Psalm 92 – By Thankfulness, Worship

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning,

and your faithfulness by night.”    

— Psalm 92:1-2 (NRSV)    

Of all the dark words we relate with in the Bible, those that speak to us and identify with our struggles and local torment, there are just as many, if not more, beautifully thankful passages that read like treacle down the visitor’s throat. Psalm 92 is such a passage—a Psalm of thanksgiving of the individual.

It is a song for the Sabbath day.

Expressing Thanks

With the first four verses, the psalmist rehearses in private what may later be practiced in public, complete with instruments converting such praise for thankfulness into expressions of song.

Their thanks are a gratitude invoked by Divine work that has made for the experience of sincere gladness; for the works of God’s hands have brought joy.

Such times we have all had. As, upon reflection, we have noted the faithfulness of the Lord as those works within life have esteemed themselves for our blessing. Such blessings, no matter how much we reflect on them, never diminish; we never quite get used to the benefit we extract from them.

But, still, we may forget all-too-soon to consider these great gifts from God.

Praising God For The Six Days

As a Sabbath Psalm we can just imagine the psalmist sitting leant by a palm tree, under the cooling breezy shade, lost in reflective musing, for the work of creation—and the outworking of that creative process within his or her personal life; as far as their eyes can see.

What a wonderful image that is!

The Lord created the heavens and earth over six days, and then rested. We, too, were commanded to rest from our work, but that rest is no legalistic one-set-day rest that was originally commanded. No, we are freed to enjoy our creative work out of the process of rest—yes, we rest first and out of that rest we create; for the blessing of God.

Sabbath Reflection – Noting The Process Toward Perfection

Spiritual perfection is both a much-vaunted and a misunderstood concept. What we strive for we shall never attain this side of eternity.

Striving for perfection is more about growth.

In verses 12-15, the psalmist completes the Psalm by suggesting the imagery of that palm tree—together with another image; the mighty cedar of Lebanon—alludes to the spiritual growth of the righteous (though contemporarily we somehow don’t like the word) in the courts of God.

Where we are able to mimic the faithfulness of the Lord in our going out and coming in we stand to produce good fruit via the future works of our God-sponsored hands; we will be evergreen and full of healthy sap, good for loving deeds evoking peace and joy.

***

Sabbath is a time for reflecting over one’s work, and the faithfulness of God toward all ends. It’s a time when we review progress and thank God for any growth gained. And by thankfulness we worship. And

© 2011, 2012 S. J. Wickham.

The Wonder of Grace in Weakness

The Lord Jesus said to the apostle Paul in his weakness:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in weakness.”

— 2 Corinthians 12:9a (NRSV)

Only where we cannot stand in our own strength can we depend fully on the all-sufficient grace of God to get us through.

We could choose to depend fully on this all-sufficient grace within some of our own strength—apportioned to our determined obedience of surrender to the Spirit of God. But this is a rarely taken option, when, from an instinctive viewpoint, we have strength to burn. Why would we depend on the all-sufficient strength of the Holy Spirit when we are already empowered by this same Spirit of God? This is the same all-sufficient strength, yet manifest through our joy. This is mature belief, yet not so routinely exercised, even in mature believers.

But we are more often plagued by the propensity to rely on our own strength—for too long and for too far. Our own strength is tantalising to us—to use what we’ve been blessed with.

This can be our biggest problem; shutting God out because we have life sorted, “thank you very much.” This is the Christian’s battle of self-sufficiency.

We are not alone. It is uncharacteristic of our humanity to depend on anything unless by unhealthy dependence of clinginess. We rather fall to be dependent on others or insist upon being completely independent. Dependence on anything else than God and independence are two poles we fluctuate between.

But dependence on God—the all-sustaining power of the Spirit pulsating within us—is the superior choice. And the paradox occurs that when we are brought to our knees in life, our cries to God in no manner of our own strength redeem the almighty strength of the Spirit to get us through.

