Psalm 145:17 “Faith…and Peace”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷Righteous [is] the LORD in the all of His ways and loving in the all of His doings.

This verse is, at first glance, very familiar, even cliché. It would be easy to read it and think, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got that. Check.” I would suggest, however, the truths expressed are the very foundation of real faith and we all spend our lifetimes learning to believe and embrace them.

Before attempting to explain what I mean, there is one exegetical matter that has to be addressed. In the old KJV, the second half of the verse was translated, “and holy in all His works.” The word they translated “holy” is not the word we would normally expect to find here. It is literally an adjective based on one of the Hebrew words for love. The problem is that the word became used for God’s “loved ones,” which then came to be something more like His “committed ones.” It could easily morph into His “holy ones,” expressing His unique people and allowing an occurrence of the basic word to become “holy.” However, since the word itself simply means love, I would suggest that is the best translation, unless we had some compelling reason to select one of the other options.

So we’re talking about the LORD being righteous and loving. What that means is simply that we can rest assured He is always right, He always does what’s right, and He is always loving. All He does is genuinely and very deliberately for our greatest good. It is an easy thing for all us believers to respond, “Amen! God is good…all the time!”

As long as the sun shines and we are feeling blessed, it’s all good.

Then the dark clouds roll in, the lightning strikes, the rain pours down and we find ourselves struggling to see God’s goodness. If I might suggest, this is almost the very battle of faith itself – to believe it true, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving in all His works,” even when life seems to be doing us “dirty!”

Just in the last couple of years there have been two matters I’ve prayed about, quite sure the Lord would answer, “Yes,” only for Him to instead answer, “No.” Even as I type these words, I still have this feeling of disappointment, even confusion. “Why?” I want to ask, “This makes no sense!” What am I to do? I must go back, read this simple verse and say, “I will believe this. Although it seems my entire soul wants to shout, ‘No!’ yet with my will I will choose to have faith and believe that somehow the Lord in His great wisdom knows better than me.”

He, of course, is a whole lot better at running universes than I am. Like a disappointed child, I just need to be told, “Father knows best’” and I need to accept that even if in this life it never makes sense to me.

Actually, it has to be this way, does it not? We need our God to be 100% righteous and 100% loving…all the time. In other words, we need a God who will always do what is right. We need a God who has the wisdom to truly know what is best and the power to make it happen. At the same time, we need a God of that kind of wisdom and power to also be loving to us. An earthly king may excel in one to the detriment of the other and in the end not do us good. But not so our God.

We can count on Him.

The challenge for us is to learn that and live by it.

Or, I think more accurately, it is for us to learning that and trying to live by it. That is what I meant when I said, “I would suggest, however, the truths expressed are the very foundation of real faith and we all spend our lifetimes learning to believe and embrace them.”

May we strive prayerfully and with determination to believe God has been good in our past (all of our past), that He is doing us good in our present, and that He will do us good in our future. To believe this is our faith. To succeed at all is our peace!

Lord, help us!

Psalm 145:15,16 “Infinite Caring”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁵Eyes of all upon You wait and One giving to them their food in its time.

¹⁶One opening Your hand and One satisfying a desire to all of living.

My fairly literal translation is pretty rough. I grew up on the KJV, so, with a little modernizing, it comes out:

“The eyes of all wait upon You, O LORD, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”

These two simple little verses have been holding me in amazement. I have repeated to myself for years those words, “You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” Every time we sit down to eat, it is the Lord who has actually provided the food. That is why we thank Him for it. I would suggest it is even some sort of a step of Christian growth to really realize that, to really believe it, and to learn to be grateful to Him for it.

However, it has never really struck me – “every living thing.” “The eyes of all wait upon You.” What does the rest of the Bible teach us? “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them… See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field…” (Matt.5:26-30). “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care” (Matt. 10:29).

Notice carefully, “your heavenly Father feeds them” and “how God clothes the grass of the field.” Notice that “not one” sparrow “will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” I could multiply other verses, but the Bible would have us know that it is God Himself who feeds birds and dresses flowers. Our God is aware of every single sparrow. “Every living thing!”

I have never really seen before this picture that the Lord is intimately aware of every living thing and carefully watching over them. He feeds them, He clothes them, He knows when they fall! That means that every second of every day, in His amazing infinity, He is aware of the needs of every living thing in our universe and lovingly caring for them – every single one, whether they are people or kangaroos or amoebas. Every living thing. Every single being to whom He has given life, He is watching over like a gardener tending to his plants.

He is so great, He can give to each one complete and total personal attention, even while doing the same for all others! The thought of it is completely mind-boggling. Of course He can do it – He’s God!

I guess I’ve always thought of it as if He set all of this in motion and it just happens. What is mean is like bacteria are constantly eating each other and multiplying. Certainly I have believed that God is aware of such things. Nothing escapes His omniscient, all seeing Eyes. Of course. I guess I just didn’t think He needed to be like personally involved in it. Yet that is exactly what the Bible would teach us. He is intimately involved with and watching over every single living thing in all the universe!

