Stepping in the Light

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.” Romans 16:25-27

The closing paragraph of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome could be summarized in one simple, but powerful exclamation: to God be the Glory! Paul’s desire was for them to be established in the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he declares as he begins his final statement that God has the power to do just that. Paul refers to the preaching of Jesus Christ as the revealing of a mystery contained in the Old Testament. Many of the prophecies concerning the Messiah were obscure before Jesus came and were not understood clearly until after Jesus rose from the dead. Paul asserts that the mystery of Christ has now been made manifest (made clear) by the commandment of God and that it is now being made known to all nations, so that they might believe the gospel and be saved. Paul was saying that he wanted people to be saved and become established in their faith to the point where they could share it with others. He was saying that this was taking place through the power of God and that all of the glory should go to God. Are you giving God the glory in your life today?

“The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.” Psalm 94:11-15

The word chastenest (to chastise) means to correct, instruct, punish, reform, reprove, or teach. It can be used to refer both to physical punishment and to oral instruction. We often think of this kind of correction in a negative sense, but the psalmist is telling us that it is a blessing to experience the chastening hand of God. He says that it will give us rest from adversity. The Lord corrects us in order to make us better. He doesn’t do it in anger; He does it because He loves us. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Verse 15 in the passage above says that “judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it.” In other words, the result of God’s chastening (or judgment) is that it will return or restore us to righteousness. God chastens every one of His children; but the ones who are upright in heart are the ones who will benefit the most because they will follow His instruction. How do you respond to God’s correction? Does it make you better, or bitter? God wants it to return us to righteousness.

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.” Psalm 92:1-5

The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. We not only have physical bodies, but we also have minds with which we are able to think, plan, and understand. When we talk with another person or read something that someone has written, we quickly get a sense of the way they think and interact with others, and we make subconscious judgments about their intelligence. Some of us naturally think more deeply than others. When we see an impressive building, our minds are drawn to the architect who created the design and the builders who brought it to life. We think of the mental effort that was required to create, plan, raise funds, acquire materials, organize, supervise, and execute until the building was completed. When we think this way, we are measuring the depth of thought that was required of the people involved. When the psalmist considered God’s works, he was overwhelmed with the depth of God’s thoughts. Try to imagine how much God knows that we do not know. This exercise can increase our desire to know and follow God’s plan for our lives.

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalm 90:9-12

The title above Psalm 90 says, “A Prayer of Moses the man of God.” Moses prayed that God would teach us to number our days. The word number here gives the sense of weighing out an article of trade. When you put gasoline in your car, there is a meter that measures the number of gallons pumped and the total amount of the sale. We rely on the meter to tell us the amount of gas that we bought and the amount of money that we owe. In contrast, when you pass a water fountain, you may drink until you are no longer thirsty. The water is provided as a courtesy with hopes that it will cause you to be more comfortable. The water fountain cost far more than the amount of water you drink. There is no meter and there is no charge. But gasoline is much more costly. We measure it. We are careful how we spend it. Most of us don’t just get in the car and drive around when we don’t need to go anywhere because gasoline is expensive. Time is the most precious commodity that we have. How sad when we waste it on frivolous things! Your days are precious, so learn to spend them wisely.

“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:10-11

We must read this passage carefully. It does not say that God will not withhold anything from us that we think is good for us; it says that God will not withhold anything that He knows is good. The Lord knows what we need. He knows what will help us and what will hurt us. Sometimes we need a trial or difficulty to strengthen us. Sometimes we need to lay aside something that we enjoy because it is hindering us from accomplishing God’s will in our lives. Understanding this principle can be a comforting thing for the child of God because it enables us to trust God and allow Him to work on our behalf. Everything will not always go as we have planned, but we can rest in knowing that God is working all things together for our good. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” (Romans 8:28). We do not always see how God’s plan is working for our good, but if we can accept by faith that God will never withhold anything from us that He knows to be good for us, then we will know that He is working all things together for our good, and we can trust Him to do what is best for us. Do you believe that God has your best interests at heart? He wants you to know that He does.

