Tag: god’s power

From Where Will Our Help Come? (Psalm 121)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
    from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time on and forevermore. (New Revised Standard Version)

One of the rituals my family does when leaving on a long road trip is to pray. It’s in those special times of traveling, and anticipating the destination, that we can be especially cognizant of both the blessings and the dangers which may lie ahead.

When the Israelites set out together from places all over Israel to go to Jerusalem and ascend the temple mount for a special festival, they also prayed. Specifically, they prayed many of the psalms and sang them together.

One never knows what lies ahead. We trust the Lord to protect us by being our divine keeper and guardian, to help us and watch out for us. This is why today’s psalm reading is alongside the Old Testament lesson of the Passover. (Exodus 12:14-28)

In Exodus, God was readying the people for deliverance from Egypt. The ancient Israelites were about to leave the land of slavery and travel to the Promised Land. They would be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers and obstacles on their way. The people needed Yahweh’s oversight and protection on their long journey.

Will we arrive safely? Can we get where we need to go without an accident or trouble? Those are questions people ask in any age with any significant trip.

Throughout the psalms of ascent (or the pilgrimage psalms) there are some fundamental convictions about God through them all:

  1. The Lord is a mighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe
  2. The Lord is a caring God, the people’s Helper and Deliverer
  3. The Lord is near, an imminent God who is close to us as our Immanuel
  4. The Lord is an attentive God, always watching and never sleeping on the job in order to guard us
  5. The Lord is far above, a transcendent God who is able watch over everything and always see us

If you think about it, life itself is one long extended pilgrimage from birth to death. Life is an earthly sojourn, continually moving about the earth from one place to the next. Even if we stay put and never move, the world itself is continually spinning on it’s axis and furthermore circling in space around the sun. In other words, no matter what we do, life is always risky.

We need the consistent and continual divine presence to go before us, with us, and after us wherever we are and wherever we go. There is a constant need for God’s watching and caring for us. What’s more, we are invited to move and participate in the Lord’s dealings in this world. The call of every Christian is Christ’s call to “follow me.”

The life of the believer is a call to a life of pilgrimage and discipleship. It is to step out in faith and live life to the full, knowing that God has your back. We need not run for the hills whenever there is trouble; we can look beyond the mountains to the God of heaven who is our divine helper.

At the end of the day, we can lay our head on the pillow to sleep with trust that the non-slumbering God keeps watch over us during the dark night hours. Unlike the gods who need to be stirred from their rest, Yahweh is never absent and always alert to whatever is happening.

In the morning, we can rise with confidence knowing that our going out and coming home again will be watched with vigilance and care from the Lord who is our keeper. Nothing escapes the God who is both far and near, able to see the big picture of our lives, as well as notice every little nuance by being up close and personal.

We exist in a day and age where God is looked upon with askance – as if the universe’s Sovereign has neither the ability nor the will to impact our daily lives and positively govern the world’s affairs. This is not the God of the Psalms – a grand Being who knows the score of everything going on, cares about the intimate details of life, and has the power to bring about a good outcome for humanity.

Even though God may at times be silent, and although the Lord rarely acts quickly, we ultimately know down deep in our soul that we matter and that Yahweh is there. The real issue is whether we will take the time and effort to connect with this incredible benevolent Being and take a walk, that is, a pilgrimage of faith and encounter God.

When all is said and done, from where will our help come? It will ultimately come from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Eternal God, in whose benevolent realm there is no weapon drawn except the sword of righteousness, and there is no strength known but the strength of love: Mightily spread abroad your gracious and powerful Spirit, so that all people everywhere may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one God and Father of all, to whom belongs dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Naming and Forsaking Evil (Psalm 83:1-4, 13-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Deliver Us From Evil, by John Flaxman (1755-1826)

God, don’t shut me out;
    don’t give me the silent treatment, O God.
Your enemies are out there whooping it up,
    the God-haters are living it up;
They’re plotting to do your people in,
    conspiring to rob you of your precious ones.
“Let’s wipe this nation from the face of the earth,”
    they say; “scratch Israel’s name off the books.”
And now they’re putting their heads together,
    making plans to get rid of you….

My God! I’ve had it with them!
    Blow them away!
Tumbleweeds in the desert waste,
    charred sticks in the burned-over ground.
Knock the breath right out of them, so they’re gasping
    for breath, gasping, “God.”
Bring them to the end of their rope,
    and leave them there dangling, helpless.
Then they’ll learn your name: “God,”
    the one and only High God on earth. (The Message)

The psalms are the church’s prayer book. Many of the psalms are laments; and many of them are worshipful songs of praise. And there are also the “imprecatory” (pronounced im-PRECK-a-tory) psalms. To “imprecate” means to invoke evil upon someone; it is to pronounce a curse. 

The reason for the imprecatory psalm is that it is not any person’s place to engage in revenge or retaliation. Instead, for people who are genuinely caught in the crosshairs of evil and have sinful persons dogging them, prayer is their most effective recourse; an appeal to God is their best chance at survival and hope.

