Psalm 113:1,2 – “A Walking Psalm”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

Praise the LORD.

  ¹Praise, [O] servants of the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD. 

 ²Let the name of the LORD be blessed from now and until ages.

It would be easy to read these verses and say, “Right. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord,” seeing them as “good” words but really just more Christian clichés. I used to think like that. I remember the first few times I read through the Bible, I would dread coming to the Psalms, just for that reason. It seemed like it was just “praise the Lord” over and over again for 150 chapters. Then I read a book about a guy named Henry Venn. He was an English minister back in like the 1600 or 1700’s.

The book was actually a compilation of letters he wrote to people throughout his life. What struck me most about him was that the man was literally a walking psalm! He seemed to breathe the psalms. As he wrote to people and talked about life, the psalms were woven into everything. The man seriously praised the Lord all day every day. He saw all of life as praises to the Lord. He totally transformed my attitude toward the Psalms. After reading that book, I began very deliberately memorizing psalms and looked forward to every chance I could get to open this wonderful book and be reminded what a wonderful God we serve.

The passage before us is a prime example. For myself, I have just studied through the previous two psalms, 111 and 112. The first, 111, was about what a great God He is and then 112 was about how blessed I am to know Him. I honestly cannot think of a more fitting conclusion to that entire study than Psalm 113:1,2. “Praise the Lord … Let the name of the Lord be blessed, both now and forever more!”

There is so much to praise Him for. No wonder David wrote at the end of his life on earth (I Chron 29:10-13),

Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
The power and the glory,
The victory and the majesty;

For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,
And You are exalted as head over all.
Both riches and honor come from You,
And You reign over all.

In Your hand is power and might;
In Your hand it is to make great
And to give strength to all.

Now therefore, our God,
We thank You
And praise Your glorious name.

Like Henry Venn, David had spent his life walking with God in this real world, facing all the troubles and pain and failures of his own, and what did he become? A walking psalm.

That is exactly who I want to be.

What struck me most about these first two verses was the words, “Let the name of the LORD be blessed, both now and forever more.” “Both now and forever more.” As I contemplate my incessant problem with worry and fear, I read those lines and it occurs to me that I have no problem seeing the Lord has been worthy of praise my entire life. Looking back, even the intensely painful times I can now see were blessings from the Lord. I can say without hesitation, “Let His name be praised through all those moments. All day, every day He was doing great and awesome things.”

Then there is the “now.” Right now, at this minute, I do believe He is working all things together for good, that He is wisely and kindly ordering the universe to accomplish the greatest possible good. But what about the “and forevermore?” What about the future? What about tomorrow? I live under this dark cloud of worry and fear. Of what? Will the name of the Lord be worthy of praise tomorrow? The next day? The next? Will there ever be a second when He isn’t worthy of praise, when He isn’t totally in control and working all things together for good? Then why am I so afraid? What am I afraid of?

It occurred to me some time ago that worry is actually imagining a world without God. It’s leaving God out of my future. I could see that, but somehow I couldn’t get it to “stick” in my brain.

I think this helps me. “Both now and forever more.” I do believe in my heart that He will be worthy of praise every second of every day of the rest of my life. I just don’t do a very good job of appropriating that truth as I face all the problems and fears and issues.

I Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

I want to be a walking psalm. The Lord deserves a walking psalm. I can see though, that only really works if I will trust Him not only with my past and present but also with my future.

Such a change is utterly beyond me. Worrying over the future it seems is just a part of who I am. But then I know it’s not. I was created in the image of God to “show forth His praises.” Everything less than that are the perversions and twistings of sin in me. Still I know I cannot make such changes. But there is a Redeemer, Someone who began a good work in me. Jesus died specifically “to save His people from their sins.” Do your redeeming work, Jesus. Make me a walking psalm. You deserve it.

Psalm 111, 112 – “Mary Has Chosen the Better Part”

These two psalms begin and end with:

 “I will extol the Lord with all  my heart … To Him belongs eternal praise”

      and

 “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord … the desires of the wicked will perish.”

