What to do when God feels hidden (Psalm 27:9)

Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!
Psalm 27:9

Oh how there are times in our lives when we feel as if God is hidden from us! We try to pray, only to find a concrete wall as thick as our doubts. We go to church, only to question why others seem able to muster praise when we cannot. We try to read the Scriptures, only to be pierced by our endless shortcomings. Whatever the cause may be, take heart, struggling Christian! You are not alone in this agony. David felt this way too, and you can make his prayer your own today.

First, reach out to God: O Lord, please do not hide your face from me! Don’t cast me away! Don’t forsake me! This prayer is based in faith. You long for God; you are weary of life without His joy, presence, and peace. Take heart! If you find yourself praying this, you are a true believer—those who know Christ desire to be with Him, experience His presence, and seek His face (Ps 27:4). Though our fallen bodies and minds often make us feel otherwise, we are secure in Christ.

Second, remember His character: O you who have been my help! Notice this: you can only pray the first prayer above because this second phrase is true. God has been your help. Look back on your life. What has He delivered you from? What prayers of desperation has He answered? What gracious provision have you seen from His hand? Take heart! “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Mt. 6:8). Surely He sees you now—and He knows why He is allowing you to experience these feelings of forsakenness.

Finally, rest in His salvation: O God of my salvation! Whenever you feel forsaken by God, look to Christ. On the cross Christ was forsaken so you would never have to be. If the Father sent His Son as the most precious, costly gift to secure your salvation, then He will not turn His face from you now. Though there are times when your circumstances are grim, or your emotions speak lies, the bloody cross and the empty grave are the two greatest proofs of God’s love for you. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rm 8:1). If God gave His best to save you at your worst, there’ll never be a day He goes back on His word.

God will never forsake those whom He has chosen in Christ. Though you may feel forsaken, He is indeed very near. Take the gospel by faith today; grip these truths with all your spiritual might. And when the tempest of our emotions or the shipwreck of our circumstances attempt to pry our weary hands away from Christ—Oh believer!—Christ’s hands hold you tighter still.

More Joy (Psalm 4:7)

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
Psalm 4:7

The content of Christian joy is never placed in material possessions or temporal prosperity. Rather, it is always placed in the firm foundation of God’s character to us in Jesus.

Notice the contrast in this verse: while grain and wine abound for those who do not know God, David, without those things, still has more joy than them. It must be therefore that David’s source of joy is not based on the whimsy securement of physical pleasure, but on who he knows his God to be. Even if he doesn’t have luxury, physical safety, good health, or a good reputation in this life—he has his God, and this is enough.

Jesus told his disciples in John 16:22 that “no one will take your joy from you.” How could this be true if our joy was based on something that could be gone tomorrow? Jesus is centering our hearts on the eternal. He is grounding our lives—what we worship, what we put our hope in, where we derive satisfaction—in Himself.

Reader, this world will always leave you gasping for joy. Others can never live up to who you wish they were. You will never be all you desire to be. The world is in turmoil, there are forces outside your control—like sickness, suffering and sorrow—which daily intrude your self-contrived plans for the “good life.” When this happens, the first temptation is to narrow your focus on yourself and say “why me?” Somehow, we convince ourselves we are entitled to a life without trouble. But what if true joy can be had even with these things?

Get this: David had much to lack in this verse, but he still had more joy. So when our lives seemingly lack in whatever area we wish they wouldn’t, we must turn our gaze to what we have in God. The reason why David was satisfied is because he knew that God’s love for him was never-ceasing. As those in Christ, we know that God is for us, with us, and working all things together for our good. He knows what is best for us, so when unexpected trials and sufferings come, we are reminded by James to “count it all joy…when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (Jas 1:2-3). Indeed, we are able to count our trials and sufferings as joy because we know that God, in His infinite wisdom, love and sovereignty, is able to use them for our good. And our ultimate good is to be made more like Jesus.

