Beyond a buddy God

 "Psalm 50 - The Lord Summons the Earth" by Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Numbers 31-32; Psalm 50

TO CHEW ON: "You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done, and I kept silent;
You thought that I was altogether like you;
but I will rebuke you,
And set them in order before your eyes" - 50:20,21

We put ourselves in danger of making some of the most serious errors about God when we think of Him as being just like us.

How could a God who is all-loving and all-powerful allow evil, we ask,  and manufacture a God who is either not all-powerful or not love.

How can a God who tells us to be humble, demand that we praise Him, we wonder, and manufacture a God who is all ego or so meek and mild as to be of no consequence.

In Psalm 50, Asaph challenges the misconception that God is altogether like us. He points out that:
- God is the creator (Psalm 50:1,2).
- God's presence is mysterious and awe-inspiring (Psalm 50:3).
- He is an altogether capable, righteous judge (Psalm 50:4-6).
- He doesn't need us or our possessions (Psalm 50:7-13).
- Rather, we need Him (Psalm 50:14-15).
- His silence and lack of reaction to our rebellion don't mean that He doesn't see or care (Psalm 50:16-21).

Our human minds and imaginations, limited as they are by time and space, find it hard to conceive of a God who encompasses all the descriptions of Him in the Bible. There comes a time when we need to throw up the hands of our human understanding and opt for a different response. It is a response of faith. It expresses itself in an attitude of praise,  thanksgiving, and compliance to the rules and principles-of-living given to us by this God who is beyond our understanding. It's how Asaph responds in verse Psalm 50:23:

"Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;

And to him who orders his conduct aright

I will show the salvation of God."

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that You are beyond my imagining. When I don't understand You, I choose faith. Help me to resist the temptation to keep You in the box of my human ability to figure You out. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 50

The Bible Project VIDEO: HOLINESS (Theme series)



MORE: More thoughts along the line of Psalm 50

"Beware of a mindset that belittles and insults God. God is an absolutely unstoppable, unfailing, constant, volcano of power and fire and joy and help. He never wearies in the slightest and is omnipotently enthusiastic about his gracious purposes in your life. Never let a weak or miserly or tightfisted or weary or boring God enter your mind. He owns all and loves to glorify his power and grace by delivering people who call on him. Keep God great in your eyes for the rest of this year.") By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org,  emphasis added.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

It's all in our perspective

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 30:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "For His anger is but for a moment

His favour is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5

Has God ever seemed mad at you? You pray and pray but nothing changes. Your spouse falls ill and there's no miraculous cure. Dear ones die and you are left hurting and lonely.

David, in this psalm, doesn't gloss over the difficulties of life, but he does put them in perspective. Let's take a close look at Psalm 30:5 to see what we can learn from him.

"For His anger is but for a moment."
Does God actually get angry in the petulant, vindictive way this psalm seems to suggest? The old Bible commenter, Gill, says:

"Anger is not properly in God, ... but only in their (our) apprehension, he doing those things which in some respects are similar to those which men do when they are angry; he turns away from them and hides his face, he chides, chastises, and afflicts, and then they conclude he is angry; and when he returns again and takes off his hand, manifests his pardoning love, and comforts them, then they understand it that his anger is turned away from them..." Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

"His favour is for life..."
When David takes the long view, he realizes that over his lifetime the predominant shade has been blessing and favour.

"It is his (God's) nature to impart life. He spares life; He will give eternal life. ... If a man has the favour of God, he is sure of life; if not life in this world, yet life in the world to come" Barnes Notes on the Bible.

"Weeping may endure for a night..."

[Endure (luwn) is an interesting word. It literally means "lodge as a guest" or "pass the night."]

"The idea is that weeping is like a stranger—a wayfaring person—who lodges for a night only. In other words, sorrow will soon pass away to be succeeded by joy" - Barnes Notes on the Bible.

"But joy comes in the morning."
[Joy (rinnah) means a shout of rejoicing, shouting, loud cheering in triumph, singing.]

