Psalm 65 – Thankfulness, for God Is Good!

“Praise is due to you,

O God, in Zion;

and to you shall vows be performed,

O you who answer prayer!”

— Psalm 65:1-2a (NRSV)

Psalms like this brighten our darkest mood. They furnish the soul with life-giving buoyancy when otherwise we are sinking. They engage our hearts for passion and joy, replacing dolour and numbness, even for one relieving moment. God speaks through them, singing to our hearts: the Song of Salvation.

The Plain Deeds Visible In Creation

Much of this psalm is devoted to lauding the majesty of Divine action within the corpus of creation. These deeds of the Almighty—that mean, for us, life—are seen for their saving nature:

Verse 5 speaks of the triple-horn: deliverance, salvation, and hope. It is a beautiful introductory verse for the rest of the psalm that sets about praising the Lord for the wonder and might of Divine work in creation.

God shows Divine strength in creating the mountains; the roaring waves are silenced, as are the groans of the people, by a peace-placating God; much of humanity, those living all over the earth, are awestruck by the everyday signs of the Creator; this Creator provides all the earth’s needs—including humanity’s; even the smallest of cares is considered and catered for; the brilliance of the meandering hills and valleys, and the pastures of the wilderness, overflow.

Living decadence is the gracious manner of the land—and all because of God.

The Song For Joy Is The Bout For Praise

When we revert back from the end of the psalm and read the beginning over again, we find annotations of praise abounding in, and implicit within, this Song of Joy. The psalmist is on no fancy of intoxication, other than having been filled to the brim by the Spirit of Life.

The singing of joyous praises from verse 5 onwards was generated by the first four verses.

And why is this so? God answers prayer (verse 1) and he forgives our transgressions when they overwhelm us (verse 3). The Lord makes those happy that he brings near; within the courts of God is satisfaction (verse 4).

***

Finding hope within God’s Word is not such a challenge when we stumble across this psalm. It will help us see the majesty of God in creation; as the Lord provides.

When we trust God to provide all we need we will also see how this Lord provides to the extent of the entire creation. Praise is due to God for all this. The level and detail of Divine provision is astounding; the depths of which cannot be plumbed.

***

Experiencing God’s blessing ignites passion for thankfulness and gratitude for the enjoyment of hope and the spiritual unity of shalom. ‘God is good’ is our testimony, and trusting God is our priority, necessity, and focus. God has done, and does, great things!

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Giving to the Giver of Life

“Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule overall. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.”

— 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 (NRSV)

King David, at this time, was especially thankful to the Lord his God, for the wisdom provided and provision given toward the building of the Temple; a solemn task for his son Solomon alone to undertake.

David honours the Lord for the fact that God is the Giver of Life—including all things within life. Nothing we have or have ever had or will ever have comes by any other hand. For everything we have received, and for many things we haven’t received, we can thank God.

This reminds me of the song God gave me, God, the Giver of Life, on the morning of January 6, 2013. Here is its chorus:

He gives me wisdom and love,

Power and meaning,

To live every day of my life.

He’s my Majesty of being,

My Power for seeing,

The Lord, the Giver of Life.

The truest, most faithful gift that can be given by God is, ironically, our own will to give, for in giving we are blessed so much more abundantly than if we had received, alone.

This is consistent with the facts of spiritual living; the phenomena known to peace for having let go. And when we let go of that which was never ours to begin with (we as mere stewards and custodians) we gain God, as the Spirit shows us our wisdom in meeting Divine Wisdom: obedience to the will of God.

The Privilege and Blessing of Giving

These concepts are upside down concepts. Generally all spiritual concepts are upside down in comparison to worldly concepts; those which are most commonly known.

True blessing comes but only via true spirituality; to honour the invisible God, who has all Power and Wealth and Dominion and Glory throughout the whole earth. Meeting with the mind and heart of God is its own privilege and its very own dwelling within blessing.

The beauty within the privilege and blessing of giving is the miraculous nature of the Lord; the uniqueness of the blessing and the privilege felt is commanding. There is no other power like it.

