Tag: psalms

The Answer for the Living Dead

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Ultimately, people want to live – truly live. This is quite natural, given that our Creator breathed into humanity the breath of life at the beginning of time.

Sadly, many people who live biologically are inwardly dead. Their lungs are taking in air, and their hearts are beating; but their spirits are dead with the weight of sadness, guilt, hopelessness, futility, and fear.

Medical doctors can work on the body, but it takes an infinitely better Physician to work on the spirit.

The ancient – yet timeless – book of Psalms outlines the process of coming to realize the vitality of genuine living. The writer says of God, “For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13, ESV). Here we observe three critical components of a life of vitality.

    1) God delivers the soul from death. No matter how our pride may fight against this truth, it takes God to deliver a soul from death. The wages of our sin brings death – first spiritual, and eventually physical (Romans 6:23). No slick mental tricks or serious psychological manipulation can erase the guilt of a heart in rebellion against the God of the Bible. Once we come to terms with our sinful heart by the conviction of God’s own Spirit, we can ask God to give us life by making our heart new through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His blood which was shed on the Cross pays for the guilt of my sin, and His life (evidenced by the Resurrection) provides life to me. Here it is again: His blood pays, and His life provides.
    2) God delivers our feet from falling. Simply amazing is the provision of God for the daily minutes and hours of life. Not only has He given vitality to my soul by the forgiveness of sins and restoration of life, He promises to keep my feet from falling as I walk through this world on a regular basis. This portion of Scripture gets down to the nitty-gritty!

    Real living – beyond the basics of biology – requires the security of knowing that we are being guided and protected by the One who can assure the outcome. Each moment of each day, we can depend on our Savior to keep our feet from falling – into demise, hopelessness, and trial outside the will of God. We can even rely on our Savior to provide what we need in order that we will not fall into sin. Though as humans we will not be perfect until we finally see Jesus face-to-face; there exists no excuse for our sin, because God can deliver our feet from falling.

    3) God allows me to walk before Him in the light of life. Here it is – the culmination of real living. Darkness of soul is gone, and we can live our moments before the face of God without dread. We know that we stand clean before Him because of Jesus, and there is no need to hide. We can now truly relate to others, for we are walking in the transparency of God’s light.

    For those God has delivered, death is swallowed up in victory (I Corinthians 15:54b). Not only can we live before Him with hope now, we know that we will live forever before Him in glory that cannot be fully understood or described this side of eternity.

Do not allow death to stay. Do not allow life to pass you by. Let God deliver you.

Blessed versus Happy

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A Brief Commentary on Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,…

While the world chases circumstantially-rooted happiness, we ought to be pursuing the blessing of God. To have our Creator pleased with our existence – rejoicing in the substance of our life – this is the rock-solid foundation of fulfillment and peace.

To be blessed is to stand strong. To be blessed is to know that all is well despite difficulty and heartache because we have invited God into every facet of our life.

To be blessed is to be wholeheartedly engaged in living because the Holy Spirit speaks and moves continually in our hearts and minds.

To be blessed is quite the opposite of being bored, being drained, being lonely, or fighting to keep our head above water.

To be blessed is to live vibrantly, with hope as a backdrop that never dissipates because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and conquered the sin that used to bind us and the death that used to overshadow us.

As mentioned at the outset, worldly happiness sits juxtaposed with this state of Christian blessedness. Worldly happiness derives from a mindset of materialism. For people enslaved in the pursuit of happiness, the world is very small, and yet mysteriously elusive.

Therefore, the Psalmist says we ought not to live according to the counsel of the wicked. The mindset of ungodliness tells us we must seek many things to be happy: entertainment no matter the cost to our morality or pursuit of intellect; fast-paced living in order to keep up with what is expected no matter the cost to health or sanity; gadgets, appliances, and vehicles no matter the cost to a reasonable financial plan or the amount of time needed for maintenance; a youthful look no matter the price tag or investment of valuable energy and resource; incomes that keep us on par with others’ standards no matter the cost to relationships and emotional stability. And the greatest cost of this chasing of happiness is that it steals from us our commitment – our true relationship – with God Himself.

Happiness cannot be found by human effort. Rather, blessedness is bestowed by God as our heart turns genuinely and unabashedly to Him in a world gone mad. The man or woman is truly blessed who stays alert to discern worldly thinking from biblical thinking. The person on whom the favor of the Maker of the Universe rests is the one who measures every thought and motivation against the Word of the Lord. The blessed person is secure and full of hope not because of fleeting circumstances, but because of walking moment by moment with unchangeable, unshakeable, unfailing Jesus.

See to it that you are blessed of God and not merely happy. See to it that you make His approval your aim. For, the blessed person will remain, while the wicked in pursuit of worldly happiness is soon destroyed in his or her own way.