What we learn is that He is a faithful Creator! It is of course Him who gives life to every living thing. I’m sure we all believe that. But we must then realize that, having given them life, He goes on intimately concerned about each one!

I should insert that, obviously He allows them to die, He allows them to eat each other, He allows humans to be very cruel to each other and to animals, to get sick, to get hurt, to die. Someone may object, “That isn’t very loving, is it?” But of course that is very, very short-sighted. We live in a fallen world. We’re the ones who brought death and misery into this world, not God. What we must believe is that He is very lovingly, very kindly providing us with the very best possible care He can give – in our fallen world. And what is the greatest reproof to this objection? What does He give us when there is no sin? Heaven. Absolute, total, endless bliss in a world of gold streets and perfect peace. You see, He is quite capable of providing that for us now, but again, it’s our fault, not His, that our world is a place of pain and brokenness.

Back to His amazingness!

It is mind-boggling to think He cares for me like that – that He is intimately, personally, constantly hovering over me, so to speak, watching my every move, aware of my every need and desire – that He is doing it because that is who He is – the faithful Creator who guards over His every single creation, big or small.

While realizing this amazingness, I’ve also been pondering how this explains many things. This is precisely why each of us as parents has this driving compulsion in us to care for our children. Any decent person who has ever been a parent knows exactly what I’m talking about. Once a child is ours, our souls literally rise and fall on their happiness. Why is that? It is God-likeness! We are made in His image and so we automatically care intimately about our children – just like Him!

It is one of the pains of being the parent of an adult child – that I no longer can be the one “caring” for them. I see their needs. I see them hurting, doing without, suffering one way or another, and it just about kills me. With a small touch of God’s wisdom, I know most of the time I just have to let it go. I need to let them live their own lives. Even if I tried, I can’t fix their every trouble. But it still hurts. Now I really know why.

The same is true of plants and pets. Somewhere in Proverbs it says, “A good man is kind to his animals.” Why is that? Because they have come under his care and now, like God, he has this thing going on inside him that he doesn’t want them to suffer. He wants them to be happy and comfortable. Same with plants. There is a strange joy and satisfaction in planting something, watching it grow, tilling it, caring for it, and seeing it prosper. Actually it isn’t “strange” at all. It is God-likeness! The person who finds themselves “fussing” over their plants isn’t being “weird.” They’re being God-like.

This also only reinforces something I’ve been saying for years: “If you were the only person who ever lived, Jesus would still go to the Cross for you.” Yes, He would. Because that is who He is. He cares personally and intimately for every, single living thing He created. He cares for you just as if you were the only person who ever lived! No wonder it’s true that He died “not only for our sins, but also for the sins of all the world!”

What a completely amazing God He is!

I keep studying and He keeps amazing me.

May I be even more aware every day that it is Him who feeds and clothes me and gives me air to breathe. May I allow His faithful, caring heart to become mine too – that I might see others through His personal, intimate loving concern. I obviously can’t do what He does. I can’t care simultaneously for every living thing in an entire universe. But maybe I can learn to more genuinely care for those I can.

Wow. Infinite, caring concern.

“The eyes of all

 wait upon You,

O LORD,

and You give them their food in due season.

You open

Your hand

and satisfy

the desires

of every

living thing.”

Psalm 145:14 “One Raising Up”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴The LORD [is] One supporting to the all of ones falling and One raising up to the all of ones being bent down.

This is an interesting verse. First of all, it is written in participles, “-ing” words. There are no verbs in the sentence. I’ve tried to express this in my fairly literal translation above. In my own studies, it has seemed like Hebrew speaking people resorted to participles when they got excited or in any way wanted to express some intensity of emotion. There are still instances of this in the New Testament, such as II Thessalonians 1, where a good part of the chapter appears in Greek to be a single sentence. I would suggest it is written this way because Paul (being a Jew) is writing in Greek but still expressing His Hebrew mind.

And then it is interesting (and instructive) to notice what those participles are. The ones David uses describe the LORD for us as “One supporting” and “One raising up,” while describing us as “ones falling” and “ones being bent down.” Notably, the last one is a passive participle, so “ones being bent down” is literally the idea. The old KJV translated it simply, “All them that be bowed down.” In my mind, that leaves open understanding it as if we are bowing ourselves down – in humility – but that is not the picture. The participle is passive so that the picture is one of us being crushed down by forces outside of ourselves. Other translations include “oppressed, broken down, cast down, bent over.”

Do these words not describe in a nutshell exactly what we find every day in our lives? Do we not find ourselves constantly as “ones falling” and “ones being bent down?” And yet, at the same time, is not the very ground of our hope the belief (and experience) that our God is “One supporting” and “One raising up?” I would suggest we could even go so far as to say the participles are not only describing what we’re doing; they describe who we are…and who He is. We are “ones falling” and He is “One supporting.” It is our (fallen) nature to always be falling. It is His divine nature to be always One supporting. It is His nature. It is who He is. In this world we are “ones being bent down,” while He is “One raising up.” It’s who He is!