***

What privilege and blessing it is to give back to the Giver of Life! For everything is from God’s hand, and for everything that can be given, in love, meets with God’s design and will. The more we give the more we notice how much God is giving, has given, and will give, to us.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Burdens Carried for Those Unsaved

“How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?”

— Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

Allow me to contend with myself. In writing the article, What God Has Prepared for Those Who Love Him, I was left with a strange sense that it was incomplete; even somewhat selfish. You see, whilst it is an incredibly beautiful reality to consider—venturing through Heaven’s gaze—it celebrates an imminent fact (our entering Heaven) that also causes us pain: for those we must leave behind and for those who won’t make it there to be with God in the next life.

It should cut us to the heart that anyone we would know might enter a godless eternity. And still, we limit ‘eternity’ too much if we consider it an end-of-life reality, alone. Eternal life is an eternal prospect—just as available here, in this life, as in eternity.

But there is something stopping the unregenerate person from receiving Christ.

Beyond broken hearts are broken hearts wedded to grief in its purest form: coming face-to-face with the knowledge of our sin, and our need—never more certainly—of God. Unless we would come face-to-face with the reality of such truth we are forever apart from God. We cannot know the abundant life unless we first know our possession of the poverty-of-a-life without God. Blessed are the poor of spirit—knowing their utter lack without God—for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

Those of us with relatives who don’t know Christ—who don’t believe, who haven’t reconciled themselves to the fact of their sin, who have no Lord true to the believer’s sense of ‘Lord’—are caught between a rock and a hard place. We pray for our opportunities speak for the Lord into their lives, but alas all too many of us never get through.

Truly, salvation is the greatest of gifts, but, in these circumstances we discuss, it is a reminder of a grief within us that, in this life, cannot ever be tamed.

Praying for Peace and Acceptance

What are we to do regarding the stiff-necked within our families and our friendship groups, notwithstanding those within our reach otherwise?

Those who will not hear of Christ may not be able to be helped, but we have to find a balance between never giving up on being used by God and accepting that our best will mostly not be good enough.

Then there are those trying to water down the message of the gospel. In a Love Wins universalistic world we ought to be here to say that God’s Word and eternal will, alone, wins. Not everyone knows or receives Heaven. And we are to hold two ravenous tensions together: the knowledge and power of our salvation together with an acceptance of the incapacity we have in convincing others that that salvation could be theirs, also.

We have to live with both truths—accepting same. We have no choice.

***

As Christians we ought to carry a burden for the unsaved, particularly our loved ones. But we must then also accept that convincing them is well beyond us. We can pray for them and we can accept our limitations. Like with so many things, we must trust God.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

What God Has Prepared for Those Who Love Him

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

— 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NRSV)

Dwight L. Moody once preached a sermon entitled, “Hell,” where he related the illustration of a man many times so close to salvation, yet he died resigned to the fact he was going to hell; that he was beyond saving. Nothing the famous pastor could do would change his mind for accepting Christ. The fear that his peers may have laughed at him for becoming Christian was this man’s perennial stumbling block. He desperately wanted Christ, but the approval of men, more.

Of course, many, many millions have come to saving faith just out of plain spiritual surrender; to give up their right to the old life that gave them a little, in order to risk for a new life that promised much more, even welling to eternal life.

What has frustrated evangelists the world over is, some can never quite see, nor hear, nor conceive what God has prepared for them—the gift of knowledge of the Spirit of God.

The Gift Of Knowledge Of The Spirit Of GOD

What stands between the saved and the unsaved is both so incredibly simple, yet never more impossible to see, hear, or conceive. It is both things, simultaneously.

It is a system of knowledge—the simplest ever—and it is known by the mind but not through the mind; a Spirit takes homely possession within a person upon favourable invitation. The door of the soul is flung open, not left ajar, and in the floods the entirety of the knowledge of the Spirit of God by way of an experience of rebirth—life anew. It is interminably conditional on surrender.

