David Bahn - Reflections

Pause today and remember to be still and know that God is God. He will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth. As we pause and refresh, we will discover not only the life we’ve always wanted, but also the gracious blessing of bearing fruit. All this for the glory of God, your joy, and the blessing of many. For now, though, enjoy the pause that refreshes. And just so you know, I’m not talking about having a Coke! I’m talking about pausing to reflect on God’s word, his promises, his goodness, and reign and rule, and his work in the world. This psalm helps us do just that.

We're all looking for paradise. We want to live in a garden of God's favor and delight. We yearn for his true grace and goodness. We yearn for God himself to be present. This psalm points us to God. And 1500 years later God would speak through the Apostle John with this promise: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” - Revelation 21:3-4 This is our truest need and God's gracious blessing.

God's desire is for his people to be fully blessed, completely glad. Experiencing his grace and love is the essential beginning of that gladness. The completion of it comes when we pass along those blessings to others. Such is the river of gladness: It flows to us with great and gracious blessing, and from us to others as we give that which we have received from God.

I need both a reminder of God's fear-worthiness as well as the encouragement to draw near to him when the world's dangers threaten. Whether it's direct threats of violence and natural disaster, or the subtle influences of peer pressure or temptation, I need God's help and a reminder that he is worthy of healthy and godly fear. That may be a secondary motivation to faithfulness, but it is still a good one. The greatest motivation is love and faith itself that recognizes and believes in the ultimate goodness of God.  Because of that goodness, we need never fear when we are in his protective and powerful care. 

The world sees God as an interloper, an intrusion, and a killjoy. All they see is the outward formidable expression of God's refuge and strength. Those of us who are inside that refuge, know it to be a place of beauty, joy, life, comfort, and true security.

Oh how I long for this to be true: May His favor be upon you | And a thousand generations | And your family and your children | And their children, and their children. This would be my legacy's hope, more than money, fame, power, or even health. For God's favor makes all the difference in all of life. Without it we are lost. With it we can weather all storms and most fully enjoy the blessings when the boundary lines of life fall for us in pleasant places (cf. Psalm 16:6-8). Even if you don't have children of your own, I pray that you are able to leave such a legacy to those who have known you and loved you.

A roadmap to the future would be a hindrance, not a help to faith. And God desires that we wait in faith. In fact the idea behind waiting in the biblical sense is tied up in two other facets of the word. We hope while we wait. And we trust while we hope. Hoping, trusting, and waiting go hand in hand. So when it's not clear how soon or not God is going to act, we must simply wait. And hope. And trust.

By considering and numbering we may gain a heart of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom's fulfillment is Jesus himself. Perfect love. Perfect faith. Perfect obedience. Hope realized. A wise heart has considered the proper fear of God, counted its days, and looks for the steadfast love of God to fill its cracks and crevasses. Those with wise hearts will see the work of God and look with anticipation for the blessing of God on their children.

This psalm requires us to look that square in the face. We have sinned. We are fallen. We will die. Not a happy note. But certainly a true one. Neither, however, is it the only note. For in the end of this psalm a note of hope and anticipation rings out. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

God's nature never changes. Our ability to experience him is certainly limited. Our comprehension of God is finite. Our faith in him and his promises wavers. But God is constant. He is the rock. He is the One who will be there whenever we turn to him. From everlasting to everlasting he is. Known by faith. Redeemed by Jesus. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Attested to in Scripture. Proven by an empty and open tomb. For him we wait until the number of our days is completed and our faith becomes sight. Until then we pray: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

When we praise God, we express truths that bind the soul in grace and love. It aligns our souls with the reality of God's greatness and our unworthiness in the face of his majesty. Praising God is good for the soul, not just the thing we ought to do. Furthermore, when we sing our praises, something Martin Luther commended, we don't just express joy, we find it. As I've often said, praising God is good, right and salutary!

So much happens because of God's providential care for the creation we enjoy, and sadly too often abuse. Without him I am certain we would have driven the world to oblivion. Without those who truly do respect the creation litter and pollution would engulf us. But even with the best efforts of the most ardent environmentalists without God's continuing care our world would be an even greater mess. And think of this: God does all of this out of his "fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me..." So we join with the psalmist and cry: Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. This is most certainly true!