Consider this especially in light of our enemy. In Psalm 143:3-6, the psalmist complains, “The enemy hounds me. He crushes me to the ground. He makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead, so that my spirit grows faint within me and my heart within me is stunned.” Satan and this fallen world and even our own sin natures are constantly driving us down. That is why we are “ones being bent down.”  The devil tempts the world with the idea that he offers them freedom and everything good, when in reality his every intent is to drag them down and even kill them if he can. Everything in this fallen world is dragging us down. In another place, the psalmist has to complain, “O my soul, why art thou cast down?” Cast down. We live in a world that would crush us.

We feel it all day every day.

For some people, it becomes so overwhelming, they finally decide to take their own lives.

What are we to do?

The psalmist who cried, “O my soul, why art thou cast down,” went on to answer himself: “Hope thou in God, for He is thy help, …and I shall yet praise Him.” He is “One supporting” us who are “ones falling” and “One raising up” us who are “ones being bent down.” Our God is our hope.

For good reason David says in Psalm 27:13,14: “I would have fainted, except I believed I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Even in the midst of what appears to be hopelessness, even when we feel but a tiny spark of life left in us, completely crushed under this world’s cruel afflictions, yet you and I have hope. “Wait, I say, on the LORD … He shall strengthen thine heart.”

I seem to find, the older I get, the more this really is my hope. I don’t know that I really saw this when I was younger, but now I awaken in the morning and run immediately to this Refuge. I am keenly aware even awaking that “I can’t do this.” I can say, I believe, honestly from my heart I know I am not smart enough, not fast enough, not strong enough. I cannot do this. Life is too much. From the moment I awake, I am aware of this awful crushing load but, and it should be BUT, I have this hope. I know this One who “is supporting” and this One who “is raising up.” I feel David’s words, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.”

Day after day after seemingly endless days, He does just that. He does strengthen my heart. Day after day after day ends and I find I did do it! I actually succeeded in the very things I woke up fearing, yet, I am very keenly aware it was not me. I was the “one falling” and the “one being bent down.” It was Him who was “One supporting” and “One raising up.”

What can I say? He is my Refuge, my Rock, my Hope, my Fortress, my Deliverer, my Strength, my Shield, my Father, my King, my Savior, …and in the end He Himself is my Exceeding Great Reward.

Lord, You not only are our Hope, You are our only Hope. We each are “ones falling” and “ones being bent down.”  May we find in You our “One raising up.” Those of us who believe have to cry, “Help our unbelief.” As You Yourself said, “Our spirits are willing, but our flesh is weak.” Grant us grace to see You every day, to trust You even while we’re being crushed down. Help us to wait on You until we truly do see “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” May we live the words of the song, “Day by day, and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.”

One who raises up, please raise us up.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be

Psalm 145:13 “Faith or Facts?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Your kingdom [is] a kingdom of all of ages and Your dominion [is] in all of generation to generation.

The old KJV translated this: “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” What is particularly interesting to me is to observe that these simple words are not just a great statement of faith. They are, in reality, a statement of fact. Many years ago, I had a discussion with a man in which I insisted to him that faith is actually based on facts. He insisted it is not. At the time, I couldn’t express any more clearly what I was trying to say, but, as I’ve studied this verse, it has grown clearer in my mind, so I’d like to try to record my thoughts here.

So, is this or is it not, a statement of fact? It either is or it isn’t. If it is, then the LORD is the King of kings and you and I had better start living in such a world. If it is not true, then what we would call faith is nothing more than great folly. If it is not true, then we who “believe” it are living lives based on untruth.  It’s either true or it’s not. It cannot be both.

If it is true, then it is a fact. So “faith” is based on a fact. If it is not true, then what we call “faith” is actually a matter of living our lives according to our delusional, baseless imagination. If it is true, there are not really “faiths” in the world. Rather, there are those who embrace the facts and those who deny them, regardless of their religious pretensions or lack thereof.

I maintain the verse before us is a fact. The LORD’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion endures throughout all generations. It is true whether I “believe” it or not. The sky is blue even if I’m a blind man and can’t see it. It will still be blue no matter  how many blind men band together and say it is not – or for however many generations of time they and their followers persist. The LORD’s kingdom is and was and always will be an everlasting kingdom.

For me, it is very interesting to note Nebuchadnezzar’s experience in Daniel 4. He was warned he would be given the mind of an animal “…until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men” (Daniel 4:25). His madness culminated with “At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation” (v.34).

Notice he says “when my sanity was restored” then “I praised the Most High.” When his sanity was restored! And who can miss the similarity between his words and our passage in Psalm 145:13? What our passage is stating is a fact. When Nebuchadnezzar’s “sanity was restored” he acknowledged the fact – God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

Interesting, one of the most sane things anyone can do is simply acknowledge the Most High rules.

To deny that is to deny the facts.

So is it faith or facts? Or is faith actually based on facts? I would like to suggest that, yes, real faith is based on facts. The Bible is true. What it teaches us is Truth. What it teaches us are facts. It is then our sanity to accept that truth and live accordingly. Our faith is based on facts.

The Most High rules.