So when Jesus tells you that “no one will take your joy from you,” this is only possible if the entirety of your being is focused on Jesus Himself. For He—as the loving, tender, good Shepherd—never changes. And if He never changes, then your joy is secure. Not that your life will be free from trouble, or that you’ll never be sad, but that you can always have joy.

And often that perspective is what makes all the difference.

The Earth is the Lord’s (Psalm 24:1)

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof…
Psalm 24:1

Our lives are often marked by a forgetfulness of these two truths about God: His all-seeing presence, and His ownership of all things. This verse speaks to both, and we will take each in turn.

First, His all-seeing presence. David says the fullness of the earth is God’s. In other words, there is not a square inch where He is not present. He is everywhere at all times, though He is distinct from His creation as the Creator. Theologians call this God’s omnipresence. However, because of sin’s dimming effects in our lives, the natural human tendency is to run away from the Lord’s presence. This is what our first parents did in the Garden of Eden once their sin ruined their innocence and caused great shame (Gn 3:8). They tried to mask their guilt with man-sewed fig leaves, but the Lord, seeing all things, knew their inward rebellion. We are no different from them—trying to cover our sin with good works, excuses, leisure, or pleasure—anything that will keep us one more moment from seriously reflecting on our condition before a holy God. We are afraid that if we stop, we must reflect on the absurdity of our attempts to run away from God. We are like a hamster on a wheel: we run, thinking we are escaping, but in reality we don’t move one inch. This is what we do when we forget God’s presence.

Why do we try to hide? David knew he could not. Elsewhere he asked, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7). It is only when we bring our sin to the Lord in humble cross-examination, knowing that God sees what we have done, yet has graciously provided our forgiveness in Christ while we were yet enemies (Rm 5:8)—only then can we draw near to God’s all-seeing eye. Amazingly, while he sees the depths of darkness in sinners’ heart, He has chosen to draw near by making Christ the propitiation for our sins. Christ reminds us of God’s nearness to us—even when our sin or feelings attempt to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rm 8:39).

Secondly, this verse teaches us to remember God’s ownership of all things. David says “the earth is the Lord, and the fullness thereof.” He does not limit God’s reign to a geographical boundary. He does not limit God’s possessions to a finite amount of resources. He does not limit God’s control to a select few circumstances. No, the entire globe is under the grip of a sovereign God. He owns all things: the money in your bank account, the palaces of princes, the gold under the earth. He is in control of all things: the movement of the birds, the breath of a child, the heartbeat of the elderly. He moves all things according to His purpose: turning evil to good, suffering into beauty—the cross into salvation. The earth is the Lord’s. As Abraham Kuyper once said, “There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine’!”

But we struggle, once again, to remember this truth. Our self-sufficiency dims our view of God’s control over our lives. How easily we believe that life is in our hands, that we turn the wheel, that we sail the boat, so to speak. Our vision is so short-sighted. We grasp onto the limbs of life while forgetting the trunk of God’s power which holds us up. Everything we have therefore is a gift from God, who gives and takes away (Job 1:21). Our time. Our money. Our children. Our physical health. Our future. Either we recognize God’s claim on every domain of our lives (i.e., the fullness) or He does not have any at all. There is no middle ground. You cannot at once say “Jesus is Lord” while hiding how you spend your pennies (Mt 6:24). You cannot at once say “God is first” without an honest audit of your time.

Yet under Christ’s full reign, there is a sweetness when we surrender every part of our lives to say “Lord, what would you have of me in _________?” When we order our lives under the truth that all we have is God’s, we are free to give our best to the Lord. And when we live with the awareness that God Himself is our greatest treasure—that the all-surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus deserves the throne of our hearts—only then will we see that everything in this earth, therefore, is by God, from God, for God, and to His glory.

So daily we are called to recognize these wondrous truths: there is no where you can run from the Lord, and there is nothing you have which is not already His. In Christ we have the privilege of drawing near to the all-seeing One, and in Christ we have our greatest possession of all: God Himself. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.

Do What Makes You Happy..?

