Psalm 65
In the
other blog that I write daily, I just finished speaking about false teachers
and the concept of anathema. How great
is the dichotomy between the words that Paul says in Galatians 1:6-10 versus
what the psalmist says here in these opening versus of Psalm 65? In Galatians, Paul spoke about false teachers
and people who are perverting the Gospel.
Paul was speaking about how there are people out there who don’t trust
God enough to simply proclaim the message that God has asked them to
proclaim. There are people out there
that feel the need to add requirements for this, that, and the other.
On the
other hand, the psalmist tells us that those who follow God are pretty
simple. They are the ones who know that
God hears our prayer. They are the ones
who recognize that what is important is that God provides for our
atonement. They are the ones that
recognize that it is God who draws near to us or who draws us near to Him; it
is not we who out of our rules and regulations draw ourselves near to Him. The ones who are truly of God recognize that
His work is far more important than our own work and we should be simply
willing to praise Him for His work.
Think
about His works for just a moment. Has
He ever spoken words of truth into your life that were precisely what you
needed to hear at that time? Has He ever
arranged things to happen so precisely right that His foresight is displayed so
majestically? Has He ever brought the circumstances
of your life together in just the right way that you meet the right person at
exactly the right time? Has He ever
brought you through the storms of life?
Has He ever tamed the evil around you and brought you safely through? As the psalmist says toward the end of the
middle stanza of this psalm and at the end of this psalm, should we not be in
awe of His works and shout for joy at the sound of His name?
Psalm 66
We now
turn to Psalm 66. Psalm 66 continues the
voice of praise that we glean from Psalm 65.
In fact much of the thrust is the same.
We should give praise to God for His mighty deeds. We should give praise to God for the way that
He works in our life.
However,
in Psalm 66 we pick up another avenue for praising God. Here we pick up the
idea of being genuinely thankful for the interaction between God and the generations
that came before us. Did you hear the
reference in the psalm to remembering the period of the Exodus – specifically
the crossing of the Red Sea? The
psalmist praises God for His faithful example in ages past.
This is an
important concept to hold onto. If God
is faithful in the past, we can believe that He will be faithful now. If we can believe that God will be faithful
now, we can trust that God will be faithful in the future. Identifying with past faithful experiences
with God can help us remain faithful and confident in our walk with God in the
present.
As I
ponder this concept, I have to wonder what past faithful experiences between
God and humanity for which I am grateful.
Of course, the top of that list is being thankful for Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the work of His disciples
and apostles, especially the faithful work of the Apostle Paul. I am also thankful for the brave work of
Lutheran reformers: Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonheoffer come to mind. I am thankful of the early monastic faith in
the Catholic Church: Augustine, Aquinas, and Francis of Assisi come to mind
here. I am thankful of the American
spiritual reformers of the Great Awakening, preachers who pushed a spiritual
response among the people and not just an academic response: preachers like
George Whitefield and Jonathon Edwards.
If God can be with all of these people, can He not also be with us?
Through
the witness of history, we can see how God takes His people and tries
them. He purifies them like silver. He takes us out and leads us forth.
So I ask
you today much like the psalmist asks.
Will you come and hear what God has done for me? Will you be willing to join my story of what
God has done for me and add to it what God has done for you as well? Can we speak together about how God has
listened to our needs and how He has fulfilled His promises?
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