***

I present in my strength or by my weakness,

Only by one am I known in meekness,

Strengthening grace fills me when I’m bare,

This strength is my reason to solemnly dare.

If I could survive life all on my own,

By now I guess I’d have been shown,

But the grace in God gets me through,

This strength in my weakness is every bit true.

***

The Christian battle of self-sufficiency is common to every believer. When we subsist in our own strength we have no need of the strength of God that operates through our weakness. When we acknowledge our weakness we are empowered by the all-sufficient grace of God to get us through any and all circumstances.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

God’s Divine Purpose for Life

“You are called into existence in order to reflect and display the glory of God. To render visible God to the world...”

— John Piper paraphrasing Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)

There is great meaning for life within our mortal existence, but it can only be seen through the kaleidoscope of faith—and not simply of any faith, but of the redemptive faith of God in Jesus Christ.

Everything, literally everything, hangs on the fact that everything is for God’s glory.

The very moment we encapsulate that knowledge within our minds, absorbing it intentionally within our hearts, we begin to open ourselves to vision well beyond our mortality. This life is not simply about us.

This life and the life to come are all about God.

When we come to entertain this fact, to willingly surrender before it, God is able to show us there is purpose in pain, frustration, hopelessness, and despair. There is even a purpose in our sin. Everything we loathe about life has a Divine purpose and meaning, just as everything we love about life has a Divine purpose and meaning. Even our boredom has purpose.

Leading the Irresistible Life

Once we are on board with God’s Divine purpose for life things that once made no sense begin to make sense. Confusion gives way to curiosity. We assume wonder at the mysteries of God and we hold that in tension with our wonder about the parts of our lives we cannot accept.

In surrendering those parts of our lives we cannot accept, we receive grace, which comes formed as an acceptance beyond our understanding. Suddenly we have power to accept the unacceptable, and we have no explanation for this. It is a miracle.

Leading this irresistible life, which is a life solemnly surrendered for God’s glory, where we have learned to habitually give over those things that break us (or threaten to), we know new life. Actually, we have learned to live for the first time.

This is why this life is irresistible. Once we have a taste of living for God’s glory, accepting our purpose to live in Divine obedience as far as possible, and seeing the purpose in the bewildering, God affirms us, and we know this irresistible life is the only way.

This irresistible life climbs above all manner of tumult and tragedy and finds an incomprehensible meaning—the glory of God, which is a meaning we cannot even grasp—and the rights for hope for sustaining the day are given. We are blessed!

The grace of God in this way can be impossible to explain; just experienced, and experienced by faith.

***

Our sole purpose for living this life is to exemplify, reveal, and magnify the glory of God. And such a God we have, that the more broken we are the more glory we can bring to our King.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Comprehending the Deeper Crisis of Sin

“There is no problem with the wider culture that you cannot see in the spades in the Christian Church. The rot is in us, and not simply out there. And Christians are making a great mistake by turning everything into culture wars. It’s a much deeper crisis.”

— Os Guinness

We easily delude ourselves as Christians, or Muslims, or of any other faith or belief system, when we fail to recognise the universal problem within humanity of sin. Of course, it is the Christian faith that has the ultimate answer to the conundrum of sin.

Sin is the “much deeper crisis” Guinness alludes to.

The point of the above quote is sin is prevalent everywhere, and the church is simply a microcosm of the wider world. Sure, a significant proportion of the church may feature repentant types who readily acknowledge and confess their sin, but we’re back into our sinful personas in a millisecond—whether we call Christ “Lord” or not.

As Canon J. John once said, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Our hearts are wretched. This is a crisis that can only be addressed by our acceptance of Divine Grace. It is a crisis revealing the truth of our spiritual poverty without God. Through faith alone, through each moment’s humble obedience, can we attain to the standard of the Divine.

Sin is First a Personal Problem

God is far more interested in us taking our personal sin seriously than he is in us looking over the fence. Indeed, the fence—and all that is over it—is Jesus’ business; the Trinity’s alone.

