? Think about water or clay—you can take a pot of water or a ball of clay and move it or form it or shape it, but not fire. Fire is not shaped by the one touching it—fire shapes the one touching, in fact fire is unyielding and relentless and it will consume you. Fact is, verse 6 tells us that “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

As you read through the narrative of Exodus 3 you see Moses making excuse after excuse—in verse 11 he asks, “Who am I?” and then in verse 13 he asks, “Who are you?” I don’t even know your name. God says, “I AM WHO I AM.” Did you hear that? He was not “I am who you want.” God is a Spiritual Reality because He is there and He is not made up. He doesn’t fit into our little boxes—if you have Him all figured out—your God is too small.

He is the God of fire—fire is beautiful and attractive, but at the same time it is dangerously lethal and scary. Play with fire and you’ll get…burned. Our God is not constructed by man—He is only known because He has revealed Himself. He is totally holy and at the same time He is totally loving. The gods that we construct are one of the other, but not both—either he is demanding and scary and not attractive, or he is totally attractive and not demanding. God burns with holiness. He has zero tolerance for evil, and yet He burns with love that refuses to stop until He has made us His own—even if it cost Him His life on the cross.

Now, the bush tells us how, the fire tells us why, but the Angel of the Lord, in verse 2, tells us why it is possible. When you read this you discover that there is something that the writer wants us to see. There is a bigger issue than the burning bush—it goes deeper. When Moses goes over to see the bush the angel of the Lord tells him to “Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” On the Mountain no one could approach God and if they did they were to be killed—even an animal that touched it was to be put to death.

God is telling Moses—you are standing in the fatal zone, but what is interesting is Moses was not consumed. He makes excuses, he whines, he complains, but is not consumed. Why wasn’t he destroyed in the fatal zone? The answer lies in the bush. Before we answer that question, let me ask you another one—how can we approach the Holy of holies and not be consumed? Why can we approach God and not be killed on the spot? We can do it because we have Someone who stands in our place—a mediator who paid the price for our sins. Jesus stood between us and appeased the wrath of God by dying for our sins. Now what you need to see is Moses was able to stand in the fatal zone for the exact same reason.

What seems to be confusing in this text is to see verse 2, “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” But from that time on the voice coming from that bush is the voice of God. Is it an angel or is it God speaking? Another thing we need to notice is that every time a human fell down to worship at the presence of an angel—the angel told them to stop doing that because they were not God, but this angel does not do that. Why not? This angel was no ordinary angel—He was not an angel at all—He was the Angel of the Lord and many times in Scripture, that is a reference to Christ Himself.

There in that burning bush—standing between Moses and a Holy God was the pre-incarnate Jesus—God in the flesh. Years later Jesus would say, “Before Abraham was I am.” The Jews wanted to kill Him because they knew what He was saying. Those words that dripped from Jesus’ lips had been on His lips before—they came to the ears of Moses. They simply mean—I depend on nothing for my existence—everything depends on me for its existence.

It is through Jesus that we are able to encounter a holy consuming fire and not be consumed—we are not consumed because we are transformed by His atonement provided on the cross. When you come to God through Jesus Christ you encounter a God of fire, a god of intimacy, and a God that is ravishingly beautiful.

The Call tells us how we can know that we have had this encounter.Have you obeyed His call to go? Every single time God encounters someone in the Bible—He sends them out. Abraham, Isaiah, the disciples, and in our text—Moses. God never gives you an experience with Him without also sending you out. The call to go is the reason for the encounter—here is the beauty of it. God encountered Moses at the bush, but when he sent Moses out—Moses became the bush. He demonstrated the beauty and grandeur of God. You will know that you have had a genuine encounter with God by the way it changes your life. The glory of God that was once separated by the veil is now in our lives and we will never be the same.

Our God was so holy that He had to become a man to die for our sins to pay the price, but He is so full of love that He willingly and gladly did it. We should burn with the holiness of God and we should burn with the love of God. When we are encountered by God the only reason we are not consumed is because of the merits and finished work of Jesus. Turn aside and worship Him and be forever changed.

Yesterday Kim and I joined some friends on the brow in Mentone, Alabama. It overlooks a valley and it is simply beautiful. As I sat and looked at the fog/mist covering the valley I was just struck with the mystery of it. As the sun rose, the mist left, and the edge of the brow, which was covered in bushes and trees, was alive with bird after bird sining praises to God.

I sat there thinking of a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and of Exodus 3. Let’s start with Exodus 3 and the Burning Bush and I’ll share the poem at the end. This is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. In it we encounter a theophany. A theophany is a visible manifestation of God. We see it when God appears to Abraham as a smoking firepot, we see it again with the two angels; we see it in Jacob’s life when he wrestles with God; we see it when God comes as fire by night and a cloud by day; the elders of Israel saw Him and fellowshipped with Him on the mountain; we see it in Isaiah’s life and we could go on and on. Moses is encountered by God in an amazing way and from this text we can see how we are encountered by God.