The actual process of transformation may be akin to this:

It might be as if the processing unit within the person has been upgraded; a completely new operating system has been installed; the faulty one removed and made defunct. This new operating system comes with software to actualise a person’s development and to oversee life as a project with renewed purpose, real meaning, the solemnity of direction, and finally the abundance of flourishing hope.

What stems from the gift of knowledge of the Spirit of God, therefore, are more delineated gifts for service within the kingdom of God—to all humankind. These gifts are tantamount to tangible blessing; both for the owner of the gift and the recipients for which those gifts are destined.

The Gift That Stands Some Way Off

Of course, one plain reading of 1 Corinthians 2:9 (which emanates from Isaiah 64:4) reveals a hint of heaven—the actual location—although heaven is implicated in the gift of the knowledge of the Spirit of God, in any event.

We can afford to read this literally, from a heaven context.

What might heaven actually look, sound, and feel like? Well, perhaps these are intentionally beyond us, but therein lay the incomprehensible beauty of anticipating and realising such a Divine appointment.

Heaven: we can imagine, now, what lay ahead of us; this knowledge we have of the Spirit—this gift from plain acceptance—and what that simple decision of surrender has won for us. What anticipation we have until that day, yet even now!  To imagine... we are won to Heaven!

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Giving Everything Abundantly to Life

“Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”

— Jeremiah 1:6 (NRSV)

We have all had times, I’m thinking, where we have had God ask us to do things we didn’t think we were capable of doing. This is such a moment for Jeremiah. He is anointed by the Lord, but soon he learns the burden he must carry, as he is empowered to bring an unsavoury message to Israel.

If ever there was a despised prophet it was Jeremiah. We would cringe, any of us, to have to bring such a message to people—to be called to do something very unpopular.

But at times we are called to do these things. Notwithstanding that, God calls us to do things that are difficult; seemingly beyond us. Without faith we have not a chance in the world!

What Is Life Without Fervour?

When we are asked to do things that require much courage, the only thing we have going for us is the commitment of fervour.

Such passion, dedication, zeal, and commitment in the tasks of life are necessary if we are to do anything. It is a lesson of life: anything done half-heartedly generally fails.

If we are asked to speak up about something, for instance, sometimes the only way we can do it is if we throw our full selves into it. Much of the time we can only succeed with our fullest commitment. Half measures just won’t do.

Abundance for Abundance

The Lord, of course, has given us the abundant life—saved, if we believe and have surrendered, and continue to, into a new life in Jesus Christ. True discipleship is about the abundant life.

But this abundant life is limited to the extent that we enter into it with abundance.

When we throw ourselves into life, giving God everything we have, we meet his abundance with our abundance. Not that we can ever pay God back, but we give the Lord all we can give; all of ourselves; all of our effort in meeting the call he has placed on our lives.

***

We have nothing to lose by giving everything we have for the tasks God has called us to do. Living the abundant life is just as much about living fully committed than it is about simply living ‘blessed’. The abundant life is giving everything we have to the Lord; our fullest effort in those things we are called to do.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Okay, God, Now What Do I Do?

“But now, our God, what can we say after this?”

— Ezra 9:10a (NIV)

In context, the people of God had sinned greatly.  They were aghast at their betrayal before the Lord, and they knew they were being punished less than was deserved.   

We too have those times of shame before God.  But, there’s a broader application of God we don’t see when we come to the end of ourselves, through all manner of fatigue.

‘What Now?’ Moments

Each person in life is brought to ‘what now?’ moments for benefit, not demise.

It can only be a fresh beginning at these ends.  The end of ourselves is where life truly begins.  It’s like the person who stops forcing their way, and instead they simply look up and pray: “God, what now... what is your will for me to do?”

The Lord loves these moments.  Life has shifted to how it was meant to be.  Things for that moment are in order.  God’s mercy and grace are known.

The ‘what now?’ moment is seen from retrospect as the revelatory reality.  It’s the moment God broke through our inner world to help.

This must have been how it was like for Ezra and his countrymen and women as they were broken on the ground before God in the sight of their country’s sin.