Sometimes you have to tell it like it is. There’s a time to do your best in putting up a good face and dealing with people who never stop gossiping, slandering, and trying to get their way. But there is also a time to call such behavior “evil” and cry out to God for help.

There are a lot of folks who consider imprecatory psalms a problem because of their detailed expressions of imprecation, of cursing. Yet, such psalms refuse to put a positive spin on malevolent motives, wicked words, and destructive actions.

Desperate people utter desperate prayers. Their unflinching sense of injustice will not allow them to sugarcoat the villainous plans of corrupt people.

Evil is never toppled with tepid prayers from wimpy worshipers. Rather, nefarious agendas are thwarted in the teeth of specific, focused, and intense prayers directed with spiritual precision and passion to the very core of diabolical forces.

We need not be shy about being real with God, even with praying imprecatory prayers. There really are people in this world, maybe even in your own life, that have malicious intent against you or others. Our job is not personal revenge, but to entrust ourselves to the God who fights for the poor, the oppressed, and the needy against the arrogant and the powerful. Let your prayers, then, reflect your life.

Along with psalms of praise lifted during times of celebration, so imprecatory psalms are not to be ignored but need to be uttered equally loud as prayers to almighty God in seasons of desperate evil.

If you have a gut feeling deep down that wicked people are running amok, then use this psalm as a prayer against the darkness which seeks to envelop the earth.

Jesus Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not overcome it (Matthew 16:18). The picture Jesus portrayed is one of faithful believers equipped with righteousness and justice storming the gates of hell, not shying away from it. Baked within the Lord’s words were the promise that evil atrocities will not have the day – that God’s people will not be destroyed or overwhelmed because of demonic and satanic power.

There is a time to flee and then there is a time to engage. I am suggesting that the chief way of mitigating evil is to punch it in the mouth with imprecatory psalms prayed with righteous flavor and focused directly against the powers of this present darkness. Why pray, out of all the things we could do, in order to deal with the evil of this world?…

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV)

Spiritual problems require spiritual implements to solve. And the tool of imprecatory psalms is a major way of pushing back the dark forces of this world, as well as the means of spiritual assertiveness against all forms of heinous acts and acerbic words from depraved people and evil systems.

God’s wrath is an expression of God’s love – because God is not okay with evil taking root in the lives and institutions of humanity. Prayer is our privilege of coming to the God who upholds justice and righteousness. For if God is for us, who can be against us?

Almighty God, hear me in the day of my trouble and send help from your holy sanctuary and strengthen my faith. Do not let me amble down the path of temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.

Holy Spirit, breathe your enablement into me and inspire me with a passion for goodness, truth, justice, and righteousness.

Lord Jesus be present with me in your risen power and protect me from harm and from everything that hinders your healing presence in this world. You overcame the forces of Satan, redeemed the world, then ascended to the Father.

Blessed Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Sprit – the God whom I serve: May you be with me and within me; before me and behind me; on my right and on my left; above me and beneath me; and around me always, for the sake of your glory. Amen.

Sensing the Impossible (Exodus 3:1-15)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Burning Bush, by Yoram Raanan

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation. (New International Version)

Moses with the Burning Bush, by Marc Chagall, 1966

The burning bush is one of those iconic objects and familiar stories in Holy Scripture. The experience of Moses changed both his life and the lives of all the Israelites then and now.

Having spent the first forty years of his life as a darling in the Egyptian court, then the next forty years far from that life on the backside of the desert with a bunch of sheep, it is an understatement to say Moses did not expect or ever envisioned encountering God in a burning bush. The impossible has no possibility…. Or, does it?

That incredible encounter engaged the senses of Moses:

  • the paradoxical sight of seeing fire in a bush that isn’t burning up
  • the smells of sheep, the outdoors, and perhaps, even of fire
  • hearing the call of God from within the bush
  • spiritually and emotionally tasting the attentive justice of God
  • removing the sandals to touch and feel the grounding of sacred space

The story comments on the senses of God, as well. Even though God is Spirit and is worshiped as such, God is alive with his own sensations:

  • seeing the approach of Moses, and the misery of the Israelites
  • the smell of injustice wafting into God’s nostrils with a stench that brought a strong divine reaction
  • hearing the cries of suffering
  • anticipating the savory taste of showing mercy and justice together
  • touching Moses in such a profound way that he and the Israelites would never be the same

Through it all, the close identification between God and God’s people is expressed. The Lord feels the humiliation and pain of the Israelites and vows to uproot them from the Egyptian factory farm of slavery and plant them firmly into rich Promised Land soil. And what God promises to do, God has the authority and power to make good on.

An impossible situation, Moses thinks. How can hundreds of years of backbreaking bondage to a national force so mighty that nothing can be done about it, be broken? Who am I, Moses, to face such odds?

Ah, but God specializes in systems of oppression and miserable people. It is the Lord’s abilities which conquer the mightiest of foes and can extend mercy to the lowest and the least powerful. The entire situation is ripe for divine intervention and supernatural wonders to occur.

God will make a way where there seems to be no way. God works in ways which transcend our senses.