 As I have studied these two psalms, there is no question in my mind they were intended to be read together. As I (and a host of others) have noted, 111 is all about the Lord and who He is, while 112 is about the people who know Him (and, in v10, those who don’t). As the two stand together, I am reminded of JI Packer’s book Knowing God and particularly one of the chapter titles, “The People Who Know Their God.”

I think one of the profound blessings of my life was that, not long after the Lord saved me, He put that book in my hands. I devoured it. But not quickly. I remember literally reading it a paragraph at a time. Knowing God – and “The People Who Know Their God.” Jesus said, “For this is eternal life, that they might know Thee …” (John 17:3). It struck me back then, that, in fact, as Jesus is clearly saying, eternal life itself is all about knowing God. It’s not just about Heaven forever and salvation and deliverance and love and all those things. They are all important, but … and this is my point (then and now) … all those blessings issue from a relationship with God.

And that is precisely why “Mary has chosen the better part.” Martha was filling her day with good things – serving the Lord – but Mary chose the better part. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and drank of who He was and what He said. Martha would serve the Lord, Mary would know Him. And what did Jesus think of it all? “Mary has chosen the better part … and it will not be taken from her.”

Once again, my point is to observe that these two psalms belong together. You can read again the blessings of the second, Psalm 112, and there are many people today who, like Martha, would work very hard to see those blessings come about in their own lives and the lives of those around them; but it simply will not happen without Psalm 111, without “sitting at His feet.” To “sit at His feet,” treasuring Him and knowing Him and loving Him (111) is what will produce the blessings of 112.

In Hebrew, there is a great deal of repetition between the two psalms. Both are acrostics and the number and organization of the lines of each are identical. Also, there is much repetition of words and phrases. One example is obvious even in English, the statement, “His righteousness stands forever.” It is stated of God in 111:3, then of the godly man twice in 112, in verses 3 and 9. In addition, there are many words and phrases repeated between the two. As I noted earlier, there is a definite chiasm in 112:7,8 and I suspect there is a great deal of order between the two psalms. I have looked at various people’s efforts to find chiastic structure in the entire psalms, but so far I haven’t found anything I thought convincing. I guess it is enough for me now to see that, grammatically, there is no question the two psalms are related, and then to note that connection is also theologically profound.

I guess I think our generation is seriously missing this point. I fear almost the entire focus of “church” today is simply to make people busy, to “do” things, to “serve the Lord,” without realizing the point of it all, the dynamo that fuels it all, is simply to know Him. That is true for us and it is also true for the very people we want to “reach.” We have reason to fear lest Jesus’ words be true of us, “They travel over land and sea to make one disciple, and when they do, they make him two times more the son of hell than they are.” Is the goal to make more Marys or more Marthas? I fear it is a cosmic “bait and switch.” The devil would have us ignore God entirely; but, if he can’t accomplish that and someone is bound determined to be a Christian, then he gets them busy being a Martha and robs them of the very thing that drives the Psalm 112 life -- the God of Psalm 111.

Mary has chosen the better part. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor 3:18). We see from this verse, it is in “beholding the Lord” that we “are being transformed.” “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor 4:6).

My heart is literally dumbfounded to sit here and ponder all of this. I spent way too many years “trying to grow,” trying to “serve the Lord,” only to discover what I knew from the beginning, the title of Packer’s book, it’s all about knowing Him. The more I know the God of Psalm 111, the more I become the man of Psalm 112. And not so much because I’m “trying;” as He said in II Cor 3:18, it is in beholding the Lord that I am changed into His image. Knowing His love for me, I am changed forever. I want to love others. Knowing His kindness, I want to be kind. Seeing His faithfulness, I want to be dependable. Hmmmmm, maybe that’s why it’s all called, the Fruit of the Spirit?

Well, I am still a mess. He’s been working all these years to “fix” me and make me who He intends me to be, but I’m keenly aware He is far from done. But I am very thankful for this simple truth of Psalms 111 and 112. Mary has chosen the better part. God help me to choose Mary’s part. You deserve it.

I am going to go on ahead and study Psalm 113 as well. It begins with the same “Praise the Lord,” and looks like it too was intended to be read together with Psalms 111 and 112. Whether it is or isn’t, I’m sure it will be instructive.

All praise to Him who reigns above.

Psalm 112:10 – “Hope”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹⁰A wicked one will see and be agitated.