Why are we so interested in castigating Islam or other systems of belief out of the range of ours, in ways that implicate us in sin? Such interest and action is generated out of self-righteousness.

Whenever we do look over the fence, noting others’ sin, we put up for jeopardy the intimacy we have with our Lord. Whenever we get involved in things “too marvellous for us” (i.e., intruding in the domain of God) our awareness of the depth of our personal sinfulness begins to wither from sight. We stand on a dangerous precipice of pride.

When we refuse the temptation to delve into the sinfulness of others—unless it’s our designated role (and rare are the times for roles like this)—we protect the sanctity of our relationship with God and we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.

***

The reconciliation of the entire world, one person at a time, relies upon believing the truth that we’re all sinners—and that only faith in Christ can save us. We believe when we see our sin for what it is, and we see Jesus as the One who’s constructed a bridge from our brokenness to spiritual freedom: the hand-of-grace and the forgiveness of God to live by faith as saved sinners.

Salvation has nothing to do with judging others.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Heaven’s Our True Home

“The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can’t supply is proof that Heaven must be our home.”

— C.S. Lewis

The first moment we seriously contemplate the truth that this existence cannot satisfy us, we are compelled to contemplate the serious thought that Heaven is in our hearts—that Heaven is our true home.

This life, this broken Earth, this family arrangement, this job we work in, this church we attend and serve in, these people we know and journey with, these problems and habits and issues—all confirm that none of this is perfect. Nothing here is more than a shadow revealing the true sanctity of our home in Heaven, abroad the spiritual chasm.

Living Intentionally for Eternity

When we take these facts as they are—that our hearts will go on yearning, unsatisfied with temporary satisfactions—we know there must be more. And we are comforted that the Bible promises more. By no means less, has Jesus promised us more.

Eternity has been encrusted, like a precious jewel, into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Whether we are carnal or spiritual matters little, when it comes to the desires of the heart. Each of us has struggles and torments that we would rather avoid, just as each of us has maladaptive ways of coping. The surrendered Christian is helped, however, by the Holy Spirit on the journey of spiritual development toward eternity.

As each day passes for the surrendered Christian, as they practice living intentionally for eternity, they live in relative joy for the hope of going home one day.

For us, Heaven is in our hearts. That is for basically all of us, whether we are Christian or not. The key difference is, some run from truth all their lives. It is good to own the truth; we cannot be happy here. The more we look for happiness here on Earth, the more we shall be condemned to isolation, and the more spiritually perplexed we will become.

Pondering Heaven & Our Purpose on Earth

This is the Christian’s privilege: to gaze upon a starry night and wonder for what Heaven is like. Pondering Heaven and imagining the glorious pleasure of worshipping God there, is enough to put this life into true perspective.

When this life is viewed in the context of our eternal home the perspectives of suffering and loss are seen as part of our purpose. We have a way of living this life that can glorify God, which is exactly what we will do in eternity.

This life is about the meaning of the next life. This life only makes sense in the context of the next life.

***

Heaven is in our hearts. We are desperate deep down for something more. Only Heaven can truly satisfy. And only through Jesus can we get there.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

The Goal of Kindness, No Matter What

“When desperate people give up on God Almighty,

their friends, at least, should stick with them.”

— Job 6:14 (Msg)

Beyond our judgment, people need our mercy.

Beyond our ‘helpful’ critiques of their personal situations, people want our benefit of any doubt, in this thing called grace.

Beyond our thoughts and doctrine on God and faith, people deserve our compassion. Indeed, we practice what we truly believe by our level of compassion, grace, and mercy—especially when regarding those who differ from us.

God wants us most of all to be devoted to love. Kindness is a test of our love.

Testing the Depths of Our Access to & Use of God-Given Grace

How much can we be tested to extend the hand of love into others’ lives?

The point is not so much how much we will be tested, but the fact that we will be tested. Our patience and tolerance will be most sorely tested when we are rushed and most ignorant of important knowledge. Our faith is tested most in the fertile ground of doubt. Our resolve is tested when we feel weak. Our hope is tested most when we feel helpless and hopeless.

