Psalm 63

Psalm 63:

"O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
to see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
for You have been my help,
and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life to destroy it,
Will go into the depths of the earth.
They will be delivered over the the power of the sword;
they will be a prey for foxes.
But the king will rejoice in God;
everyone who swears by Him will glory,
for the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped."

May the love of our Yahweh God always be sweeter, better, and more important to us than anything this world has to offer!

Continually Dirty

Recently I found myself on my face, weeping at the feet of Jesus, pleading for forgiveness and mercy. That besetting sin, which I so despise, had once again reared its head. How many times would He continue to forgive me? Shame and hopelessness gripped me.

Knelt on the floor, I was suddenly struck with a vivid picture from John 13—the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Into His pure hands, Jesus takes their grimy feet: pours water and rubs their soles. Dirt releases at the touch of His hand. Jesus then pulls their now-clean feet close into Himself, into the drying towel He’d wrapped around His waist.

A particular facet of this story spoke to me as it never had before. Why had Jesus even bothered washing their feet? He knew as soon as supper ended, their feet would leave His presence and tread on dusty pathways again. This is precisely why Jesus ends the foot washing by commanding His disciples to “wash one another’s feet.” He intended for this to serve as an example of an ongoing practice—continual washing of feet that would continually get dirty.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Psalm 51:1-3

Despite our best efforts, we continually sin. God knows and has an ongoing solution. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I Jn. 1:9

Don’t be like Peter, who tried to refuse the Lord washing his feet. Place your dirtiest, ugliest sins into His pure hands—allow Him to cleanse and then draw you close into Himself.

Out-Of-This-World PEACE.

What is the purpose of war?

Is it not to bring about peace?

Throughout the Old Testament (especially the book of Isaiah, but 299 times in the OT total) the Lord is referred to as the LORD of hosts, translated as YHWH Sabaoth. I have read this name for God multiple times, but never really stopped to think about it. The master of the armies, the commander of all.

The LORD, over and over again, told the Israelites that He would fight for them. In Exodus 14:14, Moses said to the people, "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." For me, that's not something I'm very good at. I'd rather be fighting myself, doing something so that I could feel as if I were accomplishing anything at all. But God told them to be silent? He tells me to be silent? Later King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 says, "For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." Do you ever feel like that? That you're powerless to face up to whatever situation or circumstance is in your life?

Remember, the point of war is to win peace.

If God stated that He would fight for them, He was fighting for their peace. As I've been contemplating the idea of "peace" for the past few weeks, I wanted to do a word study on it. However, my good intentions slowly diminished when I saw that there are 429 uses of the word "peace" in the Bible. Whoa. 57 of the 66 books use that word. Granted, not all of them deal with the peace of God; some are as someone has made peace with another, as a peace offering to God, peace as they died, and so on.

But Jesus also spoke of a peace, a new kind of peace. In John 14:27 He says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." The 'peace' used in this verse is the Greek word 'eirene', signifying quietness and rest. In Hebrew, the word would translate 'salom', or as we would say "shalom". This is not the peace in the sense of the word that we are accustomed to. This peace refers to peace--contentment, safety, etc--but also to peace with God. As sinners with a human nature, we are at war with God. We are called even "children of wrath". However, with the blood of Jesus, we now have peace. Jesus has fought and won, and now there is peace.

YHWH Sabaoth fought for you. And Jesus won. While we still struggle with sin daily, Christ has won the victory in His death and resurrection. Sometimes I don't feel that peace in my life; I feel like I'm tossed in a great storm with no sight of peace and rest in the distance. But the Bible tells me that I have peace with God, peace with the Creator of the universe, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, the Holy One. And no matter where I am in life, knowing that I have peace with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that gives me peace.

"I have said these things to you, that in ME you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" --John 16:33