   He will grind his teeth and melt.

   [The] desires of wicked ones will perish.

As I have studied this verse and read what others had to say about it, it strikes me that I don’t often enough pause to remember how blessed I am. Interestingly, the body of this psalm opens with the word “blessed” and ends with the word “perish.” Those two simple words sum up all there is to know about those who love God and those who don’t. The one will only know blessing for all eternity. The other will perish. The one is told even his children will be mighty ones, his righteousness will stand forever, and he will look in triumph on his enemies and be held high in honor. The other will simply grind his teeth in angry disappointment and all he hoped for will come to nothing.

Wow. And I’m in the “blessed” group only because Jesus died in my place and the Father chose one day to open my eyes to see the truth.

For all eternity. Wow.

We see this same truth all through the Bible, but I think of several passages:

“The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing” (Prov 10:28).

“Peace, peace to him that is near and him that is far ... But the wicked are not so; they are like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa 57:19-21).

“The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He knows their day is coming” (Psalm 37:12,13).

Expressing these same thoughts, Psalm 107:41-43 concludes with “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.”

It is simply an inestimable blessing to live every day with hope. We believers go about our lives with the promise that our Lord will every day “work all things together for good,” that our destiny is in an eternal bliss with Him. I feel I am only beginning (after 36 years) to learn to trust Him in this and actually live in that hope. As I’ve often lamented, I am an incorrigible worrier and forget quickly that my hope (every day) is secure, that I can actually live in confidence in the Lord. But even in all my ridiculous fretting and drama, I always have this simple truth to come back to. Him. My Rock.

There are many who don’t. They don’t know Him. They don’t have a Rock. They don’t have this hope. No wonder they scheme and maneuver and manipulate, lie, murder, and steal.

God in Heaven, thank You for grace. Thank You for making me one of Yours, for letting this ridiculous twisted self-destructing idiot live his life with hope.

Help me today to live in that hope, to appreciate the gift it is, and not forget it the second anything seems to threaten me. And somehow, let Your presence go with me as I interact all day with people who may not have this hope. May somehow Your hope in me become hope in them.

It’s Your world. Help me be a part of it.

Psalm 112:9 – “Generosity”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

⁹He has scattered. He has given to the needy ones.

   His righteousness stands forever.

   His horn will be high in honor.

I really like these lines. It was already said in verse 5 that a good man is a generous man. Here we see it again. I like it.

Once again, a person can be “religious” and still be a tight-fisted, heartless grouch. But real grace will have none of that. Our God “so loved the world He gave” and “gives to all men liberally.” He “makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good.” He “opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.” We may live our lives “in malice and envy, hating and being hated,” but “when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us … by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Anyone who has genuinely received such grace; anyone who has genuinely experienced and realized that overwhelming kindness of such a God and Savior, cannot for long be anything less. We’re all still quite capable of fits of selfishness, but still, as this Psalm has now asserted twice, the people who know their God can’t help but be like Him. His is a big, generous heart and His dearly loved children cannot help but be the same.

It has generally been true throughout human history that there always are the very rich and the very poor, with precious few anywhere in between. For a short time, America was a nation where that wasn’t true. We had a robust middle-class and that level of prosperity was available to anyone willing to work for it. I would maintain that happened because of the truth of Psalm 112:9. For the first two hundred years of our history, there was a genuine vein of godliness that pervaded the rich and poor of our country. I would suggest that very godliness meant that the “rich,” though they did accumulate their wealth, also never lost sight of some sense of benevolence, and so that very wealth was “scattered.” Today we have people like Bill Gates or Sam Walton’s family, who accumulate billions and billions of dollars for themselves while wages stagnate, while that middle class steadily shrinks, while young people are plunged head over heel into debt just to get an education, and those “rich” will only get richer and richer.

This is a living illustration of the truth, “Blessed is the nation that fears the Lord.” And unfortunately we have become a living illustration of what happens when that same nation casts Him aside. The very graciousness that emanates from His heart is no longer present to pervade our society and so, instead, we more and more reflect the face of him who is a murderer and who has been a liar from the beginning.