Of course, there is also the ‘what now?’ moment we experience when someone else has sinned against God by hurting us; we must ask, “Okay, God, now what do I do?” and be prepared to listen to and heed the divine answer.  We respond in patience, still praying for perspective.

The Right Response to Sin

Everyone sins.  Therefore, everyone has need of reparation and restoration through restitution.  Making restitution is about the right response.  Firstly, it’s acknowledgement upon awareness.  Then it’s about vocalising or demonstrating acceptance of the fact.  Instead of, “I owe you, God,” the prayer is, “Please forgive me, Lord.”

Thankfully, the Lord hears.  Forgiveness is ours.

Finally, once it’s felt we’re on the right foot to proceed with—motivated to trust and obey God again—we’re asking, “Okay, what now, God?”

Once this moment is achieved we stand again buoyed by the Spirit of God in all that is to be done, according to God’s will.  With a God-satisfied certainty we stride off in the joy of knowing—just for now—we’ve pleased God in our faith to return.

***

There is no condemnation for those now in Christ Jesus, no not ever (Romans 8:1).  When we consider that God actively seeks us to repent for our own good and not his, we suddenly get this mode of God redeeming us, afresh.  God is for us, never against us.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Seeing Life for Sight of the Son

I believe in God, like I believe in the sun. I see it rise every morning and see everything clearer, just like when I see the Son I see everything clearer.

C.S. Lewis said something quite similar to the above.

There is a real coherence between the sun’s rays in illuminating our lands so we can see, and the fact of faith in Jesus that helps us to see truth over our entire spiritual landscape.

Faith in Jesus facilitates the seeing of life, for sight in the Son is our faculty of eternal life in the body, then later in the spirit.

Maybe non-believers will struggle and contest this understanding; that only through faith do we get a fuller portion of the truth with which to observe and, then, be edified by. But having been saved by the Lord Jesus, and having also been discipled as a disciple of God, we enter into a reality that deems reality an absolute necessity.

Some Commentary on Truth

The saved person—the person sanctified in Jesus’ name in order to grow, and always abide in the truth—sees the truth. They need to. They cannot help to. If a saved person cannot see the truth, what good is God to that person?

God is love and we know it, but God works more centrally in the manner of truth by the wisdom known to exist within the realm of life.

When all else of life is stripped away all that matters is the truth.

When we know the Son, we want to know the truth, disregarding its costs. That takes courage, and courage requires faith. To live knowing that good and bad things come with equal veracity, and to rest with God in that knowledge, takes faith in Christ. Nothing else cuts it.

Sure, it takes courage to abide by the truth; faith to trust that we can endure the truth.

These words appear to have little direction, but they are all truths about truth.

We need nothing more than we need the truth. When we have the truth, and we comfortably accept it, nothing can truly harm us. The power of God is with us, not against us, as would not be the case if we preferred to bend the truth to our discreet needs.

***

Now, our jumping off point was about sight; that seeing is believing.

When we have the sunshine we see all things illuminated. When we have another Sonshine, we see spiritual things all through life that are illuminated; truths of life; truths of being; and, particularly, relational truths.

***

Life is about truth and about seeing reality, and accepting it. That’s the abundant life. Jesus, the Son, illuminates in a similar way to that which the sun illuminates. We need light for our lives; to acknowledge what must be acknowledged; to accept what must be accepted.

Truth alone heals, but healing is not available if we deny the truth. As God is Love, God is also Truth.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

When Moon Sinks and Sun’s Disappeared

Weary, deep and tired, in the strains,

The strains of life,

Having been shackled to the pains,

The pains of deepest strife.

Fathoms of disconnection,

Boiling is the ache,

The ache of the soul’s dereliction,

Having lost any feeling of stake.

When the moon surely sinks,

And sun’s disappeared,

There’s no sign of winks,

That would normally have us cheered.

Arms are what we need,

Arms warm and wide,

Sowing in love’s seed,

So at last we can abide.

Abiding’s all we crave,

At last a place to fit,

Crawling out of our cave,

And in courage we do sit.