Almost every one is looking for an encounter with a Spiritual Reality. As we approach this we need to ask a few questions about encountering God or being encountered by God: How do we do it?, What is it?, Why is it possible?, and When do we know it has happened? To answer those questions God gives us this text.

The bush tells us how it happens. As we look at it, remember where Moses is and why he is there. He had to flee Egypt because he took matters into his own hands. His life is on one big detour—fact is when the Bible says Moses went over to look—the word means to turn aside or to detour. The only reason Moses is in the wilderness is that his whole life has become a detour—if you were to ask him, his whole life is going wrong, but in that detour Moses has another detour—one that will change his life forever. You see it was only by things going wrong that Moses gets near to God.

Notice he sees the bush and says, “I will turn aside.” Don’t lose sight of this—Moses had to make the decision to go over—he had to turn aside. God didn’t speak to him until he saw that he had gone over to look. Why does he go over? Why does he turn aside? He does it because God is drawing him with a bush—Moses called it a great sight, or some translations say, a strange sight. The word strange has a negative connotation in English, but it refers to something that is unexplainable. The bush was supposed to burn up, but it didn’t—it was outside of Moses’ mode of reality.

What can we learn from the bush? Your encounters with God will most often come when you are on what you may call a detour. Joseph didn’t intend to be in Egypt, but that is where God wanted him. Moses didn’t intend to be in the wilderness—he was groomed to be a leader, but God had other plans. You may not have planned to be where you are right now, but your detour may just be an opportunity for a God encounter. Isn’t it ironic that the most epic God encounter with a human comes as the result of a detour? When you are on a detour—you think like you would not ordinarily think, you seek like you would not ordinarily seek—when you are in the wilderness you meet God. What we call detours is really Spiritual Mainstream. When it is not going like you think it should take time to turn aside.

The next thing we can learn from the bush is that when things are going wrong—you’ll still have to turn aside. Moses had to leave the ordinary busyness of life to go over and see and then, and only then, did God speak to him. How many times do we get near to where God wants us to be and refuse to turn aside? How many opportunities have we missed because we were doing what we wanted to do rather than turning aside to meet God in the bushes?

You must turn aside or you will never meet with God and you’ll never encounter the Spiritual Reality. Notice something else—it is just a bush. It wasn’t a red oak, it wasn’t a canyon, and it wasn’t a sunset—it was just a bush. God appeared to Elijah in a gentle whisper—not in the wind, earthquake or fire. The ordinary things can become extraordinary if you will turn aside and see God in them. Here is the beginning of the poem,

“Earth’s crammed with Heaven

And every common bush afire with God.

But only he who sees takes off his shoes—the rest

Sit around and pick blackberries.”

In the failures, in the disappointments, in the heartaches—God reminds you that you were created for a world beyond this one. Seek Him in those times and you will be found. Stop and worship…don’t just pick blackberries!

In Psalm 25 we have seen David’s Trouble in verses 1-3, we saw David seeking God in verses 4-7, we saw God’s answer in verses 8-10, and then we see David’s Example. There are four things about David as he comes with all of his sin.

We find humility, “For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” We see this in David’s life. We know as much about him as any other person in the Bible and there are moments of greatness and there are moments of great sin, but David was always humble before God…he repented.

There is also a willingness to obey--obedience, “Who is the man who fears the LORD?Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.” With the instructions there comes an expectation of obedience.

There is fear or reverence, “The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant.” The LORD is a friend to those who fear Him. Abraham was a friend of God, David was a man after God’s heart, and we see others who walked with Him. It all centers in reverence.

And then we see expectation. “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for He will pluck my feet out of the net.” His feet were in the net, but His eyes were on God.

You don’t have to stay in your sin, you don’t have to remain in your fear, you don’t have to live in shame—the last verse says, “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” Jesus came to redeem, to forgive, to remove our sin, and to make atonement. If you are in sin—call to Him and find His forgiveness. If you are confused, consider making 4-5 your daily prayer. If the enemy has you down in shame—let God lift up your head and experience the friendship of the Lord. Just don’t forget the reverence He deserves—come to our Holy God and let Him do what only He can.

We’ve been looking at David’s prayer in Psalm 25, specifically, “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

Let me show you what God does in answer to David’s prayer. If you look at verses 8-10 you find God, point for point, answering David’s prayer. Look at the words, “He instructs sinners in the way,” “He leads the humble in what is right,” He “teaches the humble His way,” and shows the “paths of the Lord”in verse 10. God is now doing what David asked Him to do in verses 4-5 and this Psalm is a result.

Let me run through what David Learns from God. If you take the whole Psalm, you find God is:

faithful,
truthful,
He is Savior,
He is merciful and loving,
He is good,
He is good and upright,
He leads and teaches,
He is love and faithful,
He is forgiving,
He instructs,
offers relationship and confides in us as friends,
He rescues,
He is gracious,
He is a refuge,
and He is a redeemer.
All of that is here and all of that is absolutely vital information for a man or woman caught up in fear, loneliness, guilt, and shame. God is truly faithful to us.

But how can we find His guidance when we are in the midst of our sin? We will look at that tomorrow.