Psalm 8 - Worship Forever?

I think one of the unspoken conundrums of the Christian world is that we will worship God for all eternity in heaven yet most believers can't handle a worship service lasting longer than an hour. There is a disconnect there. The conundrum is not found in the fact that we will do it, or whether or not we love to worship, but it’s found in our inability to truly fathom the mental desire or even question our physical capacity to do it forever.

Many of us love to worship. Personally, it’s my love language to God. We may even be able to worship for a few hours at a time. I’ve been to a Passion OneDay event that lasted (ironically) three days, but even that was a series of worship sets followed by intermissions, eating, and sleeping. Falling seriously short of eternity.

Psalm 8 gives us some perspective on how this will be a reality. First, we have to recognize that the common theme of David’s Psalms is to Glorify God. We always see him putting God in his place.

“O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.” – Psalm 8:1

In Psalm 8, we see that after David puts God and His Glory in His high place, even above the heavens, he then puts man in his place as well. Below the heavens.

"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly and crowned him with glory and honor.” – Psalm 8:4-5

Verse 4 certainly places authority in our hands over the earth, and is an undeserved assignment, but it also reminds us that we are not only under God’s care, but also His authority. If we were to connect the dots, we’d also see that there is a whole level of worshipers in heaven who are between us, and the placement of the Glory of God, which is “above the heavens” (vs.1).

So how does this explain worshiping for eternity? While we have seen God’s grace through the person of Jesus and God is truly with us in Spirit, we have yet to see His full Glory completely absent of our sin and earthly flesh (selfishness, insecurity, ego, agenda, wounds, etc...). When we finally do, there will be only one response. I think Matthew Henry does a great job of describing this:

“How bright this glory shines even in this lower world! He is ours, for he made us, protects us, and takes special care of us. The birth, life, preaching, miracles, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus are known through the world. No name is so universal, no power and influence so generally felt, as those of the Savior of mankind. But how much brighter it shines in the upper world! We, on this earth, only hear God's excellent name, and praise that; the angels and blessed spirits above, see his glory, and praise that; yet he is exalted far above even their blessing and praise. Sometimes the grace of God appears wonderfully in young children. Sometimes the power of God brings to pass great things in his church, by very weak and unlikely instruments, that the excellency of the power might the more evidently appear to be of God, and not of man. This he does, because of his enemies, that he may put them to silence. (Ps 8:3-9)”

One day, we will see and comprehend. I want to resist the attitude of believers that we are simply “surviving” this world and waiting for the afterlife. There is much to do AND live for today. But this day will be amazing. When we see clearly for the first time, we will worship like never before.

Psalm 7 - Motive

The best leadership book I’ve read in five years is “Leadership and Self Deception” by The Arbinger Institute. While it’s title is very revealing, hidden inside are self exploring scenarios that ring amazingly true and give surprising insight to areas we are often blind too. It’s amazing how much we fail to look inward for hidden deficiencies when evaluating leadership, whether it’s in our church or secular organization.

Why is that? Is it fear or pride? Are we really that ignorant or in denial? Or is it that we really just don’t want to know or deal with our private issues that spawn from personal insecurities, perspectives, wounds, inabilities and/or nurture? In leadership, there’s a huge difference between those who want to know and those who don’t. One thing worse than being ignorant, is to be ignorant of our ignorance. It’s revealed in whether or not we lead (or even live) in honesty and confidence, or insecurity and fear. It’s no different in our faith journey.

A scripture that is often misused is found in Proverbs 16. Verse 3 says, “commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” This verse is commonly used in a “name it and claim it” kind of a way. If we don’t really know what to do, then just ask God to bless it and He will (or at least we hope that He will).

This is not the point of this scripture. Instead, this scripture is a great measuring stick of motive. If we cannot truly commit or dedicate a decision in full disclosure to our God, then it’s a great indicator that something is wrong. Vs. 2 says that, “All man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” And vs. 4 closes the thought by stating, “The Lord works out everything for his own ends…”

David is using this same logic in measuring motive in Psalm 7.

“O LORD my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands - if I have done evil to him who is at peace with me or without cause have robbed my foe - then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.” - Psalm 7:3-5

David is being heart level honest before God. Are we? Not that often. When was the last time we said, “God if my motive is not completely pure here… then just burn me up right now, let me get what I deserve.”

It’s critical that in order to be honest with God, we must search our own hearts and be honest with ourselves. Who are we really fooling? It’s not God. It’s only our selves and others around us.

When we live and lead in ignorance, we hurt those around us, in leadership we hurt our staff and those involved with our organization. In faith, the circle of hurt is closer and bigger than we know. We hurt our spouses, our children, our friends, our coworkers… and ourselves.

Father, I can’t pray like David. Instead, I have to ask today that I don’t get what I deserve. I do pray that you search my heart and show me the ways that I choose self over you, but I ask for your continued Grace and Mercy. Thank you for your plan of redemption. Thank you for reconciling us through Your Son. Thank you for your patience. Amen.

