Tag: god’s presence

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
“You have looked deep
into my heart, Lord,
and you know all about me.
You know when I am resting
or when I am working,
and from heaven
you discover my thoughts.
You notice everything I do
and everywhere I go.
Before I even speak a word,
you know what I will say,
 and with your powerful arm
you protect me
from every side.
 I can’t understand all of this!
Such wonderful knowledge
is far above me.” (CEV)
 
            Please do not quickly pass over these inspired words from Holy Scripture.  Take some time to carefully digest each phrase slowly so that the message becomes internalized, believed, and lived in real time experience.
 
            One of the theories of human psychology is that people are driven by two primary needs:  to intimately know another person; and, to be intimately known by another.  God knows us even better than we know ourselves – and he still loves us!  There is nothing about us that God doesn’t know.  No human relationship can even come close to the level of knowing that God has for us and about us.
 
            Therefore, to know God is perhaps the greatest and highest pursuit we could ever enjoy.  God is so big and infinite that we will spend an eternity getting to know him and will never get to the end of knowing him completely.  That is the kind of God we serve.  Be encouraged today and always with the reality that you are known, and can know God.
 

 

            Immense God, you are the one who put me together inside my mother’s body, and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me.  Everything you do is marvelous!  Of this I have no doubt.  Look deep into my heart, Lord, and find out everything I am thinking.  Lead me in the ways of Jesus.  Amen.

Exodus 40:16-38

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            “No matter where the people traveled, the LORD was with them.”  This last verse of Exodus perfectly summarizes not only the message of this biblical book but of the entire Bible.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and formed man and woman as the apex of his creative work.  Humans alone bear the stamp of God’s image and likeness.  People were created to be with God.  But humanity took their own path apart from God and fell into sin and disobedience.  From that point forward God has been on a massive mission to restore, reconcile, and reclaim his lost humanity so that they can be together again.
 
            God chose Abraham and set apart his descendants, the Hebrews, to be his people and be a kingdom of priests in order to reverse the curse.  God gave laws and commandments to communicate his presence with his people.  For the Jews, God was like a pillar of cloud, a sentinel watching over them.  In the fullness of time, when it was ripe for the promised Savior to come, God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus who is called “Immanuel” which means “God with us.”
 
            Jesus lived a holy life, died a cruel death on our behalf to bring forgiveness of sins, rose from death, ascended to heaven, and now watches over us, interceding for us.  But that is not all; until he comes again God’s Holy Spirit has been sent to be the continuing presence of Jesus on this earth.  The Spirit is with God’s people.
 
            No matter where the Christian goes, no matter what happens, no matter the place or the situation, God is with him/her.  Nothing can separate God from his people.  There are no guarantees in life that things will turn out well, or that all will go our way.  But we have the abiding promise that God is with us because he has gone to the greatest lengths possible to make it happen.  And God’s presence is what makes all the difference.
 

 

            Ever-present God, there is nowhere in which you are not.  Thank you for your continuing presence.  Enable me to always live in awareness of this reality so that my life might confidently follow you anytime and anywhere; through Jesus Christ, my Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm 23

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment


            This is one of those days where sacred time needs to break into secular time and transform it.  April 15, as all Americans are quite aware, is tax day.  Those procrastinating souls who have hoped for the return of the Lord before this date are now faced with the reality of secular time.  But in this sacred season of Eastertide, a focus on new life can bring a transformation from fear to faith, from fretting to resting.  Psalm 23 is just the right message for this time.  Yet, because of its familiarity, we might only associate it with funerals and miss its relevance for now.  So, the following is my contemporized version of this most famous of psalms:
Jesus is my pastor, and I lack absolutely nothing because of it.
My merciful overseer is watching me while I rest secure on a nice soft bed of grace;
             he leads me into an unhurried life; he is thawing out my cold anxious soul.
He leads me in all the right ways for the sake of his great name.
Even though I get lost and find myself in a dark alley,
             I really have no fear of evil;
for I know God is with me,
             his Word and Sacrament – they are sufficient to comfort me.
I have a big ol’ appetite and hunger for you, God,
             and you satisfy it,
             even though I have enemies within arm’s length;
you encourage my mind with joyous thoughts,
             so that my heart overflows with hope.
I am quite sure that goodness and mercy will follow me for a lifetime,
             and I will live in peace despite any adverse circumstances my whole life long.

Psalm 121

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            This is one of my favorites in the entire psalter.  It is a beautiful majestic psalm which can be used for any and every occasion.  So, I often use it when making hospital visits, counseling a wide array of situations, and for my own personal edification.  It seems to me that one cannot possibly overuse this psalm.  The psalm was originally one used for ascending the hill into Jerusalem.  In other words, it anticipates meeting with God.  Just like a lover who looks forward to meeting his beloved and thinking about how wonderful she is, so the psalmist looks with adoring affection on the God he is about to encounter.
 
            The psalm is rich with a theology of grace, watch care, and loving attention.  This is a God who is powerful and merciful, a God able to help and desiring to do so.  In a world that seems so often distant and unaffected by the divine, this is a psalm to repeat over and over again in every situation of life so that the truth of the Lord is engrafted deep into the soul.  In each unwanted circumstance the psalm can be spontaneously used as an immediate prayer, and with every anticipated event it can provide the words to address the most pressing of needs.  Let the words resonate within you as people created in the image of God, connecting with him on both the cerebral and visceral levels of your life:
 
“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

 

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.” (ESV)