When we experience personal weakness it inevitably unfolds as a weakness in our interpersonal situations. When our faith and hope are lacking we have less patience and tolerance. When our resolve is lacking we believe less in other people’s resolve.

The goal of kindness is helped when we appreciate, most of all, our need of others’ kindnesses.

When we feel transgressed we are most in touch with the kindness we would never more fully appreciate.

Accepting the Person Who Has Made the Worst of Transgressions

We don’t think that someone rejecting God has made the worst of transgressions. This is because we aren’t commonly bothered unless the transgression has been aimed directly at us, a friend, or a loved one.

When someone rejects God, perhaps because they can’t reconcile how God could allow their suffering, we may be tempted to talk them around.

But most of all they need our friendship, no matter the words they say or their actions. This is the test of our faith: the compassion, grace, and mercy which are unreasonable, but sacrificial in love.

***

One proof of faith within relationships is the unusual compassion, grace, and mercy of friendship that goes beyond judgment, criticism, and advice, to present simply the kindness of an ear, a hand, or a hug.

Kindness, no matter what, is a love beyond our human frailty; a love revealing the glory of God.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

The Eternal Authority of Grace

“God called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began...”

— 2 Timothy 1:9 (NRSV [italics mine])

We seriously underestimate and undermine the truth when we limit the theology of the Trinity and Divine Grace to the realms of time and space. Both the Trinity and Divine Grace are eternal. To say they have existed always could even be incorrect, because to use allusions to existence implies, perhaps, the idea that at some time there was nonexistence. These are beyond existence and nonexistence.

It is clear from the above verse that the redemptive plan executed in Jesus’ obedience at the cross, and through the resurrection of the risen Lord, was engineered before creation’s inception. We can well imagine the Father and the Son conferring; the Father with his intention to sacrifice the Son to show his unfailing love for humankind; the Son with his willingness to obey the Father. Between the Father and the Son, at the death of Jesus, is the bequest of the Holy Spirit—the gift of Divine Grace—the eternal Spiritual Presence of God.

Grace is not a New Testament Idea

From now on I will refer to Divine Grace as simply grace.

The execution of grace may have occurred in New Testament times, but grace is not the New Testament idea. As God is love, an essential component of such love is grace. Grace is that unreasonable compassion that only genuinely God could exact in the entirety of perfection.

As God is eternal, unchanging in character and manifestation, with grace as a component of Divine character, grace came before the ages began. Grace came in the person of Jesus, the incarnate Son, but it just as truthfully came pre-laid beyond the constraints of time.

Grace is not a New Testament idea.

Connecting Redemption with Eternity

Many may realistically see that redemption was bought at the cross of Calvary.

But if we cannot see that the cross is merely the touchstone for humanity’s redemption we miss a more complete picture of God. This is not about underestimating the significance of the cross; it’s about giving due credence to humankind’s redemption in and through the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The narrative of redemption only really makes sense as it is understood via the eternal realm. That the Trinity devised a plan of redemption before the ages began is testimony to the wise omniscience of God.

***

Grace is an eternal authority of God. Because God is love, and Divine Love is full of grace, and Divine Love is eternal, grace also is eternal. As the Son of God came to be Jesus, then ascended to glory (again), the Son is eternal. What came to us in Christ Jesus, before the ages began, is perfect in eternal beauty—the Divine Grace of God.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Acknowledgement: John Piper’s video sermon.

When You’ve Given Up, Don’t Give up!

Giving-up and giving-in is okay. But it’s not the end of the story. Not by a long shot. If we keep endeavouring on that “impossible” task or goal, sooner or later God will tip in his miraculous power to transform us in this.

This will occur at the precise time we make this task or goal the most important thing.

The Lord doesn’t tarry in such ventures; we do!

We are the ones folding our arms in stubborn protest. That or we deplore ourselves for having, once again, failed.

