Peace that makes no sense at all . . .

 

 

READ Psalm 41-45

These days there is lots of talk about returning to ‘normal’ yet is there such a thing? Life is filled with ups and downs and I often say that normal is only a setting on the clothes dryer!

Today’s reading has very few ‘ups’ in it, mostly ‘downs’ — and those contrasts reveal what is normal, at least usual or common in the life of God’s people. The reading starts out with promises of protection, reputation and good health to those who take care of the poor and weak people in their midst:

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:1–3)

It continues as the psalmist speaks of God’s blessings because of his integrity, but as believers realize, even integrity is also a gift of God’s grace:

By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:11–12)

However, the next chapters tell of the downside. The psalmist is in turmoil because God seems missing and his enemies are making fun of him:

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:10–11)

For emphasis, this last lament is repeated in the next psalm, yet even at the bottom of the normal curve, he realizes that his situation will change and eventually he will again praise God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

The next psalm shows a rise in the writer’s life. His mood has changed for he is praising God instead of questioning Him. His confidence is not in his own resources but in His God:

You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah (Psalm 44:4–8)

This does not last long for soon he again is looking at his problems and feeling as if God has rejected him:

You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (Psalm 44:14–26)

I have the same ups and downs. Life is not a straight line and ‘normal’ is merely a wish. God wants me to be calm, trusting Him and knowing He is with me — no matter what is going on in my world or in the world in general. In Christ, normal is not about the news, nor having constant goodness and acceptable circumstances — it is about having peace in my heart:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7)

This peace surpasses understanding because it is a gift from God that is with me without any relationship to those constant ups and downs of life!

 

 

Following Jesus is worth what it costs!

 

READ Ezra 6-10

Much of OT history parallels the personal history of each Christian and the history of the church and redemption. The story recorded in Ezra is a pattern of revival. No doubt God’s people held captive in Babylon had prayed for a change in their situation of bondage to a pagan enemy, yet there is no record of that. In fact, the story begins with a change of heart in the pagan king. He was moved by God to allow the Jews to go home.

Some of them went home, but their work did not progress. Adversaries convinced another king to stop them, but then the Jews convinced another king to look for the first decree. This king, Darius, found it and reissued it in even stronger terms. Not only would God’s people be encouraged to rebuild their place of worship, the cost would be paid and all their needs would be supplied, including a vast number of animals for their sacrifices. His decree ended with these words:

“Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” (Ezra 6:11–12)

Another group went home and the work was finished in a few short years. The people celebrated the Passover, clearly an event that points to the saving work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Then Ezra was sent to teach them the Word of God. It is said of him:

This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him . . . . For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel . . . . (Ezra 7:6–10)

Then Artaxerxes the king, made a decree to all the treasurers in the province beyond the river that specified all needs that would be supplied, whatever Ezra required. This king said, “Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.” (Ezra 7:21–23)

When the next group left on their journey home, they fasted and prayed for protection. Anyone who has experienced a time of captivity to sin and has been touched by God in a renewal of their decision to obey Him knows the danger at that time. Our spiritual enemy does not want this to happen and the threats are real.

After their return, Ezra realized how deeply the people had disobeyed God and united themselves in marriage to foreign wives. These relationships typified a commitment to living in a way that had been strictly forbidden by God, not marriage per se, but union with a culture and belief system that was against God. This intermarriage must not be allowed.

All this is a pattern of revival. It can happen in stages but always with a renewed attitude toward sin; it must be abandoned. Rebuilding their lives was costly, yet the people had already experienced the fruit of freedom as they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. (Ezra 6:22)

Their choice and the results remind me of Moses who “choose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Hebrews 11:25–26) and of “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

So many think that following Christ robs them of ‘fun’ and while there are times of great difficulty and struggle, nothing can match the joy and peace that passes understanding that comes to those who are in the center of God’s will. This is where I want to be, today and always.