All that, to me, is enormously sad. I knew this nation when it was great. It is so sad to see what it has become. But I am very thankful for the grace I’ve been shown and, as I said in the beginning, I like this verse. It is, in fact, who I want to be. “True religion and undefiled is this: to visit widows and the fatherless in their affliction.” True religion makes us want to care about people less fortunate than ourselves.

And that is how it should be.

It is interesting too to see the other two lines of the verse. The second line repeats the words of verse 3 and 111:3, “His righteousness stands forever.” I already commented on this under verse 3, but I would suggest in this case it is speaking of the memory of his righteousness. In other words, his righteousness stands forever in the sense that people will not soon forget a man’s kindnesses. There are a few people in history remembered for the excess of their cruelties but, for the most part evil men are soon forgotten. Andrew Carnegie is one of those very wealthy men of an earlier age whose name is still remembered because he built libraries in practically every small town in America.

And then the last line says, “His horn will be high in honor.” This is a simple old testament statement of Jesus’ words, “He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Why are the rich miserly? They imagine that their wealth (and more of it) will somehow exalt them. So they hoard it to themselves, cheat everyone they can, maneuver themselves to get even more, and, instead of being “exalted” they end up living in a world of endless family animosity, constant intrigues and legal battles over who gets what, and, while they may in fact get to live “the good life” of extravagant vacations and palatial mansions, yet they lack the one thing that makes life worth living – love.

The godly man, while he may in fact prosper in his business, never loses some sense of generosity. He can “let loose” of some of that wealth to benefit others, trusting God that what he gives he actually receives. As it says in Proverbs, “One man gives and receives only more.” And because he has been kind, because he has given of himself to those less fortunate, Jesus would have him to know he will somehow be exalted.

Once again, I like this verse. Even though I live in this world where it really does seem like the best plan is to “look out for #1,” yet I can live knowing that I don’t need to. I do need to “guide my affairs with discretion” (v5), but I can do so with open hands and live my life caring about the people the Lord places around me.

Lord, may Your grace genuinely shine from the hearts of us who’ve enjoyed its blessing. May we “passing through the Valley of Bacah, make it a spring.”

Psalm 112:6-8 – “To Be Continued”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁶Because to ages he will not be shaken,

     a memory of ages a righteous one will be.

⁷He will not fear bad news,

    His heart being established, being confident in the LORD.

⁸His heart being supported, he will not fear,

    Until which he will look on his enemies.

My last three blogs have recorded a rather interesting little episode in my own life. As I’ve related, I studied out these three verses, thought I basically understood them, then walked into work and got clobbered by two terrifying situations, only to have that followed by the addition of what I perceived to be an impossible workload. Shaken? Fear? I had plenty of both; but it was also obvious to me this was the Lord’s hand and the point of it all was to help me grow in being the very person portrayed in this Psalm.

I think for the most part I’m “on the other side” now, perhaps even “looking in triumph on my foes.” The two terrifying situations were pretty well remedied and in fact I would say things are considerably improved in both of those projects. As far as the work load, the Lord really helped me by reminding me I need a “well-ordered mind” (II Tim 1:7), and when I sat down and wrote it all out, it just didn’t look as bad.

Maybe it’s not over. Maybe something else is on its way. It’s all up to Him, of course. Of course it’s not over if I’m still alive. I still have much to learn and I’m still not the man of Psalm 112. I hope I’m a little more that man. I hope I’ve grown even just a little in being “confident in the Lord.” He certainly deserves it. Through all the terrors and hardships of my entire life, He has always been there; He has always worked out all things for good; and I should be confident in Him. This whole thing has just been one more example of His kindness.

I don’t know. Right now, honestly, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. This one really beat me up. But then it was my own fear that did the beating. Had I really been “confident in the Lord” the whole time, there would have been no need for any of this trauma or terror. There wasn’t any need for it anyway. I just haven’t learned yet how to rise above it. It is completely my own mind, my own heart that creates the trauma and all the emotional fracas.

Well, I hope I have learned even a little, that perhaps in some small way I am stronger. If I am it is all the Lord’s doing. I want to be the man of Psalm 112. The Lord deserves that I should be that man, a man who doesn’t fear bad news, who is in fact confident in Him. I want to be stable like Him.

