Psalm 91 - 2009.04.25

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.” —Psalm 91:1-2

This Psalm is so lofty in content and so highly integrated in expression that it is difficult to select a “nugget” to focus upon. Indeed, read the whole Psalm and meditate upon it to absorb something of the riches to be found within. Notwithstanding, we have settled upon the text above for our focal point and trust the Lord to direct for His glory.

Here is the key to the treasure trove of security and serenity offered by the rest of the Psalm. There is in v.1 an Affirmation, and in v.2 an Appropriation. The latter is the key to the promise of the former.

The bountiful benefits offered in this Psalm include security, deliverance in adversity, tranquility, longevity, dignity and —eternity! Such riches should be the desire of every rational person, and the joy of all who possess them; “more to be desired than much fine gold.” They are offered to every believer, but the key to their enjoyment is in the word “dwell.” The New Testament parallel is found in the prescription we have looked at before, e.g., “If yea abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you [John 15:7].” If I may so say, from a New Testament perspective, Christ is the “secret place of the Most High” It is in Him in Whom “all fulness dwells” that the believer has access to that fulness. While all Christians are properly heirs to all, not all are enjoying their heritage. The casual believer, on again off again, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away from him, is not dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty. The straying sheep knows little of the comfort and security of the fold, or the sustaining direction of the Shepherd.

What a blessing a shadow can be in a dry and thirsty land. Isaiah used the figure in a beautiful passage anticipating the Messiah when he wrote, “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land [Isa 32:1-2 (my italics)].” The value of such a shadow was realized by Jonah, who forfeited it by moving out of harmony with God’s Spirit. “So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live [Jonah 4:5-8].” Such is life out of the will of God.

Many, reading the Psalm and surveying their own circumstances will say God did not keep His word, while overlooking the fact that they are simply not “dwelling” where they ought. And, the Psalm does not promise a trouble free life, but the comfort of His presence and the assurance of His deliverance when trouble comes. (See v.15)

The writer gives the clue to reaping the blessing of God’s overshadowing presence when he declares his faith in God. “I will say of the Lord…” The inference is a deliberate decision to make the “Secret Place” his permanent residence. Along with that resolution there is recognition of God, and Who He is. He is “the Most High,” having no competitors; He is Almighty, having no limit to His power; He is the Lord Jehovah, having no rivals in his heart; and He is “my God,” the true and sole object of his worship.

The heart of a believer who is dwelling in the Lord is illustrated in the familiar story of Ruth who, when given the opportunity to leave her mother-in-law and return to “her own people and [her own] gods,” declared, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge…” [Ruth 1:16].” Just as Ruth had no will of her own but to abide with her mother-in-law, so the believer who is abiding in Christ, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, has abandoned his will to the will of God. And it is to these that God pledges Himself in the terms of this grand scripture.

May you be one of them!

For permanent residents of the “Secret Place,”

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 90 - 2009.04.18

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” — Psalm 90:1

Dr. A.W. Tozer wrote a book entitled, “Man — the Dwelling Place of God.” His initial thesis is that God made man to be a habitation for Himself, and that is certainly true. As we noted a few weeks ago, when God created Adam, the only complete man the world has ever known except for Christ, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath (Spirit) of life; and man became a living soul [Gen. 2:7].” He was a God inhabited man, “The dwelling place of God.” What glory!

When Adam rebelled and disobeyed God, God moved out, and man has been a vacated dwelling ever since, apart from the redemption which is in Christ. How tragic! A grand house is of little significance if no one lives in it. But a simple dwelling is exalted if it is host to a great person. “George Washington slept here” will draw crowds to humble quarters if it can be established as true. History will leave a trail of “great men” who will spend eternity in hell for the absence of the Resident who was missing in their lives, and heaven will be populated by widows and orphans and millions of “nobodies” who had the good sense to open their hearts by faith to the Lord of Glory. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called…[I Cor. 1:26].” (Thankfully, He does not say “not any.”)

Now these are great and solemn thoughts, but they are the inverse of our text. Had Moses written a book at this juncture, he might have titled it, “God —The Dwelling place of Man.” The first great wonder of redemption is the restoration of the Spirit of God to the spirit of man. The soul who trusts the Savior becomes a God-inhabited individual, and that is all his glory. (See the remarkable text, I Cor. 6:16) Of course the “house” needs an awful lot of renovation to be restored to its former glory; it is a work in progress, which will not be completed until “we see Him as He is,” in the world to come.

But simultaneously, upon conversion God becomes the dwelling place of man! For evidence consider: “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus [Eh. 2:4-6].” Notice carefully, he does not say “with,” but in Christ Jesus. And that is a key concept in gospel. Christ, God the Son, is the dwelling place of the redeemed man or woman. Again, though our experience of this grand truth is not yet complete, scripture declares, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory [Col. 3:3-4].” It is not that we will be in Him, but that we are in Him; it is the “today” of our experience, hid though it may be from the eyes of “the watching world,” and even from the understanding of most believers.

“Where do you live?” is a common question one may be asked when introduced to a new acquaintance. How appropriately a believer might respond, “In God.” And if an ordinary house is dignified by a great resident, it is also true that a resident may be dignified by a great house. A prince who lives in the palace is known everywhere as a child of the king. The believer dwells in God, and should be recognized as a child of the King of glory!

However,if the prince chooses to live beneath his dignity and behaves like everyone else, few will be impressed by his royalty and his residence will be in measure disgraced by his behavior. And so it is in the spiritual realm. Thus we are called to holiness. “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit [I Thess. 4:7-8].”