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Romans 11:22

Many people wish to contrive their own definition of God. Rather than look in the Bible to see what God has told us about Himself, they just like to think about what they would prefer God’s nature and character to be. Sometimes they use scripture to identify the characteristics they wish to emphasize and simply ignore all of the others. It is common for people to single out the love of God and paint a picture of God as a benevolent grandfather sitting on a cloud and stroking a long white beard, never being unhappy with His people or correcting them for things that they do wrong. If God were truly as they imagine Him to be, there would be no need to obey His commands or adjust your style of living to meet His demands. Paul warns us not to get a one-sided viewpoint of God. He instructs us to see both the goodness and the severity of God. He does love us, and He is benevolent; but He is also righteous, holy, and just. God judges our iniquity and chastens us for our sin. Our Heavenly Father takes a balanced approach to His children. He loves us and cares for us, but He also demands obedience and expects us to live righteously. The more we study the Bible, the more accurate our understanding of God becomes. The more completely we comprehend His nature, the closer we can come to pleasing Him with our lives.

“Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” Psalm 80:19

At any given time, any group of people will display a prevailing attitude. That attitude may not necessarily be representative of every person in the group, but it will represent the group in general. In the sense of civic interactions, this is true of nations, states, cities, and people groups. In the spiritual realm, this is true of all Christians in general, a particular church, a Sunday school class, a youth group, or a family. Asaph, the writer of this psalm, is asking for God to change the prevailing attitude of the nation of Israel. Much like the prayers of Nehemiah and Daniel, it is likely that Asaph was a very spiritual person whose heart was in tune with God. He had observed the apathy and carnality that had become prominent among his people, and he was asking the Lord to do something about it. As always, the answer is for us to turn to God. If there is going to be a change in a family, a church, a neighborhood, a city, or a nation; it generally begins with one person who becomes burdened enough to turn to God and begin asking that God would turn others to Himself as well. There is nothing wrong with any group of people that could not be remedied by a majority of that group turning to God. If the spirituality of your family, your neighborhood, and your city depended upon you; how spiritual would they be? Since God is looking for someone to be the first one to turn to Him, it really does depend on each one of us. Are you willing to pray, “Turn us again”?

“Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.” Psalm 77:7-12

The Israelites had a rich treasure of miraculous interventions which the Lord God made on their behalf. He chastened Pharaoh with the plagues of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea, and His people walked across on dry ground. He fed them with manna in the wilderness and brought forth water from the rock. He stopped the Jordan River so that the people walked across a dry riverbed. He knocked down the walls of Jericho and drove out the Canaanites before His people in one battle after another. The list of God’s great works on behalf of His people goes on and on. It seems that the writer of this psalm was experiencing some sort of infirmity. His suffering was so intense that he found his faith beginning to waver. In his hour of despair, he made a choice. He said, “I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High,” and, “I will meditate also of all thy work.” When life becomes difficult, it is easy to be overwhelmed with the circumstances. But the darkest hour is the very time that we need to remember the good things that God has done for us and share those victories with others.

“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalm 75:6-7

Many people dream all of their lives of making it to the top. They want to experience the heady rush of adrenaline associated with being well-known, famous, and important. From the first day on the job, they are looking for a promotion. They want a new title, a new office, or a new position. Inevitably, this desire to get ahead drives them to seek the favor of man. The scripture above is clear. East, West, and South are horizontal directions from which we might search for someone to help us become important; but God is above all, and He is the One Who decides who will be promoted and who will not. His prerequisites are different from those generated from the human perspective, and His discernment of personal character and qualifications is unimpeachable. If we are looking for an important person to give us an inroad into the next level, we are looking in the wrong direction. If we are scouring the landscape to find people who will follow us and make us feel more important, we are going about it the wrong way. The One we need to worry about impressing is God. He will decide how far we make it in our career and how high we will be able to climb. Jesus taught us that the servant is greatest of all and that the person who wants to lead must learn to serve. The Lord is going to decide how far we go in life. Are we doing our best to impress Him? 

“But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Psalm 73:2-3, 17

It is almost universally assumed that good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people. We naturally think that actions should dictate outcomes. This inborn expectation of fairness demands that justice be served posthaste and that rewards be bestowed swiftly and displayed prominently. Our sense of morality leaves little tolerance for exceptions to the rule; and while basic logic causes us to lean toward an inherent insistence that good deeds should be rewarded and evil deeds should be punished, reality does not always reflect this idealistic sense of order and sanity. Sometimes we have to wait a long time for the outcome that we expect, and, in some situations, it seems that a satisfactory result is completely impossible. Bad things can happen to good people. Whenever we see this, we can begin to become disoriented to right and wrong. The psalmist is pointing out our tendency to become fixated on the exceptions and begin to lose our ability to make right decisions in our own lives. In verse seventeen, he indicates what enabled him to make sense of it all; considering the end. One day we will all stand before God. When we consider the judgment day, we can easily decide the way that we should live our lives.