This may sound crazy but this has all been wonderful. It’s just like sports. I appreciated my awesome track and cross-country coach Louis Baker. I appreciated how he pushed me and nearly killed me (just kidding) and made me into a runner who actually ran miles down in the 4-minute range. The Lord is doing the same thing on a much bigger scale. He’s making me, slowly but surely into the man I want to be. And I’m glad He loves me enough not only to put me through it all but to endure all my childish whining, that He stays with me through it all, gives me lots of little expressions of love and kindness along the way, and just gives my life and my troubles meaning and purpose.

It’s not “over” of course and won’t be until He calls me home; but this is all exactly what I want Him to be doing in my life.

I don’t want to face any more pain, but I have to pray with Jesus, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.” On the other hand, I’ll pray with Jabez, “Keep me from pain, that it might not pain me!”

He is a wonderful Lord. I don’t know how anyone lives without Him!

And so we study on. In this life, everything ends with “to be continued …”

Just 'cause I want to include the words of the old Hymn,  "How Firm a Foundation."

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
Unto you, who to Jesus for refuge have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.


The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Psalm 112:6-8 – “Confident in Him”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁶Because to ages he will not be shaken,

     a memory of ages a righteous one will be.

⁷He will not fear bad news,

    His heart being established, being confident in the LORD.

⁸His heart being supported, he will not fear,

    Until which he will look on his enemies.

My last two blogs have been composed looking at these three verses even while I have been facing what to me are insurmountable trials. I concluded my exegesis of the verses, thought I understood them, then went to work and got clobbered by two terrifying situations. Then as I struggled through those, it seemed like my workload snow-balled to where I don’t see how I can possibly get it all done. All the while, I have been very aware this is all from the Lord, that He is (very kindly) wanting me to learn how to have a heart that is “established” and how to be “confident in the Lord” even while I face what to me are terrors.

I am very thankful He teaches me this sort of thing. I have lamented for years how I am so easily given to worry and fear and I certainly would love to become (someday) a man who “will not be shaken,” who “will not fear,” and who really is “confident in the Lord.” What my present trials prove is that I’m not there yet. But I want to get there. And I know the only way to get there is by exactly what is happening here. The Lord teaches me Scripture that is precisely what I need, then gets out His blow-torch to show me I don’t “got it” and then puts up with all my whining even while (hopefully) I really am learning (a little).

What really stands out to me this morning is the phrase in verse 7, “confident in the Lord.” Interestingly, it looks like verses 7&8 are a chiasm:

            ⁷He will not fear bad news,

                        His heart being established,

being confident in the LORD.

⁸His heart being supported,

he will not fear,

Casually surveying the psalm, it’s possible the whole thing is a chiasm and this is the apex – “being confident in the LORD.” That wouldn’t surprise me at all. That really is the key to all the other blessings in the whole psalm – being confident in the Lord. A legalist would take “fearing the Lord” and turn it into “all these blessings come to the man who obeys the Lord.” Grace would say, “That would be nice if you had it in you to obey the Lord, but the plain simple undeniable fact is that you don’t. Give up your hopeless quest for legalistic righteousness and instead fall into the arms of His grace. Be a Mary, sitting at His feet and falling in love with Him. As you grow in confidence in Him, in His wisdom, His kindness, and His goodness, you will more and more find yourself actually living those very “commands,” not because you’re legalistically “trying” but simply “because He is.”

Another thing I want to observe is that most translations render this phrase “trusting in the Lord.” As I was doing the exegesis, what bothered me was that the word translated “trusting” is a passive. I fear the translation “trusting in the Lord” changes it to an active, with the implication it is something I’m doing, that somehow I’ve achieved stellar success in choosing to place my trust in the Lord. That would be okay, I guess, but the word is not active. It is passive. You could literally translate it “being trusted in the Lord,” but that obviously doesn’t work. Finally I ran across another exegete who recognized the problem and proposed the translation, “confident in the Lord.” I don’t know if that yet quite accurately translated the passive, but it’s a whole lot closer, especially if, back to Mary, that confidence is not something I’ve “whomped” up but rather the fruit of my relationship with Him. I can see that is what I need, to actually be confident in the Lord. These assignments and events are from Him. He intends them for good. I need to simply trust Him and love my way through whatever it is that’s going on.