God is omnipresent. We cannot hide from him. He is with us always. But he is with us in a very special way when we gather with others in Jesus' name. Those gatherings in Jesus' name transform a place into holy space. The presence of Jesus is what being in church is all about. The temple (and before that the Tabernacle) was the place of God's holy presence. So whether we gather with others in a space and place dedicated specifically to the worship and presence of God, or in a home, or park, or at a hospital bedside, there God is. There joy is. There is the dwelling place of God: with those who mark themselves with Jesus' name and gather with others in his name.

This Psalm reminds me that God has not just wound up the universe and is sitting back and watching it run. It reminds me of God's many ways of caring for me and all creatures. It reminds me that I can come to him with my prayers and requests, and my thanks and praise. It opens my eyes to the breadth of his care for us all. For all this it is my duty to thank, praise, serve, and obey him. This is most certainly true!

We repay God's favor when we praise him. When we come to him in repentance and faith, we are giving God his due. When we take the cup of salvation, celebrating God's deliverance in the Lord's Supper, we are repaying God for his gifts. When we extend the same kindness and mercy to others that God has extended to us, we are repaying that debt. We do this to give him the thanks and praise that is due his name.

Whether the sting of death has bitten hard, or you are crawling out of a dungeon of your own sin, when you seek God's grace there comes along with it, the joy of God's salvation. And what a joy it is! Jesus earned it for you and all people when he died for the sins of the world. He secured it when he rose from the dead. God promises it to all who believe in him. And like David, if we continue that prayer we will recall that the joy of God's salvation is to be shared so that transgressors will be taught the truth of God's salvation and sinners will return to God. Talk about joy! Take a quick look at Luke 15 and you see played out how complete that joy is. It's shared by God and all the angels in heaven when one sinner repents. What glorious joy that is!

We have begun our observance of the season of Lent. It is a time of repentance and sorrow. It is a time to reflect on the harsh realities of life here and now. Soon we'll celebrate Easter, the feast of victory, the foretaste of the consummation of all that God has promised. This prayer, especially the verses beginning, "Create in me a clean heart, O God..." are a favorite of many. This is a worthy prayer for us all during this season, and every day.

We need God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness for all three. And it's not just the acts of sin and transgression, it's the condition of our hearts. Fallen, broken, sinful beings that we are, we have no hope of gaining God's favor on our own. But God is rich in grace, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is the good news we believe and share. Jesus came to redeem us from the penalty of our sin, forgive us for our transgressions, and rescue us from our self-inflicted entanglements so all manner of sin. Just as we are not sinners because we sin, God is not gracious because he forgives. We sin because we are sinners. And God forgives us because he is gracious.

We can make excuses for our sins. We can try to deny their true depth and destructive impact. We can pretend they're not all that bad. We can even say, that God will forgive us since we didn't mean to, or because it wasn't all that bad, or that everyone slips up once in a while. But none of that avails before God. The only thing we have going when we discover we've sinned and turn to God in repentance is his character, nature, grace and steadfast love. Thank God for his steadfast love!

This Psalm is a cry to God for mercy. If grace is receiving something we do not deserve. Mercy is not receiving what we do deserve. And we deserve condemnation, judgment, and every evil consequence for our sin. But God in his mercy withholds more than we know from us in those areas. He does not treat us as we deserve. He relents, and does not willingly bring suffering or grief to anyone (cf. Lamentations 3:33). Rather than giving us what we deserved (judgment, condemnation, and hell), God in his mercy gave us Jesus, his gift of grace, forgiveness, and life. God not only withholds his wrath from us, he forgives. He saves. He gives life. This psalm has been answered, is being answered, and will be answered whenever we pray it. Thanks be to God for his mercy!

A hope devoid of lament is shallow and easily set aside. It sets us up for catastrophic disappointment. Lament without hope is a prescription for depression. It robs us of the joy of God's salvation. God calls us to both lament and hope, and this psalm expresses that beautifully. Let your cries of anguish, pain, discouragement, and lament call out to God. But in the end, join David in speaking of our eternal hope, found in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. This will be fully experienced on the Great Last Day when the salvation of God will be fully and completely revealed. Then hope will become reality.