Psalm 3 - Selah

“Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." Selah. But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah.” – Psalm 3:2-4

This is the first of over 70 verses that use the word Selah in the Old Testament. The overwhelming majority is found in the Psalms. It’s a common use in the suspension of music, a pause by definition. But the root of this word means to “hang” or to weigh. To not just pause… but to pause for reason. To take it in. To soak up what was said. To not take it lightly, instead to fully absorb it’s value or significance.

This day I pray we can each “take it in”. To find a moment to pause and soak it up. Or as one of the Psalms says in just 31 more chapters, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” – Psalm 34:8

Psalm 2 - OT Gospel

The Pslams are most often songs of celebration and proclamation. Psalm 2 is most certainly a celebration of the coming Gospel. What an amazing prophetic word of the coming Christ. This week we celebrate Christmas. This is the birth of the King and the one spoken of in Psalm 2.

"I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." vs.6

Those in power were certainly threatened by this coming King. We know the story of Herod taking the lives of new born baby boys in hopes of taking the life of Jesus and Pilate conspiring years later as well.

“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.” vs.2

What an amazing reminder of God’s greatness and protection. Not only did He know, but He knew. He always has and always will. How ridiculous for us to remember it any other way.

“The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.” vs.4

Every effort of those who rise up against the Lord is in worthless. Even our own plans which stand in opposition of him. I’m reminded today that His plans cannot be thwarted. He will do what He sets out to do. His promises are true. He is able. We can have confidence in this as a child of God. So the rhetorical question is asked…

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?” vs.1

And the hope we share with the Psalmist…

“I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” vs.7

As John Wesley put it, “There is nothing in this psalm which is not applicable to Christ, but some things which are not all applicable to David.” There are threats denounced against the adversaries of Christ's kingdom, promises made to Christ, and finally counsel given to all:

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” vs.8

“Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.” vs.11

“Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” vs.12

2 Sam 23 – Simply Refreshing

Every time I’m wore out from my “professional” faith I can find too many elements of “me” in my work. It’s so amazing how difficult it is to truly deny our selves when we feel we have to perform. It’s so hard to keep our insecurities or personal desires out of the equation. The amount of effort and emotional energy we can put into making things seem perfect is amazing. Especially around Christmas time. Every pastor (even more so their associate pastors) I know is stressed or wore out already and we’ve still got over a week to go. I feel the pressure… then felt the peace come over me when we landed on the theme for this year at Austin New Church: “simple christmas”. Whew. Wouldn’t that be nice? I could literally feel my blood pressure dropping in our staff meeting.

I was speaking recently to a pastor friend about how many hours he puts into a sermon, it was a huge amount of time. Then I began to think about mine. The tragedy is not in how much time we spend on sermon prep (little or much) the tragedy is in how little time we spend on the actual text or truth (God stuff) in relationship to our own illustrations and transitions (Me stuff). While I know those are key elements of clear communication, those are also the things that stress me out. Those are the things that keep me up on Saturday night and take my focus off my family all weekend. It’s evidenced by how much better I feel when I land a good opening illustration.

Even as I write this, I want to defend how important those things are. Why? Because they are important, significant, and maybe even critical. However, my point is that if we could somehow really strip away our intentions, we’d still find too much of “me” in those parts. I want to be a great communicator, not a good one. I want to share something in a way that no one’s ever thought of before. I want to “wow” those looking for faith or something new. The list goes on and on. Meanwhile Paul said he just preached “Christ and Christ crucified” and the Lord says that it’s not by might or power but by His “Spirit”.

The reason I say this is because I’m finding a new groove in life. I’m not fully there yet, probably never will be, but I’m finding peace in the simple. I have much less desire now to please others (other than God) and it’s chilling me out. More than that, it’s helping me really dig into and keep me focused on finding out what’s important on each leg of the journey.

The crux? When I do this, my work, my faith, my life is refreshed and not a drain. It doesn’t feel like a task, it feels like a journey. My energy is up. I feel renewed, encouraged, and excited. I’m encouraged and refreshed. David talks about this in 2 Samuel 23 in regards to leadership.

“The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.” – 2 Samuel 23:3-4

Not only will this be a fruit for those we lead, if we lead in righteousness and in the fear of God, but also a fruit we will receive if we follow God with the same heart.

“A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” – Proverbs 11:25

Even those of us under an authority, when we live by His righteousness and follow in the fear of the Lord, we will refresh those we serve.

“Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters.”- Proverbs 25:13

And we refresh each other in biblical community…

“In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.” – 2 Corinthians 7:14

So it’s an indicator. Refreshment comes from God. When there is an absence, there is a reason. Today, I look for those reasons… and I rest in His promises. If David can find it in battle, if Paul can find it in chains, surely we can find it in our plush context of western suburbia.

“… turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Acts 3:19

“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.” – Philemon 1:7

“But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge.” Psalm 73: 28a