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”
Psalm 58:3

In our culture it is very easy to dismiss what the Bible says concerning human nature. Generally, our world proposes that human beings are naturally good people who sometimes do bad things. They advocate that any intensely wayward behavior or disorder can be chalked up to a malnourished childhood, societal oppression, or simply an unmet need. When human nature is given such a benevolent stroke of sincerity, almost any action can therefore be justifiable. For instance, the world may say: “Are you unhappy in your marriage? If so, it is not because of you, oh poor friend, it’s because of that other person who just isn’t right for you! Just leave and do what makes you happy.”

Do what makes you happy. That is the whisper of the world today. But oh, how foolish we are to believe the lie. We imagine and paint scenarios in our minds of the “good life”; we fantasize what life on “the other side” may look like. We play god by living off our desires. No, we let our desires become our god.

Oh please do not miss the psalmist’s words today: the wicked are estranged from the womb. This is the natural state of any human being. From the womb we know evil, as we grow we do evil, and as we are old we seek evil. It is not to say we are as terrible and despicable as we could be; rather, it is to say that our desires are naturally bent towards throwing off the chains of God’s authority. It is not necessarily pure-evil-all-the-time behavior, but it is a daily waywardness which takes the form of living for the god “ME.” It is not even doing the most heinous of crimes, but it is daily participating in the first crime: pride before God. You see, being wicked from the womb is our natural state. We naturally rebel against the Lord and His anointed, Jesus Christ. We are naturally at odds with our Creator.

Oh reader, how I implore you to understand the state of your condition apart from God’s rescue of your life. Without Him, how can you do any eternal good? All you know is to live for yourself and your kingdom. Yes you may truly “care” for others, but what is that worth when all is said and done? The best way to live your life is to bring others to God; but how can you do so if you refuse His complete authority and rule in your life?

Reader, this is why you need a Savior. You may try your ‘best’ — and some people say that God accepts your ‘best’ — but I’m sorry to tell you that even your ‘best’ effort is still a dirty rag to a holy God (Isa 64:6). You are still under His judgment for your rebellion.

But praise be to God for sending His very Son, God in the flesh, to bear your sin upon a cross. Forgiveness is offered to you if you will accept it. Do you see your need? Will you accept God’s grace?

Are You “Blessed”?

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night”
Psalm 1:1-2

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

I used to read this verse to see how well I was doing these things: not walking with the wicked…not associating with them…meditating day and night on God’s Word, etc. In other words, I wanted to be the “blessed” man. I wanted to be the one who walked uprightly. And I tried so hard.

Looking back, I don’t think there was anything inherently wrong about this motive—I wanted to please God. But I had the methodology wrong. I was relying on my own strength and willpower to be righteous before the Lord.

It is never long before one who tries to be righteous on his own comes to find his inability to do so. No matter how hard you try, you cannot perfectly avoid walking, standing, and sitting with sinners. Why? Because you are one of them! It is in your nature. We are selfish to the core, making our own ‘gods’ out of anything and everything. We fall into the passions of the flesh and the pride of life: lust, anger, irritability, grudges, gossip, selfish ambition—and much more. Even those of us who do not commit the most “overt” of sins find deep within our hearts a constant waywardness when it comes to loving God first. Our hearts are “idol-factories,” to quote John Calvin. We find ourselves completely incapable of perfectly, consistently, happily, delighting and meditating on the Lord. Our thoughts turn to and fro, mostly landing back upon the central subject of our lives—“ME.”

Oh, so what is the hope? How could I ever be this “blessed” man? Praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Listen: in reading this psalm today, what if we were never meant to be the “blessed” man? In fact, the singular use of “man”—the psalmist is talking about one man here—is key to our understanding of how we should read this psalm. This “blessed man” is the archetype, the representative head, of a godly and upright person. But when we square this with the verse where it says “there is none righteous, not one,” we have thereby excluded every man!

Every man except One.