What a contrast to the night of tears just experienced.

"...if we have the friendship of God, sorrow will always be temporary, and will always be followed by joy. The morning will come; a morning without clouds; a morning when the sources of sorrow will disappear. This often occurs in the present life; it will always occur to the righteous in the life to come" - Barnes Notes on the Bible.

I can't help but compare David's words in this psalm with the words of Jacob. When Pharaoh asked him, near the end of his life, how old he was, he replied: "...few and evil have been the days of the years of my life..." - Genesis 47:9.

How negative! We can choose not to be negative like that. Rather than dwell on the bad things (which come to us all), let's view life from the perspective of God's favour and focus on His blessings, like David did.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for Your favour and the positive joyful bent of life lived with You. Help me to have a positive outlook that focuses on Your blessings rather than my problems. Amen.

MORE: Practice being positive

"Practice being positive in each situation that arises. Even if whatever is taking place in your life at the moment is not so good, expect God to bring good out of it, as He has promised in His Word....


...Being positive in a positive situation is easy. Anyone can do that. But when we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, pp. 38, 44.

Beyond a Buddy-God

 "Psalm 50 - The Lord Summons the Earth" by Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger

View the entire Psalm series by Berger

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 50:1-23

TO CHEW ON: "You sit and speak against your brother;

You slander your own mother's son.

These things you have done, and I kept silent;

You thought that I was altogether like you;

but I will rebuke you,

And set them in order before your eyes." Psalm 50:20-21

We put ourselves in danger of making some of the most serious errors about God when we think of Him as being just like us. How could a God who is all-loving and all-powerful allow evil, we ask,  and manufacture a God who is either not all-powerful or not love.

How can a God who tells us to be humble, demand that we praise Him, we wonder, and manufacture a God who is all ego or so meek and mild as to be of no consequence.

In Psalm 50, Asaph challenges the misconception that God is altogether like us. He points out that:
- God is the creator (vs. 1-2).
- God's presence is mysterious and awe-inspiring (3).
- He is an altogether capable, righteous judge (4-6).
- He doesn't need us or our possessions (7-13).
- Rather, we need Him (14-15).
- His silence and lack of reaction to our rebellion don't mean that He doesn't see or care (16-21).

Our human minds and imaginations, limited as they are by time and space, find it hard to conceive of a God who encompasses all the descriptions of Him in the Bible. There comes a time when we need to throw up the hands of our human understanding and opt for a different response. It is a response of faith. It expresses itself in an attitude of praise,  thanksgiving, and compliance to the rules and principles-of-living given to us by this God who is beyond our understanding. It's how Asaph responds in verse 23:

"Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;

And to him who orders his conduct aright

I will show the salvation of God."

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that You are beyond my imagining. When I don't understand You, I choose faith. Help me to resist the temptation to keep You in the box of my human ability to figure You out. Amen.

MORE: More thoughts on Psalm 50

Our view of God affects how we live our whole lives. John Piper preached from Psalm 50 on October 15, 1989. Though his sermon was delivered to a specific congregation (Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minneapolis) to address a congregation-specific need, the insights he arrives at are relevant to us all. His message, "Call upon Me in the Day of Trouble and I Will Deliver You" begins:

"This psalm is a word from the Lord about a wrong view of God leading to a wrong way of sacrificing to God. It has something very crucial to say about how our view of God relates to our money and our giving to God's cause. I chose this text because I wanted to address the root issue of our financial condition, namely, the issue of God."

(Okay, I know most of you probably won't click through to read that whole sermon. So here's another choice bit from it that you've just got to read:

"Beware of a mindset that belittles and insults God. God is an absolutely unstoppable, unfailing, constant, volcano of power and fire and joy and help. He never wearies in the slightest and is omnipotently enthusiastic about his gracious purposes in your life. Never let a weak or miserly or tightfisted or weary or boring God enter your mind. He owns all and loves to glorify his power and grace by delivering people who call on him. Keep God great in your eyes for the rest of this year.")

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.