Next time you go to worship, consider not only the needs you carry with you, the desire to be fed spiritually, the desire to be inspired, and the hope to meet God. Think also of the others who are gathering there. Seventy-five to ninety percent of the people who visit a church for the first time have just experienced a week they hope never to repeat again. Perhaps not that many regular church-goers carry those same disappointments, but some surely do. And if you are encouraged, look around for others who may need your smile, a friendly greeting, or to hear your robust confession of faith, and maybe even your sincere and humble confession of sins. You might just be part of the throng of blessings given and received.

Deep calls to deep. God is calling us to a deep love for him, a deep faith in his goodness, a deep love for one another, and a deep desire to be with him and experience his salvation. That is worthy of deep thought, deep thanks, and a deep desire for more of God.

I've been thinking about the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (cf. John 4:1-42).  Whenever we face taunting, isolation, fear, sleeplessness, and deep discouragement, God is only a prayer away. We're in good company if we lament our hardships and our sins, and seek God's steadfast love. Whether it's the long way around we take to avoid the taunts of others, the anxious and sleepless moments of dread as we think about possible future happenings, or guilt and shame over past choices and present temptations, we can pray this psalm: with David. With the sinful woman at the well. With the tax collector in the temple (Luke 18:13). And getting to the end of the psalm, we can pray: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Amen.

The worst suffering of Jesus was endured on the cross when he cried out in anguish in the face of God's abandonment. (Matthew 27:46) This psalm is a prayer of yearning for the opposite. One day that prayer will be fully and perfectly answered. In those times of anxiety, fear, and loneliness, we can pray this psalm with the confidence that God is with us. We can draw near as be gather with other believers in the name of Jesus. We can celebrate the real presence of Jesus in the Lord's Supper. We can call on God in prayer, confident that he hears us and answers our prayers. And we can bend our yearnings toward the fullness of God's presence in every moment of every day.

We are all urged to confess our sins to God. We are all urged to acknowledge our need for his deliverance. We are all to recognize and avoid the dangerous torrents of destruction that come to those who do not repent, and to rejoice in God's deliverance. Think about it. Think about it. We suffer if we don't confess our sins. God forgives the sins of those who acknowledge their transgressions. He delivers us from the catastrophic destruction that comes upon those who do not repent. Pause and ponder these things. Think about it!

"The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do," says Paul. (Galatians 5:17) If you struggle with this, take heart! It is proof of the Holy Spirit's work in you. Otherwise we would never worry about sin, repentance, guilt, or failure. But with the Holy Spirit we can embrace this verse wholeheartedly, confident that by remaining steadfast in our repentant spirit, we will not be overwhelmed by the waters.

Confession brings freedom, forgiveness, and fullness of life. I wish I had checked more carefully my own biases and assumptions about Joe's perspective on the constitution rewrite. But an even greater danger lies in any refusal to admit before God our failures and need for God's mercy and forgiveness. John says that if we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Apart from him we have no pathway to the Father. Truth is essential to our salvation. The truth is we need God's forgiveness. We all do. The truth is also God forgives those who confess their sins, and removes them from us as far as the east is from the west. The danger is that we would deceive ourselves into believing we don't really need it.

If we're hiding something we need to bring it to the light of day. That may require admitting to yourself that you have actually done something wrong and truly sinful. (If so, join the club! All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.) You might need to speak with a pastor or someone you can fully trust in order to get it off your conscience. You surely must say it to God. I've found it helpful to write it out. I've done so, and afterward destroyed the document as a means of actively reflecting the reality of confession and forgiveness. God removes sin from us as far as the east is from the west. We more fully realize this when we admit it and confess our sins out loud.

We do not deserve the blessing of forgiveness. It is God's gracious and precious gift - through Jesus, for all who repent and believe.

Whatever may happen in our lives we can talk about God, "He..." But we can also talk to God, "You..." That's what David does in this psalm. And so did we during various times of challenge, danger, anxiety, and uncertainty in our lives. So can you. Whatever you are facing, you can talk about God. And you can talk to him. He listens...even though he has much to do. Last night we closed our choir practice with prayer. One choir member prayed, "God, you have so much to do. Thank you for hearing our prayers and answering them." In a way, that was talking about God as well as to him. He does indeed have much to do. And we can talk with him about our needs as well. He hears us. Thank you, God! Amen.