Yes, when we read this psalm in light of Jesus Christ, the perfect, spotless, Son of Man, we find in him our hope. I don’t have to be this blessed man. Why? Because Jesus did it for me. He is the blessed man on my behalf. The God-man perfectly walked righteously; he perfectly obeyed God. He is the “tree planted by streams of water…in all that he does, he prospers” (v.3). Oh Jesus, thank you for doing this for me! Because he fulfilled this psalm, I can receive the benefits of his salvation. Though I once was like chaff whisking away in the wind of sin, on my way to judgment and fire—Jesus, with his righteous roots standing in the waters—traded his blessed life for mine. Oh, blessed day!

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.” Jesus, you are that Man. My righteousness comes from you and you alone. Thank you for taking my judgment and punishment on the cross, making me spotless and blessed. Praise your holy name. Amen.

“In Your Light We See Light” (Psalm 36:9b)

“…in your light do we see light.”
Psalm 36:9b

The grace of God functions much like the sun: apart from it, you live in darkness. This verse from the psalter reminds us of the startling truth that, apart from the light of God in our lives, we are “dead in our sins” and blind to God’s truth (Eph 2:1). It is only when the light of God shines upon us in breathtaking mercy that we can see life for what it was always meant to be: a sacrificial offering lived for the worship and obedience of our great God.

Christian, how easy it is to fall into the trap of believing the light you now see is somehow a product of your own power or progress. No! The life you live has only ever been lit by grace alone. Your initial salvation was an awakening by the glorious grace of God to the truths of the gospel. Remember how your eyes lightened when you first heard about the blood our Savior poured out to forgive you? Remember the tenderness your soul felt when you believed Jesus drew near to you, despite your sins? Remember the freedom when the blindness of your heart was overcome by the light of His Spirit within you? Truly, on that day, in his light you saw light.

Furthermore, the growth you have seen up until now on this well-lit path of sanctification is not by your strength. Find comfort in this, O Christian: the same grace which initially sparked the embers of faith in your heart is the same grace which ultimately will carry the growing flame of love for Christ until the end. The dual lights of His Spirit and Word are the beams piercing daily into your soul to remind you of your security in Christ. You are united to Him. And now, you await an eternal kingdom where you will be with Him forever. In that eternal light—Oh happy day!—we shall finally “see him as he is” in his resplendent glory and majestic worth (1 Jn 3:2).

As you wait for His return in a dark world, remember this: now that you have seen the light, there is no returning to the darkness. Why tarry in the night any longer? Why return to the groping and grasping? Why make void the light-giving grace of God by intentionally running back to the darkness of your past? Dear Christian, you are now a child of the light. So walk in the light. Make your life about bringing others into this light. Speak of this light. Tell others how happy your soul is to bask in the rays of God’s grace. And pray to the Father above to shine the light of His Spirit upon blinded eyes. Ultimately, this verse finds its culmination in the beautifully-bright Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12). This light came into the world, and the “darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5). Many men physically saw this light, but they could not comprehend it. It is only through the gracious choosing of our Savior that eyes are opened. If you have seen this great Light, be grateful: it was only by grace this truth was revealed to you. The King of Light has opened your eyes to behold His salvation. Now, child of the light, walk daily with Him. “His word is a lamp unto thy feet, a light unto thy path” (Ps 119:105). We shall never walk alone.

Magnify (Psalm 34:3)

Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:3

Let us consider the word magnify. When one magnifies something, he makes it larger than it actually is in his sight. A magnifying glass bends the bug to appear larger than it is. A telescope magnifies a distant object to be visible to the naked eye.

Now, we must be careful: when David says to “magnify the Lord,” he does not mean to make Him appear or become larger than what He already is. No, the great God of the cosmos cannot become any greater, any wiser, any more powerful, or sovereign. Rather, this language is used to describe the largeness of God in David’s soul. David wants to make more of God in his life. He desires God to become more and more to him—to overtake him, to be exalted in him, to be flooded with His presence. This is what is meant by the word magnify. David desired that his people would make much of God in their hearts. Or, another way this can be said: David pleads with his people to worship God as He is: the infinite, mighty, awesome, glorious God of the universe. So he sings: “magnify the Lord with me!”

