To Correct or Clarify

A writing teacher once said, "If anything can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood."

A sentence in "Desert Thoughts" was a little unclear; so, I have changed it.

I no longer say, "We look ahead to that time when disappointment will be forgotten, when pain keeps us from sleep...."  I now say, "...no longer keeps us..."

Desert Thoughts

Psalm 63

The introductory words to this psalm, while not original, are generally accepted as accurate.

--The author of the psalm was David, though another hand may have provided some minor editing at a later date.

--The setting of the writing, “in the wilderness of Judah,” could fit two periods of David’s life:  (1) His flight from the jealous Saul or (2) his flight from Jerusalem during the insurrection led by Prince Absalom.

I lean toward the second interpretation that David was in flight from his son Absalom.  Still, the specific background of the psalm doesn’t have a major impact on its meaning.

*************

I hadn’t been a pastor long before I discovered that many people were living in deeply divided families.  We had two deacons who were brothers; they had a third brother who hadn’t seen or spoken to them in more than a decade.  Another man had a brother who came back from WWII angry at his family for some reason; he left the area and his brother had no idea if he was alive or dead.  He had been gone for over forty years.

When families divide, the pain runs deep.  Despite his undoubted commitment to God, David was a poor parent, inconsistent and indifferent.  Absalom, David’s son, was arrogant and resentful, qualities which led him to murder and ultimately to rebellion against his father.  David had to flee for his life.

Suddenly, life was not what he wanted it to be.  It was a time of chaos and uncertainty.  It may have reminded him of his flight from the enraged King Saul many years before.  His very life was endangered that time too.

We might not face what David faced but all of us face times when life is not what we want it to be.  It may be when we look at the headlines and realize there doesn’t seem to be anywhere that’s safe:  Not the movie theater, not the hospital, not the neighborhood McDonald’s.

Sometimes we face challenges that are more personal.  I’m not talking about those times when we find ourselves thinking that we surely ought to be driving a new Infinity, not a used Chevy.  I’m talking of those days when our lives have taken a radical turn:

o     When your husband or wife says, “I’ll always respect you, but I don’t love you anymore; I’ve found someone else.”

o     When the boss says, “We have to trim the fat and, frankly, we can get by without you.  By the way, Merry Christmas.”

o     When the doctor says, “Something troubling showed up on one of your tests.”

You could create your own scenario.  We’ve all seen people face times when life is far from what they wanted it to be.  We’ve all feared those times when we should face such a challenge.

Until you’re there, it’s hard to know how you’ll face it.  We can all be thankful that when David faced such time, he wrote a song.

In this song David reaffirms his commitment to God, "God, you are my God..."  In a world of idolatry there were perceived to be options for the erstwhile believer, faith could have been placed in other gods than Yahweh.  So, David makes clear his commitment to the God of Israel.

His passion is put in terms suggesting a powerful longing.  Deep within David's very being was a craving for a relationship with God.  Using language which a people familiar with the desert would understand, he spoke of how, like a drought plagued land, he thirsted for God.

He had gone from the palace to sleeping rough.  No doubt he missed those creature comforts but what was most important?  His relationship with God.

Across the centuries David teaches a crucial truth:  When life is not all you wish, treasure your relationship with God.  Why should that relationship be treasured?

In that relationship, you are encouraged by God’s faithfulness.

2-4

David’s circumstances kept him from going to the tabernacle.  Yet, his sense of God’s presence was so sure, it was as if he was really bowing before God in that sanctuary.  The experience of worship in the sanctuary allowed him to imagine God's great power and glory.  It’s clear that David's worship was more than ritual or mere nominal participation in the rites of the Jewish religion; it was a profound spiritual experience.

In this experience, David recalled God's loving-kindness, manifested in steadfast love.  He had known God's presence in hard times; he had known God's gracious forgiveness when he had failed; he had known God's help when facing enemies.  For him, the experience of such "unfailing love" was better than life itself. The language makes it clear that this is no mere abstract notion; David had experienced that love.

Such "steadfast love," involves both grace and faithfulness, picturing how God related to his people.  He showed them profound love, a love which rescued them from their enemies and kept them from destruction.  God is devoted to his people with a love which transcends their devotion to him.

When life isn’t what you want it to be, remember God hasn’t abandoned you.  In the good times and the bad, God is with you.