Melodies of madness,

Have truly had their run,

Belief’s now beyond badness,

The hope of sadness done.

Climbing out of the cave,

A victory dance to boot,

Everything we gave,

Just so grace could take root.

***

The period 2010 to 2012 was a testing one for me. The first year of that period was the culmination of a few good years of achievement and safety in space for peace. I had made my contribution. The final two years of that period I often felt that the moon had sunken and that the sun had disappeared. I battled symptoms of unconscious anxiety, and finally gave way to acknowledgement that I had become depressed. Then I turned a corner, having searched God in these matters for some meaning; some solution.

It felt like I plummeted into an abyss, where many things I valued became no more. These were mainly workplace issues. Everything at home was hunky-dory.

But then I found, again and afresh, the excruciating but fascinating reality; the abyss has no bottom. In climbing out of the abyss I needed to dig deeper into it. I realised God had brought me to a turning point, and with abandon I had to let go of what was. In doing that, in going from a career where I had literally reached the top, God was asking me to drop my pride, and to go into a direction I had prayed long for, but saw no vision of either path or arrival point.

The beautiful thing about moons that have sunken and suns that have disappeared is the thing about them when they return. They always return, brighter than ever.

God doesn’t give us everything we want when we want it.

God gives us what we need for now. Sometimes we need a time where our moon has sunken and our sun has disappeared; where we, without light, draw in on God. Of course, God comes close at these times, guiding us along his path, where we, with courage, can navigate our way through the tremulous season that imbues our present lives.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Aflame With Passion for God

“I am drenched in the fuel of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the match... and God is the flame.”

— Shawn Boreta

There are some quotes that you read and instantly they grab your attention. That’s how it was for the above quote. Immediately I was struck by the use of metaphor—fire, copious fuel, and a match that ignites the flame.

Of course, the quote above encapsulates all three persons of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is really the end result of our faith in Jesus; a Spirit provided by the Father, in the Son’s name—the Advocate in place of the Son who has gone to be with the Father.

So let us take each of these persons of the Godhead in reverse order to what we would typically find:

God the Holy Spirit

If we are to be saturated in anything spiritual, that which has its basis in truth, we are to be soaked in the Holy Spirit, and if we were to imagine that immersion to be an immersion of volatile fuel, we would be seriously concerned that we might catch alight in the presence of a flame, like a match.

If the Holy Spirit possesses us in any cogent degree, because we have accepted the Son, and have therefore sought the Holy Spirit to dwell within, and have been won to this Majesty of Spiritual Grace, we will be easily lit. And our flame will burn brightly of the Son.

This metaphor of being drenched in fuel is pregnant with the possibility for ignition; for the transformation from one material into another; the burning off of the old in revealing the new, as well as the spiritual fire inspiring such a divine transformation.

Finally, with fuel is potential—all that’s required is a spark to make flame. We’re reminded of that potential that resides poised in us by the Holy Spirit. We seek that spark to take us from possibility into divine action.

God the Son

What part does Jesus play in all of this? We know it is a central part. Of course, the Saviour is pivotal. If not for Jesus there would be no reconciliation with God.

Not only is Jesus the hub, the pivot point of all history, he is the match that lights the flame of God so far as we’re concerned. If not for Jesus we could be drenched in the fuel of the Holy Spirit, but never experience the flaming Presence of God that burns in our core.

But, of course, without Jesus we would have no claim on the Holy Spirit.

God the Father

The sponsor of the whole arrangement is God the Father. He who spoke Creation into being, with the Son and the Holy Spirit present there in the Trinity also, was determined to bring physical and dimensional manifestation to his Love.

We can see Creation as something that has burned with the Father’s passion all along.

***

Our opportunity as believers is to burn with passion; to be continually aflame for God. If God is anywhere involved in our lives he will be as a fire, burning off the residue of the old self, making way for new undergrowth through which Christ can thrive from within us, by the Holy Spirit.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Shawn Boreta is an edifier, teacher, writer, and student at the Ps139 group, which includes the Page, Giving Thanks Daily, and the Blog from which this quote came.