Oh, how I fear that we make too little of who God is. We consider him like a little bug in the grass, thinking we have to search with a magnifying glass just to find him. We think that we are the ones who make him bigger by our worship or false piety. May it not be so! Rather, our situation is more akin to viewing the sun through a telescope. With our naked eye, we are blinded by its glory. We cannot see it. Likewise, in our sinful flesh, we are blinded to God’s presence and weight in our lives. Only through the telescope of God’s grace can we behold a fraction of who He is. We need Him to be magnified in our souls in the sense that, apart from His mediating grace, we could never behold Him.

Oh Christian, praise the Lord that this mediating grace is found in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus is the telescope of God’s glory, the pure magnification of who He is to us. Jesus said “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). He is the eternal “Word made flesh,” the “radiance of God’s glory”, and the “exact imprint of his nature.” Magnify the Lord today by beholding Jesus Christ. Look upon Him: see His scars and ponder the great love which led Him to give up His very life to cleanse us. The blindness of our eyes due to the dimming power of sin has been healed: we can now behold the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by sheer grace. Now, everything in this world we are so prone to magnify in His place will become strangely dim as we behold the light of His presence!Yet, we know we still do not see Him perfectly. We await a final day of magnification: the great coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. On that day, when we are changed in the twinkling of an eye, we will be with Him forever—unhindered, free, without any sin, magnifying the Lord in His eternal fullness. Oh, what a day! But as we wait right now, magnify the Lord by looking upon Christ today!

The False Hope of a War Horse (Psalm 33:17)

“The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.”
Psalm 33:17

In ancient times the war horse was a sign of military power and therefore security from one’s enemies. If you had many chariots, you could be cheerful: you were safe and protected. Here, the psalmist shows us what a war horse really is: “a false hope for salvation.” He is saying, “it is just a horse. That is all.” Yes, in reality, a war horse is nothing more than a galloping animal that cannot speak nor command. The human controls where it goes. It cannot direct. It cannot save in and of itself. It is just a horse. A neighing horse.

The psalmist asks, “Why trust in such a helpless, galloping animal that merely has the appearance of strength?” To relate, the question we must ask ourselves today is this: what are the “war horses” I look to for security, comfort, peace, happiness—and yes—even salvation? What in my life has the appearance of strength, yet, when all the armor is removed, is nothing more than a temporal flash of comfort and security? Is it your job? Your success? The number in your bank account? The stock market? Your hope for a future political situation? The list goes on.

The false hope of war horses can be even more subtle than these, like a Trojan horse sneaking into the fortress of our souls. If not checked, it becomes a parasite. Do you trust in your good deeds, the rush of charity you feel after you do something nice for someone else? This will fail, because your good deeds are “dirty rags” before the Lord (Isa 64:6). Do you trust in your self-righteousness, the checklist of spiritual obligations you complete every week? These too will fail, because “no one is righteous, no not one” (Rm 3:10). Do you trust in the affirmation and praise of others, looking everyday for cheap “likes” and compliments? These too are a false hope, for you have now become a slave of “pleasing people” (Gal 1:10).

Indeed, if you but search, there are many “war horses” in your life prancing around, promising to provide for you only what the Lord can. Stop these in their tracks for what they are: false hopes of salvation. Instead, turn to the Lord Jesus today, who himself rides on top of the war horse with the name of “Faithful and True,” with flashing eyes and a burning tongue of justice and deliverance (Rev 19:11). Trust in this Savior, the one who can provide living water to your soul that never runs dry (Jn 4:14) and bread of life which daily nourishes your hungry soul (Jn 6:35). He alone can be the rightful King of your life. His arm alone can rescue you from these false hopes of salvation. Why trust in a horse when you have the Almighty? Why trust lesser, temporal things when you have the eternal, life-giving Creator with you always, to the end of the age?