The other encouraging thought as I head back into the fray is II Tim 1:7, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a well-ordered mind.” A “well-ordered mind.” That’s the other thing I need. I thought of that verse, then wrote out all the things I have to do. Somehow, seeing them all lain out in one place, they don’t seem quite so impossible. I will try to keep that sense in my head, of when things need to get done, what it takes to get there, and tackle them one by one.

Well, God help me. I’m headed back to the fray. I pray I can go even just a little bit more “confident in Him.”

Psalm 112:6-8 – “Because He Is”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁶Because to ages he will not be shaken,

     a memory of ages a righteous one will be.

⁷He will not fear bad news,

    His heart being established, being confident in the LORD.

⁸His heart being supported, he will not fear,

    Until which he will look on his enemies.

As is often the case, close exegesis of this passage provides some interesting observations.

As I’ve noted before (and many before me), this psalm is, in a sense, a reflection of the one before it. Psalm 111 is specifically about God Himself and what He’s like. Psalm 112 then reveals that the godly man is in fact a God-like man. This reflectiveness is true in the verses before us and I think the parallelism in itself is instructive. In 111:7 & 8, we’re told that all the Lord’s commandments are “established, sure, steadfast” for ever and ever. In 112:8, we’re discussing the godly man’s stability and the same Hebrew word is used, saying that his heart is “established, sure, steadfast.” In 112:7, it was just said that the godly man’s heart is “steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” In that case it is another word for steadfast, but notice how beautifully it all fits together. God’s commandments are steadfast forever and ever and those who believe His promises will have a heart that is steadfast too – trusting in the Lord. His Word is sure so we can have hearts that are sure. He is stability and so we can be stable! We can be stable because He is.

I’ve lived long enough to know that I am anything but stable! Like the Biblical metaphor, without Him I am like a reed blowing in the wind, swayed by everything that blows for and against me. My heart in itself is anything but “established.” Whether it’s worry or lust or anger or laziness, it doesn’t take much to push me in any direction. This reminds me of how all my life I have enjoyed setting fence posts. It is cool to me to use the post-hole diggers, make a nice vertical hole, then drop in a post and either pack in dirt around it or even pour in concrete. The end result is a post you can grab and it notably does not move. You could run headlong into it and you will only get badly hurt. It does not move. God’s Word is that way. And there’s something in my heart that loves God’s Word in the same way I love those fence posts – because it’s so stable. Unlike me, it doesn’t move. It doesn’t shift around. It is what it is.

The wonderful news is that God’s Word actually allows me to be stable. Because His Word is established and sure and reliable, I don’t have to be blown hither and yon. He actually makes me stable even though I’m not. A hurricane force wind could blow against me, but I know that as long as I hold tightly to my fence post, I won’t get blown away. It’s not that I’m stable but my fence post is. It’s not that I’m stable but that He is.

I related in my last post how I’ve just recently gone through a terror at work. As I’ve bemoaned, my heart has been anything but stable. Traumatized would have been a better word. But through it all, I have been able to just keep working, keep trying to be kind to other people, keep doing whatever I knew I could to somehow survive this thing. In a sense I have been stable – it’s just that I’m not stable – it’s Him that allows my poor panicked heart to hold together.

It is interesting too in these three verses to note which words are active and which are passive. On the passive side, he “will not be shaken,” his heart “will be established,” he “will be confident in the Lord,” his heart “will be supported.” On the active side, “he will not fear bad news,” he “will not fear,” and he “will look [in triumph] on his enemies.” Notice that the passives – what is done to or for him – is all from the Lord; then because of what the Lord does, he is able to do what he does – not to fear bad news, not to fear (at all!), and ultimately to conquer his enemies. Once again, it is all the Lord.

Even as I type, it’s still all a terror to me. Hmmmm. I don’t want to “fear bad news.” I want to be “confident in the Lord.” It’s just that I have what feels like a LOT to do, a lot that is expected of me, but not the energy or the time or in some ways the know-how to make it all happen. I want to do it all. I want to do as much good as I can in this world in the short time I have left. I want to believe each opportunity is from the Lord Himself, it’s really Him that’s doing the good, and I’m just being His hands and feet. In that case, I know I can only do what I can do and He’ll make the impossible happen.