  • Where we are blind, God gives sight
  • Where we are deaf, God opens our ears with the sound of justice
  • When our taste buds are shot with the gruel of poverty, God causes our tongues to dance with the zest of mercy
  • When our nerve endings are raw from cruel bondage, God touches us with freedom
  • Where our nostrils have become accustomed to the smell of death, God’s aroma of life awakens us to new hope

My friends, I believe with all my heart that you already intuitively know deep in your spirit that the impossible is possible with God. It is never a question of God’s ability, but of God’s timing. God is able – and the Lord works the impossible in its proper time so that justice and mercy will have their full effect.

God of the impossible: I believe. Help me in my unbelief.

God of mercy: I receive. Help me in my denial.

God of justice: I accept. Help me in my rejection.

God of all time: I endure. Help me in my impatience.

God of All: I submit. Help me in my rebellion.

God of power and of might: I trust. Help me in my distrust.

God of our Lord Jesus Christ: I follow. Help me in my wandering.

God of the nations: Yes, you know that I love you. Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Lord, you know all things, and you know that I love you. So, yes, I will answer your call to go. Help me in my sending. Amen.

Good vs. Evil (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned. (New Revised Standard Version)

There are two opposing forces which are operating in this world. One is the power of evil, manifested through lawlessness, selfishness, and wickedness. The other power is good, and it is seen wherever there is a concern for the common good of all people. Labors of love for all humanity and right relations with everyone are a demonstration of the peaceable fruit of righteousness existing in the world.

To put it succinctly, a spirit of merciful grace and a spirit of careless judgment both exist throughout the world.

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

The Apostle Paul (Romans 12:9, NIV)

The Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church in Thessalonica because the believers there were confused. Somebody had told them that the end of the age already happened. Paul sought to set the record straight, that we are still anticipating the return of the Lord and the final judgment of all things.

The great Day of the Lord will not come until the faithless one, the person of lawlessness, the son of destruction, is revealed. Such a person opposes God and has the force of evil behind them. So, who is this person?

The person is not a single individual. Paul was helping the Thessalonian believers understand the actual situation by wrapping the abstract concept of evil into human form, so that they could visualize its reality and sinister nature. In truth, there will be lots of individual humans who manifest themselves through evil intent and actions, until the Lord’s return.

Grace is the operative power which restrains all the evil. A lot of people have questions about God and evil. Why is there so much evil? How come God doesn’t snuff it all out? Is the Lord not able to do anything? What’s going on?

Those are honest questions. And they come from a place of limited human perspective. Let’s turn this on it’s head. It’s not that God is impotent or isn’t doing anything about evil. Think of it this way: When you scoop up a bunch of sand in your hands, there are a lot of sand grains which fall to the ground. If the sand is evil, and the hands are God’s, the reality of the situation is that the Lord has most of the evil kept at bay.

In other words, if God were not involved in this world, at all, we would be living in a real dystopian society – people staying up at night to guard their homes with guns, and anxious folks attacking each other with impunity. As bad as some things are, it could be infinitely worse than it is.

The grace of God is active in restraining evil and providing believers with what they need to not only survive, but also to thrive in this world.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3-4, NRSV)

A reversal occurs because of God’s grace. The wickedness which exists, especially within the human heart, is dealt with and transformed into a force for good in the world.

Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:3-5, NLT)

Grace is wonderful for those who believe. However, for those who are faithless, grace is inoperative – simply because the wicked consider virtues like mercy and grace as weak and useless; they have no intention of either giving or receiving such drivel.

From a certain angle, it may seem that God is harsh. The Lord hardens hearts, sends powerful delusions, and entertains mysteries which some people will never discover. Yet, from another point of view, these are all necessary divine tools in dealing with unjust humanity and their systems of oppression.

Justice and righteousness are championed by God, and therefore, injustice and unrighteousness will not be put up with by the Lord. And that is a good thing. Love not only gives, but it also protects and withholds. Evil will be dealt with according to God’s good grace and in God’s good time – and not according to a limited human perspective or any person’s impatience.

The time is short, and the time is near; everything shall not continue, as it presently is, forever. This is why the author of Hebrews exhorted people to pay attention to “Today” with a capital “T.” Today won’t be here tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Day of the Lord. So, while it’s Today, we must be responsive.

My friends, watch out! Don’t let evil thoughts or doubts make any of you turn from the living God. You must encourage one another each day. And you must keep on while there is still a time that can be called “Today.” If you don’t, then sin may fool some of you and make you stubborn. (Hebrews 3:12-13, CEV)

We must encourage each other with continued faith and patience until the end of the age. We can do this. We are all in this life together, so let us keep on holding up one another and carrying each other’s burdens. In so doing, we will not be lawless, but fulfill the Law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Keep on being brave! It will bring you great rewards. Learn to be patient, so you will please God and be given what he has promised. As the Scriptures say,

“God is coming soon!
    It won’t be very long.
The people God accepts
will live because
    of their faith.
But he isn’t pleased
with anyone
    who turns back.”

We are not like those people who turn back and get destroyed. We will keep on having faith until we are saved. (Hebrews 10:35-39, CEV)

May it be so, to the glory of God. Amen.