    That knowledge prompts us to praise God wholeheartedly.  It did for David, it ought to do so for us.

     David promises to worship and praise God through all the chapters of his life’s story.   His hands would be raised to praise God openly and unashamedly. Uplifted hands were an element of Jewish worship well into the New Testament period. 

David lifting his hands may have symbolized two things.  First, he was giving-up:  He was saying,
“I’ve done all I can do.  I need strength beyond my own.” Second, he was showing his openness to receive God’s blessing.

   You see, the knowledge of God’s faithfulness allows David to call on God's name, bringing his needs to him in prayer.  If our only incentive to prayer was how worthy we are, we might as well forget it.  The best encouragement we have to pray is God’s record of goodness.

In that relationship, you find bountiful satisfaction.

5

Remember that David was on the run.  He was not enjoying royal banquets.  In fact, he was probably on something of a subsistence diet, eating what could be found in the desert of the rugged Negev.  Like other hungry people, he may have remembered some to the wonderful meals he had enjoyed in the better days back in Jerusalem, either as the hero who had defeated Goliath or, later, as the king.  As he thought about it, he realized that while he might be physically hungry, God was still there meeting his spiritual needs.  

David compares his sense of spiritual satisfaction to that felt by someone who had enjoyed a sumptuous feast.  The reference to “fat and rich food” isn’t intended to spell out a healthy diet but one which included the finest culinary delicacies.  The Message captures some of the feeling behind the verse: “I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy; I smack my lips. It’s time to shout praises!”

   Like the diner who praised the cook who prepared such a satisfying meal, David intends to praise God--joyfully sounding out his Benefactor’s greatness.

When we Christians sing we recall that bounty.  Lina Sandell was a sickly young woman.  As a child she was often too weak to go outside and play with neighbor children; instead, she remained in her father’s study.   In 1858, at the age of 26 she accompanied her father on a trip by sea from their home to another city in Sweden.  Somehow her father fell overboard and was drowned as Lina watched helplessly. 

Though she was devastated, Lina drew strength from her faith and her sense of God’s sustaining presence.  That faith was voiced in several songs she wrote, including one which spoke of the same strength David knew.  It says, “Day by day, and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here.”

In our relationship with God, we find a source of strength which sustains us like a daily banquet.

In that relationship, you have reassurance in troubled times.

6-8

  When the trumpets are blaring and the choir is singing, it’s easy to have faith.  But what about those times when we are alone, isolated from the trappings of corporate worship, away from the community of faith?  David’s faith was not tied to those times when he could enjoy the benefits of public worship.

   In the depth of the night, when the cries of jackals filled the air, David meditated on God. 

   The reference to the night-watches recalls the need to be alert and on guard during the night when the enemy might attack out of the darkness.  Even in the walled cities, night-watchmen spent the night watching for the slightest hint of movement which might suggest an assault.  Such sentries would be even more necessary in a desert encampment.  Yet, instead of being filled with anxious thoughts, David could reflect on the goodness of God.

He rejoices at God's protection which he pictures as being "overshadowed by (God's) wings."  The image suggests a bird (perhaps an eagle) placing its wings over its young to protect them.  One writer says. "While wings suggest swiftness or soaring strength, they also recall the protective parenting habits of birds.   The wings of God offer divine protection...."

   David is reminding generations to come that when we feel our weakest and most vulnerable, God is there to protect and guard us.

There is something here we shouldn’t miss.  The text seems to imply that we have a responsibility in this situation.  God upholds, we cling.

The word translated as "clings" is the same as that used in Genesis 2:24 where marriage is pictured as a man and woman clinging to each other.  The idea implies utter devotion and fidelity to God. 

   In that relationship, David senses that he is upheld by God's right hand.  In many ancient cultures, including the Jewish culture, the right hand is seen as the "strong" hand.  Our help and sustenance comes from God's right hand.

In that relationship, you have the best hope for the future.

9-11

At this point, David musters the faith to look ahead to that time when right and justice will prevail, when he will be restored.

This prompts him to offer up a rather unsettling prayer.  Simply put, the psalmist is wishing his enemy dead.  In particular, he hopes they will be struck down by the sword and become food for the scavengers. (10)

  He does so without apology, without blushing.  In fact, he seems to assume God would wholeheartedly approve of this dream.  His words are honest but disturbing.