Sadly, tragically, the charge the apostle made against Israel can be echoed with reference to too many in the church:

“For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written [Rom. 2:24].” The magnificent dignity of our dwelling place in God should rather motivate us, as Paul admonished the Corinthians, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God [II Cor 6:17-18, 7:1].”

For Truth in advertising,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 89 - 2009.04.11

“If His children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” — Psalm 89:30-33

Among the great doctrines of the faith, one of the most precious is that of the security of the believer. It assures us that just as we are redeemed by God’s grace, altogether apart from our works, so are we kept by the same grace. When the believer arrives in glory and looks back over the course of his journey, he will know that in nothing does his destiny rest upon anything in or of himself, but wholly upon “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 3:24)

This great doctrine, however, involves a danger; namely, that it may give rise to false confidence and careless living. Our nugget for today should alert us to the fact that though God promises us “security,” He will not allow His children to run wild without consequences.

We must note in passing that it is David’s descendants who are referred to in the Psalm, but they are a type of the children of David’s Greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so what applies to them must be applied to us. It is, then, to “born again” believers that this solemn passage finds its mark.

Consider the sad prospect. “If His children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments…” Both scripture and experience teach us that sinless perfection is unattainable this side of heaven. Believers do sin, and if we understood more clearly the demands of holiness, we would be much more aware of that than most are. It is God’s aim, and should be our aspiration, that we be conformed to the image of Christ (See Rom. 8:29), but that goal will not be achieved until we “see Him as He is” in the day of His appearing (Cf I John 3:2).

Notwithstanding, we need all the more to give heed to the pledge, “Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” The sins of Christians may be forgiven, but they will not go unpunished. God, as a wise Parent, disciplines His children. He does not “spare the rod.” This principle is reiterated and amplified in the New Testament:

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness [Heb. 12:6-10].”

Spurgeon said, “Saints must smart if they sin: God will see to that. He hates sin too much not to visit it, and he loves his saints too well not to chasten them.”

Happily, the text does not end on this note. There is the superlative comfort of God’s promise, “Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” Here is both the security and the solemnity of grace. Sin will not result in the loss of salvation, because our hope rests on a covenant God has made, not with us, but with His Son, who has paid the ultimate price for all our transgressions. But neither will sin exempt us from having to face God one day and give account: “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God [Rom. 14:11-12].” We cannot escape Him!

At least two important things follow, it seems to me, from this meditation. First, we must not be casual about sin, nor allow the doctrine of security to make us indifferent to it. Christ, indeed, paid the ultimate price, but there is still a price we have to pay if we forsake God’s law and fail to walk in His judgments. I am persuaded we will not know how high that cost until we stand before Him. But, secondly, there is comfort in the assurance, reinforced by this text, that sin no longer has the power to destroy us forever. God’s grace is that great. If you have faltered, repent, confess and get on with the will of God in your life. There is mercy with the Lord.

“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him [I John 2:28-29].”

For the glory of His grace,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 88 - 2009.04.04

“LORD, why castest Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou thy face from me?” —Psalm 88:14

This is a rather unusual Psalm. Most Psalms that begin on a note of despair end at last on a note of hope or victory, suggesting that by prayer and meditation the soul is delivered from its distress. This one, in contrast, ends as mournfully as it begins. The only ray of light in the whole chapter is found in the opening phrase, “O Lord God of my salvation…” It is that confidence in the midst of despair that keeps the writer from drowning in his sorrow.

Spurgeon, in his “Treasury of David,” remarks, “If ever there was a song of sorrow and a Psalm of sadness, this is one,” and sees in it a reflection of the suffering of Job. However that may be, it seems to me that the direction to go to find an equation is to the cross. Certainly the time span of the Psalm is greater than that of the crucifixion, and some see in it a protracted illness. But the intensity of the agony expressed, as well as other aspects of this dirge send my thoughts to Him of Whom it is written:

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." [Isa. 53:3-5]

And again,
“…His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:” [Isa. 52:14]

We seldom give serious consideration to the fact that no suffering in the history of the race can compare in intensity to the sufferings of the Savior, and that is true in both the physical and mental sense. Infinite holiness coupled with a real humanity lays the foundation for infinite anguish of both body and soul. And on the cross, it was unrelieved.

There is another clue in the Psalm that justifies the suggestion that it foreshadows the sufferings of the Son of God. The writer declares, “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors I am distracted.” (v.15) You may remember that prior to the crucifixion the Savior declared in the hearing of two of His disciples, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour [John 12:27, emphasis mine].” The cross was in His heart and on His mind “from [His] youth up.” Yet when the hour came, the agony of His judgment (in our behalf!) caused Him to be “distracted” and cry out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Indeed, the most awful consequence of the atonement was not the intense physical suffering of the Son of God, nor His moral anguish in becoming sin for us, “Who knew no sin,” but the rupture for that terrible moment in time of the tender and affectionate relationship between the Father and the Son which had endured from eternity past. And it was a cost no less to the Father than to the Son! The Godhead absorbed in Itself the price of “man, the creature’s sin.”

Yet in all of this hope flickers, but it does not die. In his distress the Psalmist turns still to God: “O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: Let my prayer come before Thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” (v. 1-3) And in this one can hear the echo of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross crying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost [Luke 23:46].”

And, when there is nowhere else to go, and all seems to end in despair, He is still our "hope and stay." Hope survives in the midst of despair because God IS; and the committed believer, when he can see no other light in the darkness, sees still the "God of [his] salvation," and in Him hope beyond the grave. (See v.11)

It may be more than just coincidence that we come to this Psalm at this Easter season. Reflect on the whole Psalm, think of it alongside Calvary, and worship Him “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed [I Pet. 2:24].”

For His glory alone,

"Pastor" Frasier