I guess it just comes down to learning how to trust Him (be confident in Him) while I face what looks to me like an impossible work load. With Him, nothing shall be impossible. In Psalm 111:6, I was reminded that is what He specializes in – the impossible.

Somehow I have to learn to stay stable (stay loving to others) while facing the impossible, somehow contenting myself to be doing what I honestly can, and being confident somehow the Lord will take my few fishes and loaves and bless them and break them and multiply them. “Go in this thy strength,” He told a terrified Gideon. “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Heart, be stable because God is.

I still have a lot to learn.

Psalm 112:6-8 – “Shaken”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁶Because to ages he will not be shaken,

     a memory of ages a righteous one will be.

⁷He will not fear bad news,

    His heart being established, being confident in the LORD.

⁸His heart being supported, he will not fear,

    Until which he will look on his enemies.

Well, this has been interesting. A week or so ago, I wrote out these verses in Hebrew, then dissected them, making sure I understood what they are (and are not) saying. As I read through them, about how a good man will not fear bad news, how He is confident in the Lord and will not be shaken, I thought to myself, “This makes perfect sense.” As I learned in Psalm 111, this world, this life, is all the Lord’s and He runs it quite well. I’m only a tiny part of what He is doing and in fact He will succeed in His great and wise plans for this world. I really have no cause to worry or fear anything, since my Savior King is running it all and has promised to do me good. That makes perfect sense.

I headed for work that morning very thankful for what He has taught me recently and for this wonderful security I can live in. I got to work and immediately got clobbered with two complete disasters. We’re doing one huge fifteen million dollar project where we are using a computer model to design a storm sewer system. As I was checking some work, I realized there was a serious error in the program and possibly everything we have designed (nearly all of it) could be trash. Then I got hit with another project that was supposed to be done about three months ago and yet another “issue” came up which could put it even further behind schedule. My heart went immediately into a holy terror!

I knew right away this was the Lord. Obviously, I had barely lain down my Bible, reading how a good man “will not be shaken,” how his heart is “established,” and how he doesn’t fear because he is “confident in the Lord.” I knew that is how I should be. I knew that I don’t need to fear, that the Lord will work all this out for good, and yet my heart was still in a complete terror.

Why? I believe I have faith and then I don’t. I believe I’m confident in the Lord, then I get hit in the face and my heart goes into a tailspin. I knew this is exactly where He wanted me to be. Staring straight into my heart. Basically, I’m a person who is “brave when the battle is distant.” I have faith until I have something to fear.

Shaken? Yeah, that’s pretty much me.

But He knows that. And so I go to Him and beg His help not only to somehow get me through this but also to somehow help me to grow in this business of having faith, of being confident in Him, of rising above fear – right in the middle of the battle, not when it’s a tale to be told or something hypothetical. This is it, I realized. This is precisely where I either have faith or I do not. I guess the plain fact is I don’t have much.

On the other hand I do. I do believe the Lord is over all of this – even these terrors. I believe He will turn it into something good. He always has. I am confident in Him. I just somehow need to learn how to let those beliefs conquer what I’m seeing with my eyes. I can totally see how a righteous man’s “heart is established” and “he will not fear.” I’m just not there yet. I am definitely “shaken.” Rattled. Traumatized.

As I said, all of this started about a week ago. Already, the Lord has made a lot of things work out so things are not as bad as I feared. But we’re not done yet. And I’m not done yet. The Lord isn’t done yet.

I sincerely hope that through all of this, He will in fact help me grow in living above fear. I know He will. I know He arranged all of this, in part, to accomplish exactly this. It’s too “coincidental” that He had me read these very verses, think I understood them, and then walk headlong into these terrors. It’s all Him and He’s all up to good. I want the good He’s up to – to teach me how to live above fear. And I want to see the good He’s up to – doing good in the lives of people I touch – the people of these communities who need someone to care and to give them good infrastructure to live their lives around, and the people I work with as I struggle through it all. I know it’s all good He’s up to. Lord, help me be a part of what You’re doing. And somehow give me faith to live it well.