It’s our custom on Sunday and Wednesday evenings to ask for special prayer concerns. Sometimes, I find myself imagining someone saying:  "My boss has really been giving me grief; would you pray that she have a heart attack."  That would shock us, just as David’s prayer shocks us.  But keep some things in mind.

   --Remember that the notion of praying for our enemies would have been radically strange in David’s day.  It may have been implied in the Law, but it was never thoroughly demonstrated until the ministry of Jesus and later in the lives of his followers.

--Remember that in the David’s mind, opposition to the king was opposition to God.  Last week I received a letter from an obviously disturbed man.  In it he bitterly complained against other ministers whom he felt were against him (they were “jealous,” he said).[1]  In his mind, opposing him was opposing God.  Unless you’re the divinely appointed ruler of a nation with a holy mission, you shouldn’t think that way.

--Remember that some statements in the Bible are descriptive rather than prescriptive.  The account accurately portrays what happens but doesn't put it forward as recommended activity.  So David's prayer is not necessarily provided as a model of how we ought to pray even if it lets us see the king’s feelings.[2]

While we might not pray as David prayed, we may sincerely pray that what is wrong might eventually be made right.  We may pray for pain to be relieved and right to prevail.

David believed God would restore him to the place God intended him to have.  That victory will prompt him to rejoice in God.  At the same time, the people who trust God and rely on him will join in the praise given to God.  Any who had counseled despair and questioned God's goodness and power, will be silenced, having been demonstrated to be liars.

When David envisioned the wrong being made right, when he pictured a future in which justice prevailed, it involved being restored to his throne.  While you and I may not have the same expectation David had, we are encouraged to look ahead when God’s good will work itself out in our lives.  We look ahead to that time when disappointment will be forgotten, when pain no longer keeps us from sleep or wakes us in the morning.

David confidently looked ahead to a restoration of the status quo.  He held onto the promise God made that he would be the founder of a never-ending dynasty.  For David, this was an appropriate dream. 

But, we Christians, like everyone else, must beware of “magical thinking.”  It’s a real threat when our lives take a real turn toward the bad.  At a time like that, we need to be careful about yearning for a restoration of the status quo.  What might have been appropriate for David might not be appropriate for us.

Sometimes you just can’t expect things to go back to the way they were.

You’ll only frustrate yourself if you bank on the return of that spouse who has established a new home with another.

You’ll probably only stall your progress toward starting over if you wait for your old boss to admit you’re indispensable and ask you back to work..

But it’s fully appropriate for you to trust God for that better future he promises.

Conclusion

When life shakes us up, we’re inclined to begin to weigh and balance what is important.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

May we learn what David learned in the desert, that when life is not all we might wish, we should treasure our relationship with God.    

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[1]  He was also disappointed that SBC executive committee president Frank Page didn’t give him a radio program.

[2]    It may also be helpful to remember that when David did have an opportunity to kill Saul, he didn't.  And he sincerely hoped that somehow the rebellious Absalom would live and reconciliation would take place.

On the Way to a Better You

I John 3:2

A young man named Jeremy Britt won this year’s “Biggest Loser” competition.  The ironically named reality show is about people who want to lose weight, a lot of it.  Twenty-two-year-old Jeremy won the contest by losing 199 pounds.  He began the competition weighing 389 pounds.  The contestants on this show are like many of us, they want to be better.  Doubtless many people watch the show because they’re curious; but some watch because they are facing some challenge (their own weight, a habit, a lack of education) that’s keeping them from being what they would like to be—better.

It’s a tragedy to never be able to harbor the hope of a better you.  When you and I have no hope of breaking free from those behaviors that cause hurt to other or ourselves, no hope of escaping those qualities that continually make us self-disappointed, we lose any sense that life will ever be different.  We may even begin to wonder if we should march into some church; find the pastor, and say, “I’m returning this gospel.  It didn’t perform the way you said it would.”

Is it realistic to cling to the hope of a better you?  I hope so.  As I look at the Bible, I find some materials that speak to the question.  Some of what I’m about to say won’t be new, some might surprise you.   I’m going to cluster what I say around two headings.

Hope for a Better You Involves Doing Some Things Only You Can Do.

Praying “God change me” is fully appropriate if we wish to become better.  Yet, there seems to be some matters God leaves in our hands, to a degree, at least.