Between aggression toward God for not doing this thing for us and submitting inexorably to self-pity for lack of strength, stands the simple gumption of obedience.

God will give us the calling, revelation, power, and Presence we need.

Steps to Progress

We never achieve all of anything all at once, but we do make progress when we obey.

The operative word in the above sentence is do.

Progress is the sum of our effort in conjunction with God’s everlasting anointing—the Spirit that abides with us in our obedience (John 15:7-8).

All the Lord expects from us is commitment to progress. And progress is not too lofty for us like perfection is.

Steps toward progress include seeking God four ways:

1.      Seeking God’s blessing toward the call of progress for you; that which is God’s will for your life. Your relationship with God is personal, so is your discreet and unique call.

2.      Seek God’s blessing toward revelation of how the call is to be manifest. Revelation is the discernment of Divine Wisdom regarding what information is made known Spiritually and what is to be acted upon.

3.      Once you have knowledge of your call and revelation—to the point of knowing your tasks and goals, and how they’re to be done—you are then in a position to seek God’s power to achieve what you were predestined to achieve.

4.      The final step is to seek God’s Presence for each step along the way. This is essential. There will be dark times of doubt and discouragement—thought, again, to give up. When you feel the Lord present with you these times, you’ll get through. You will dispel doubts with your faith and you will sense the Holy Spirit within you encouraging you to dig in. Your hand in God’s; you’ll get through.

***

Cooperating with God is the way to achieve our tasks and goals. Only there is calling to make the goal meaningful. Only there is revelation regarding how. Only there is power to achieve. And, finally, only there is the Presence, which drives our faith and encourages us when we feel like giving up.

We may fail fifty times, but if we don’t give up on our goals we will achieve them, eventually. All the while we are learning; that drives resilience; and, that pleases God.

© 2011, 2012 S. J. Wickham.

The Ministry of the Spirit

“The ministry of the Spirit is larger than His ministry in the Church; it is world-wide, and is always based upon the work of the Christ.”

—G. Campbell Morgan (1863–1945)

The Holy Spirit works by both sanctification and conviction; to the Church, and the obedient follower of Christ, is pointed the former, yet the Spirit is also operant through conviction, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (see John 16:5-11).

So the ministry of the Spirit is broader than the Church. Even beyond the evangelicalisation of the world, through missionary endeavours and the preaching of the Word, the ministry of the Spirit persists and endures through all manifestation of time and space.

The Spirit has been poured out upon humankind, to the ends of all creation.

Just Two Ways the Spirit Works

There are infinite expressions of the works of the Spirit, such that humanity could not conjure them all. These things are too marvellous for us. But to marvel is to worship.

We may see the ministry of the Spirit active by our participation through mission into the world and the preaching of the Word and passive by the unknown and unknowable Divine acts through the world to limit and perplex evil. But both forms of the Spirit’s ministry are just as highly active. Indeed, it is such a human trait to go ahead of the Lord and attribute less glory to God and abundant glory to ourselves. Rather, it is the Spirit manifold through time who is engineering the very circumstances of holy revelation.

The Holy Spirit works actively whether we act or not.

The Holy Spirit acts whether we are obedient or not.

The Holy Spirit will work actively and ceaselessly in this Age until the Elect have been called home.

The Ministry of the Spirit Throughout Eternity

There is hardly a doubt that the Holy Spirit has been active within the Triune Godhead from everlasting to everlasting. This is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. But we can only grasp it by faith.

It is clear that the ministry of the Spirit was evident through Old Testament times, particularly in and through the ministry of Jesus, and continues now in all our lives, in every way, beyond even the realm of the Church.

Through all eternity the Spirit is active in calling spiritual persons to both repentance and faith. He guides believing ones from baby-belief to the fullness of maturity upon the consummation of life eternal at the transaction of death.

***

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is active and ceaseless through all eternity. Praise and thankfulness should fill our hearts and minds that God has reconciled us to such a gift as his holy and eternal Presence.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.