Don’t think God is like me

The Lord is my shepherd . . .  (Psalm 23:1)

David wrote the 23^rd and other psalms as a response to situations in his life. Many times the Lord rescued him from his enemies, including Saul who often tried to kill him. Psalm 18, like Psalm 23, is an offering of praise for those times of protection. 

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies (1-3) . . .  He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. (17–19) . . .  This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? (30–31) . . . The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation— the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who delivered me from my enemies; yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me; you rescued me from the man of violence (46–48).

As I read, modern songs based on these words came to mind. With David, God’s people continue to praise God for being our Rock and Fortress, our Shield and Deliverer. He continues to support us in our troubles and rescue us from our enemies.

David said, “This God – His way is perfect . . .” and I thought on the words, “This God . . .” and wondered about those who worship not “this God” but a God of their own invention. It is the tendency of humans to think God is like us rather than we are made in His image. Because of these ideas, these verses popped out . . .

With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. (Psalm 18:25–27)

My dad used to say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” which can hints that what beholders see might not actually be there. Sadly, beholders can also invent what God is like, and according to David, base it on their own character and qualities. That is, those who are merciful understand God to be merciful, but those who are crooked think that God is like that too. The verses say that God even reveals only that what we think about Him, rather than all there is to know about Him. This gives me much to think about.

It certainly shows me something about my understanding of God. While I would not say this aloud or teach it, I’ve often inwardly viewed Him as one who does not say much or communicate freely. This is not what the Bible says about Him, but deep inside I’ve supposed that He really would rather talk to someone else than me, or not speak at all.

However, when I look in the mirror, I can say that about myself. Much of the time I don’t like talking. These verses shout at me that while this is true about me, but is not true about God. I see Him that way because, according to David’s line of thinking, I do not freely express my own heart. Therefore, God shows Himself to me as one who also does not freely express Himself to me either.

After two months of studying prayer, today’s message is loud and clear. Open up. Talk. Speak to my Shepherd with greater freedom. Stop assuming He will be silence and stop shutting Him out with my silence. Stop mulling over things as if I cannot tell Him all about it. He lives in my heart, and obviously already knows all about everything anyway.

Being teachable is key to learning

I’ve been a long time understanding that teachable people are those who realize that they don’t know everything. Academically, I could say that I don’t know it all, but practically have often acted like it. Like Job, the wake up call comes from God.

Job was the object of a faith test. He didn’t know it. All he knew was that almost everything dear to him had been destroyed or taken, including his health. He was upset and wishing he had not been born. His friends came to him with accusations. In the theology of their day, they assumed that God blessed the righteous (which He does) and punished the wicked (which He also does). For that reason, Job must have done something wrong.

Job insisted that he was unaware of sinning against God in a specific sense. He ranted for pages of his innocence and that God was silent and not explaining Himself. His friends held their ground. He must have done something to merit the state that he was in.

Finally a younger man came and opened the idea that God is God. Then the Lord Himself spoke. He pointed Job to His creative power, giving him a long look at all that He had done and could do. Job was shattered. He realized that his rant was mere blabbering. He said:

I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:1-6)

Job thought he understood God. This is why his circumstances made no sense to Him. God showed him that he didn’t understand much of anything. Job wisely realized this is true and repented of his rash attitude. Then God restored to him what he had lost.

The Bible does not say that Job had a know-it-all attitude before all this happened to him or that God used dire circumstances to change him. In fact, God actually said that Job was a righteous man, upright in all he did. Yet Job learned from his experience and humbled himself before God, admitting that God had reasons for what happened in his life and that all God did was “too wonderful” for him. He used this word in the sense of “full of wonder.”

When people expressed curiosity about God’s purposes or struggle with what God has in mind as things happen in their lives, I used to try to figure it out as if I knew the mind of God. Life, and reading the book of Job, shows me the folly of such presumption, even the sin of it. Who am I to understand what God is doing? His ways are higher than our ways!

Yet the oddest thing happens when I’m willing to admit my vanity. God begins to reveal to me more about Himself and lets me in on what He is doing. Like Job, when He shows me how little I understand, then I begin to see the wonder of who He is and what He can do.

Name it and claim it?

When I became a Christian, I thought that God would be something like my dad. I had been a sick child and my parents were told I would not live beyond sixteen, so my dad gave me most of what I wanted. Of course I soon discovered that God is not like that. While He supplies everything I need, He is not a genie in a bottle or my personal servant.

That experience makes me sensitive to the fact that many people come to God with expectations, and their desires are often so strong that they read them into every promise in the Bible. They assume God is there to grant them all their wishes and fulfill all their hopes. Some even say that if you are not getting what you want, it is because you don’t have enough faith, or because Satan has you bound. Many subscribe to what is called a “name it and claim it” philosophy, but this is not faith in God as the wise and sovereign Lord of their lives, but a ‘faith’ that wants God to be their personal servant.

In my own life, this notion at first seemed a childish idea of God. Many children adopt it, sometimes unconsciously, since their father is the human in their life with the most power and authority. However, as I grew in my faith and in my knowledge of God and of myself, I realized that thinking this way was just another way to be selfish. My dad didn’t always let me have my own way, or let me do my own thing, but if I could get God to do what I wanted, I would retain control of my life. Who then is the god in this arrangement?

This is not to say God is a meanie and will never give me anything that I desire. It simply means that I do not pull His strings. Israel is an example. That nation was God’s choice to bring His truth to the world. However, they were not obedient to Him, so He sent them into captivity where they learned some valuable lessons. He also sent a prophet to tell them what would happen to them after that experience:

For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

God’s greatest desire for His people is not plush comfort, but freedom from the bondage of sin and rebellion. He knows what is best for me; He created me. He also knows how to produce in me a desire to love and follow Him. Sometimes that requires hardship for me, but in the end, I will not only call on Him and find Him, but I will enjoy Him and enter into that abundant life that Jesus promised.

In other words, God works in my life to produce obedience with a Christlike attitude, and this is a priority over riches, comfort, even health. While not every poor or sick person is being disciplined by the Lord, that cannot be ruled out. Neither can anyone postulate that God wants all of us wealthy and healthy. We will be that—in heaven, but this is not heaven.

In fact, if I were never sick, never in pain, never in trouble, totally exempt from trials, then I would have reason to be greatly concerned. The Bible says:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (Hebrews 12:5-8).

On the other side of the coin, consider Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Satan promised the Lord everything in this world if He would just worship and follow him. When I want everything in this life, and think that God somehow owes me or will give it to me, who am I really following? Scarey thought.

Medical update: At bedtime last night the colors began to appear. This morning the side of my face is swollen and in various shades of green and black. Still very little pain though, for which I am thankful.