1.  As you pursue a better you, guard your attitudes.

So many of us cherish negative attitudes, attitudes that tie us down, that keep us from change.  We may have faced tough times in the past and those experiences shape us for the rest of our lives.  My mother taught me that a person should always expect the worst.  That way, when the worst happens you won’t be disappointed.  If things turn out better than you expected, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Needless to say, she had little joy in life.  I don’t deny she had her share of grief.  She had lived through the Great Depression.  She had lost loved ones.  How different her life would have been if she had taken different attitudes toward her experiences.

Victor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who was imprisoned in the Nazi death camps.  While he was in one camp, his family was in another.  His family died.  Somehow he survived.  Frankl, who eventually became a Christian, reflected on his experiences and wrote several influential books.  Listen to one of his key observations.

We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number; but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of his freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

William James, who died in 1910, spent years studying religious people.  He said, “People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.” 

Some of us need to change attitudes of worry.  Jesus once asked, “Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?”  No one can.  In fact, chronic worry may even shorten our lives.  Jesus’ antidote was to order our priorities toward strengthening our relationship with God.

Some of us need to change attitudes of bitterness.  I’ve known many people who harbor some deep-seated anger.  This bitterness shapes their attitude toward others, toward change, toward every experience.  John Homer Miller, a writer in the eighteenth century, saw the danger in this.  He wrote, “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. Circumstances and situations do color life, but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be.”

We can’t always be thankful for the experiences that come our way, but we can often find some reason to be thankful that those experiences came as they did and not some other way.  As Tim Hansel says, “At any moment in life we have the option to choose an attitude of gratitude, a posture of grace, a commitment to joy.”

One step toward a better you, is a changed attitude.  I’m not calling you to a warmed over plate of positive thinking, but I am calling you to try to see things just a little differently. 

2.  As you pursue a better you, feed your mind.

Toward the end of his life, perhaps only a short while before his execution, Paul wrote a couple letters to Timothy.  In the second letter, he urged his friend to come to Rome to visit him.   Anticipating that visit, Paul asked Timothy to do him a favor.  Maybe you’ve asked a similar favor from a friend.  Paul wrote, “When I was in Troas, I left my coat there with Carpus. So when you come, bring it to me, along with my books, particularly the ones written on parchment.”^[1]

In the midst of a tough time, Paul wanted to study.  We don’t know what books Paul had in mind.  They might have included some of the Old Testament, but not necessarily.  Paul had a curiosity beyond the narrow range of religion.  He quoted non-Jewish writers at least twice in his sermons and letters.  And evidently he kept that curiosity throughout his life.

Did you know fewer than half of our fellow Americans read a book during the year?  Now, I know that there are other ways to learn besides reading books, but there are still too many of us who stop learning at some point in our lives.  For some it may be when they graduate from college.  For some it may be when they retire.

Why is it so important to nurture the mind, to keep it active?  To begin with, learning makes life more interesting.  Some of the dullest people you’ll ever meet are those who have just stopped learning. 

Then, too, learning enhances our usefulness to the Kingdom.  We have greater resources available to us to advance the gospel.  Harry Blamires has been a lifelong advocate of Christians learning to love God with the mind.  He reminds us that, “The Christian thinker challenges current prejudices . . . disturbs the complacent . . . obstructs the busy pragmatists . . . questions the very foundations of all about him and . . . is a nuisance.”

So, if you want to become a better you, put your mind to work. 

Feeding our minds may help us discover what is essential to our faith and what is really incidental. 

3.  As you pursue a better you, hang out with the right kind of people.

Proverbs 27:17sets this principle in imaginative language.  Using he imagery of a file shaping a piece of metal, the proverb says, “As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other.”^[2]   Puritan preacher Jeremy Taylor wrote, “The wise man chooses friends with the qualities he lacks.”

Being around the right people can challenge us to be better, can renew our enthusiasm, and can enrich our understanding.  Of course, hanging out with the wrong people can leave us deflated and discouraged.

The writer of Hebrews understood the importance of Christian fellowship in making us better.  He told those who would neglect that fellowship, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another….”^[3]   The right kind of Christian fellowship can make you a better person.  That probably only happens when you participate in some kind of small group activity and not just the “big church.”  Whenever you get together with your Christian friends, there is the potential of going away a better person.

