Psalm 93-94

Psalm 93 is such a confident assertion of who God is – He reigns, clothed in majesty…His throne is established from of old and He is from everlasting. Our God is magnificent and powerful, all-knowing, holy and unchanging and there are many days when by His grace and mercy I can proclaim these truths.

But as we head into Psalm 94 we are shown how we actually trust these truths, how we stand on them and do battle against all the enemies that the people of Christ find themselves faced with in this world.

In this world we find ourselves in difficulties and trials, we are opposed by a culture that either denies the existence of God or thinks of Him as irrelevant and inactive. Our world does not want to hear, let alone acknowledge that they owe their very existence to the Sovereign Most High God and that one day they will stand in front of Him faced with the reality of their choice.

In the meantime we are called to stand for Christ, to proclaim Him, to speak and preach and teach His Word. We are called to faith – to the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen; we are called to make the unseen visible as each one of us believes in and receives the promises of God to us in Christ Jesus.

And what are those promises? We are assured of salvation – of justification, sanctification and glorification. We are assured that every single moment that we spend on this planet our God is with us, more, He dwells within us by His Spirit. We are assured that our weakness magnifies His strength and that there is absolutely nothing that we cannot do through Christ who gives us strength. We are assured of victory over the temptations that assail us, assured of peace even in the darkest of circumstances. Assured of His all sufficient grace in our time of need and that He will be present with us in a way that we can actually feel – His presence will go with us so that we need never be afraid of anything that this world can throw at us.

These are but a few of His promises but it is only as we actually lay hold of them for ourselves that the Word is proclaimed not simply in words but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in actual real life evidence of the greatness of our God.

Here in this Psalm the writer draws on the truth of God and actually holds it to himself – in a way he receives the very character of God much as each of us who have believed in the name of Christ Jesus have received His character, His very being by His Spirit within.

He calls upon God to execute the judgment of the wicked that He has promised and he calls upon everyone who can hear the sound of his voice to pay attention – take heed, you senseless..and when will you understand…the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are mere breath!

He calls upon God to stand up for him as he stands against the wickedness he sees all around him and God, who has promised that He will always answer that call has been his help. God has indeed comforted him, strengthened, established and refreshed him and the psalmist has actually experienced His blessing.

Listen – when my foot had slipped – the Lord’s lovingkindness held me up; when anxiety and fear threatened to overwhelm me God’s consolations delighted my soul and when I considered the work of the enemy, even his apparent success nonetheless the Lord was my stronghold and the rock of my refuge.

He actually experienced God, felt His presence, knew, in the very centre of his being, that he was not alone that in fact God would never leave nor forsake him. Life may often be lonely, difficult and chaotic but the Lord is on my side, He is my support and His comfort is in my heart.

This is our God, this is the One in whom we have placed our trust. This is the One who has said – you are Mine! This God, this Christ, this Saviour is the One who has promised that He will keep me from stumbling and make me to stand blameless with great joy in the presence of His glory. This God is mine and I am His and I will not be afraid.

The psalmist knew the truth of God and he prayed to God on the basis of that truth. This morning, no matter what you are facing come to God with the truth of His Word, cry out to Him and He will answer.

Psalm 138:3 On the day I called You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.

John 3:30

He must increase but I must decrease. Of course this is John the Baptist speaking to his disciples who are jealous that people are turning from,him and following Jesus, they don't understand who Jesus is and are upset by what He is doing. But John knows that here is the Christ, the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world and so he is completely at peace, more, he is rejoicing in the fact that his Messiah has come.

But in this small sentence we have the whole of the Christian life, we have what it is like to die to self - the result of receiving Christ. Here we have the definition of a true believer, one who is growing in the Lord, one who is seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness, one who knows that they have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but that the life they live they live by faith in the Son of God who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal. 2:20). Here is the life of a believer, He must increase and I must decrease.

So ask yourself the question - is this happening in your life? Is Christ increasing? Test yourself - how do you think about your salvation? Do you think of it in terms of what Christ has done for you? Is it all about the peace He gives you, the joy, the protection, the promise of a glorious inheritance? Are you concerned about gaining a full assurance of that, concerned about Him dealing with all your issues, sorting out your problems, leading you into a better place?

Or do you think about salvation as the manifestation of His glory, as the way that His glory will cover the earth. Do you proclaim salvation by filling your mind and your heart with the truth of who Christ is, that He is wisdom and righteousness, that He is the King of Glory and that all you desire is to lift up His name and honour the One who gives Life. Is salvation about you or about Him?

Or in your prayers - are you concerned with the things that bother you - people or circumstances or trials? Do you pray for those you love, for what they need and for the Lord to heal or to bless or to save? Are your prayers concerned with self, with you - or are they all about the revelation of His glory through you, all about Him leading, Him taking centre stage, Him being made known through your life? Are they more about Him than about you?

It is not wrong to pray for these things of course not, Jesus Himself tells us to do so but think about how much time you are praying about you or the things that concern you, rather than about Him and about what concerns Him. Think about how long you spend asking compared with how long you spend in praise and adoration of God.

Are you defensive about yourself, easily hurt or offended? Do you think that might be because you are not decreasing? Are you self reliant and confident that you are working hard for the Lord - do you work out your plans and then ask people to pray that God will give you a hand to fulfil them?
Is life all about you or about Him?

He must increase but I must decrease - is that happening in your life?

2 Cor.5:14

I am busy today finishing up the material for the DT seminar on 22 October - Compelled by Love - and I am finding myself close to tears at the magnitude of this love, overwhelmed by its power and captured by its grace.

If you haven't planned to attend please do think again and decide that you will come along and join with us as we search out the depths of this love, as we lay hold of this wonderful truth that both captivates and compels us to live for our Saviour. We live in ever darkening days, Paul calls them difficult times when he writes to Timothy, and he means times of stress - times when anxiety and fear are ever present, when people will be so afraid that they will be running here and there looking for a way out but unsure of which door to open, which way to choose.

These are the days when we must know this great and compelling love of Christ, days when we must be convinced in the depths of our being that God is for us not against us, that He has promised never to leave nor forsake us, that His love will be a constant companion and that He will fill us with never ending joy as we live for His glory.

Oh how I want to teach this - how my soul longs to shout it from the roof tops - Behold! Here is your God, His name is Jesus and He will lead you home.

Come join us in Cirencester on 22 October - come and hear about His amazing, glorious, powerful, compelling love and receive it for yourself. Lay hold of this great truth and be transformed as you renew your mind with His Word.