4.  As you pursue becoming a better you, make yourself available to others.

I once heard someone described in words something like this, “Sally lived in a world bounded on the north, south, east, and west by Sally.”  My generation is notorious for being self-centered.  Many of us desperately need to get outside of our narrow worlds.

Jesus said to his followers, “You are light, you are salt.  Keep your light under a bucket and it does nothing.  Keep your salt in the shaker and it makes no difference.” 

Making yourself available to others to help them, encourage them, get them through a tough time, does them good—and does you good.

I saw it happen in the life of a man named Ray.  Ray was a good man but he had spent his life in one tiny community and one small church.  His only time out of that community was a trip to Europe in the early 1940s.  He came back from that with a bullet wound so his perspective on the outside world was a little jaundiced.  He thought the way to do church was the way the church he had grown up in did it.  Then, Ray was inspired to spend a couple weeks on a partnership mission. 

During those weeks he worked for the first time with a Christian who wasn’t a Baptist.  He discovered that three songs and a sermon wasn’t the only way worship could be done.  He found that God’s Kingdom was like a diamond with many facets.  He came back changed.

If you hope for a better you, don’t plan on it happening by staying alone.

Now I want to remind you that

Hope for a Better You Involves Letting God Do Some Things That God is Best At   Doing.

1.  As you pursue a better you, listen especially to God’s correctives.

As you move through this life, you’ll meet a lot of people who would like to tweak you just a bit.  Not all of them speak for God or even have your best interest in mind.  Now, this doesn’t mean if someone suggests you should quit smoking or lose weight and their counsel isn’t accompanied by rumbling thunder, you can afford to ignore it.  It means you should carefully consider what people are saying to you.

One place to hear God’s voice is the Bible.  Of course, even there you need to be on guard against approaching the Bible with preconceived notions.  That can interfere with what God is saying.  At the same time, you have to bring some interpretive principles to the Bible.  You don’t have to go to seminary to learn these.  Most of them are rules you would apply to any kind of material. 

When you turn to the Bible, you’ll discover the Bible has plenty to say about us becoming a better people.  You’ll discover, as Paul says, that “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.”

Let me go on to say that you may hear God’s corrective voice through other believers.  Usually, this will be a believer who knows you and cares for you, a believer whose own life is balanced.  He or she won’t be perfect—none of us are—but will have an attitude which says, “You and I are on this pilgrim road together;   here’s something I’ve learned.”

Your hope for a better you, stands on the fact that God will give you directions along that road.

2.  As you pursue a better you, open yourself to God’s transforming grace.

None of the members of the Corinthian church had been raised in Sunday school.  They had come from the worst backgrounds.  Then they were encountered by God’s transforming grace.  Paul helps them recall their past and their debt to that grace.

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteouswill not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.^[4]

They had touched the moral bottom but God had changed them.  Though they were by no means all they should have been, Paul could call them “saints.”  As one translation puts it, they were “Christians cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life.”  Paul would rejoice that “There’s no end to what has happened in you—it’s beyond speech, beyond knowledge. ⁶The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.”

All that change took place was because of God’s transforming power that had worked in their lives and would continue to work in their lives.  He could promise them, “God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. ⁹God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.”

Your hope for a better you, stands on the fact that the God of grace “will never give up on you.”

3.  As you pursue a better you, keep in mind God’s goal for you.

Listen again to John’s words, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” ^[5] 

 What John is describing is the believer’s “glorification.”  It means the time will come when every believer will be like Christ.  As you and I well know, this doesn’t happen the moment you step out of those waters of baptism. 

Paul might call the Corinthians saints, but he knew it would be a long time before they were truly saintly.  God works through various means to bring us to that place where there’s no doubt we are Christ’s people.

Your hope for a new you, stands on the fact that God has a glorious goal for you.

Conclusion

A Christian once testified:  “I am not what I should be, I am not what I am going to be, but thank God, I am not what I was.”

If we understand our own hearts, this testimony will resonate with us.  You know you’re not what you should be.  You may even accept the promise that you are not what you are going to be. 

But finally, you can take comfort if you can truly say; you are not what you were.  If you are better now than you were, that reality continues to inspire the hope of a better you.

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^[1] The Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments. Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. 2 Ti 4:13

^[2] The Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments. Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. Pr 27:17

^[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1996, c1989, S. Heb 10:24

^[4] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S. 1 Co 6:9-11

^[5] The Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments. Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. 1 Jn 3:2