25. Probed!

God in the Psalms No.25    

Psa 17:3  Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin

What a staggering claim before God: you will find nothing. I suspect many insecure Christians would balk at this. To be able to say if God tests me for sin He will find nothing?  Yet that is the truth!  Let’s examine this verse more fully.

God who probes our heart?  Yes, the Bible says similar things a number of times: “O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind” (Jer 20:12), “acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” (1 Chron 28:9),  “The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man;it searches out his inmost being” (Prov 20:27), “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit” (Rom 8:27), “all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds” (Rev 2:23).

These verses show us a particular truth that must be very nervy – that God sees us through and through and nothing in us is hidden from Him. He knows every thought. The nearest thing we have in science fiction is telepaths, who can read the mind. We probably don’t think about this most of the time, that if Jesus was standing in front of us in the flesh, he would know exactly what we were thinking and feeling:   “Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” (Lk 5:22), “they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking” (Lk 6:8), “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them…” (Lk 11:17). Oh yes, you were unwise to stand before Jesus and think wrong thoughts!

But it’s more than this: though you test me!  The idea of the Lord testing us also appears in Scripture a number of times:  Ex 16:4 – “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” said the Lord to Moses about the people and the way they should collect the manna.  Deut 8:2 -  “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”  Judges 2:21,22 – “I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did.”  The intriguing thing about these three examples is that you would expect the Lord to know how the people would respond, but it is as if He wants their response to be publicly seen, so there is no question about how He dealt with them. The purpose of a test therefore is to reveal the true state of affairs. When the Lord tests our hearts, He wants to reveal their state – so that we too know our state!

 It’s then that we come to David’s assertion – you will find nothing. David was so sure that he had sought the Lord and put any thought of sin from him, that there was nothing left for the Lord to find. The New Testament challenges us with this. John wrote: “I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin…” (1 Jn 2:1) i.e. he didn’t expect to find us sinning. Paul also wrote similarly, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom 6:1,2). The Christian today should be free of Sin; that’s what the combined work of the Cross and the Spirit is about.

24. My right hand

God in the Psalms No.24

Psa 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

There are probably many times when we read Scripture but just don’t take in what it means. What does he is at my right hand mean?  Perhaps we’d better look, first of all, at general references to the right hand:

Gen 48:14  “But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger.” Israel put his right hand to make a special blessing. The right hand was seen as the hand of authority. Joseph saw what his father was doing and recognized its significance.

Ex 15:6  “Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.” Israel saw God’s destruction of Pharaoh as an act of His right hand. It is seen as the hand of power. See similarly Psa 17:7, 20:6, 21:8 etc.

Ex 29:20  “Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands”. The right side was the side designated hold, to be cleansed. The right hand was to be holy.

Psa 110:1  “The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand” Jesus is seated at God’s right hand in heaven. It is the place of intimacy with the Father and a place of rule. This intimacy is seen also in Psa 73:23, “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.” Have you seen pictures of little children holding the hand of their parent? There is a safety and security and intimacy there.

It is this last reference that perhaps impinges most on our verse from Psalm 16. It is first a sense of safety, closeness or intimacy. He first says, I have set the LORD always before me, which is an act of will on David’s part, a determination of attitude. It’s like that which Paul says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:2). For David, his heart is open to the Lord at all times (v.7), he seeks to have a God-awareness or, if you like, a God-consciousness, at all times.

When he knows the Lord’s presence is with him, he knows that God’s authority, power and rule are there, working on his behalf. Because of this he will not be shaken, and he will rest secure (v.9). Because of this he knows that the Lord will not let death come prematurely (v.10). When he knows the presence of the Lord, he knows there will also be joy (v.11), because the Lord isn’t just there, He’s there to bless. That’s what David means when he speaks of the Lord who has “eternal pleasures at your right hand” (v.11). God’s right hand is also a hand of provision.

Do you see the two sided aspect of this?  We have been considering all these pictures conveying all these things at God’s right hand, but David is referring in our verse above to his own right hand. He has an awareness that in all these aspects, God is there close to Him. When it comes to his own authority and power, his own safety and security, his own provision, they all exist because of the intimacy that He knows – the closeness of the Lord to Him. He purposes to ensure this: I have set the LORD always before me. He puts the awareness of the Lord in the foreground of his life, to ensure that he is always conscious of the Lord’s presence.  Yet, to give the whole picture, his psalms indicate the reality of life – sometimes we lose that sense of God’s presence and have to step aside, be quiet, wait on Him, until we regain it. He is what he is, because God’s there, close!

23. Our Portion

God in the Psalms No.23

Psa 16:5,6 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

There are two opposite beliefs that are both wrong according to the Bible. On one hand there is ‘determinism’, the belief that everything is predetermined and we therefore can have no say in our destiny.  The opposite extreme is the belief that there is nothing that directs life and that we are completely free agents in a free world.  Now the latter belief runs contrary to psychology which observes that our behaviour and therefore our outcomes are partially genetically predisposed (i.e. because of genetic makeup we have a tendency to behave in certain ways – but don’t have to) and partly formed by the experiences that we have had in life (but note again that we don’t HAVE to respond in predetermined ways!).

But there is a middle way, according to the Bible, which involves God. The Bible shows us that God gives us free will (otherwise there would be no point in Him saying do this or don’t do that, and then us doing the opposite – see the life of Israel), but that He also speaks and acts into this world and does things that change both us and our future.  Does God speak and work in such a way that we have no alternative but to go His way, that His provision for us is such that we will go His way?  The answer is probably mid-way between yes and no. There are clearly those who do not turn to the Lord at any time in their life, but David was not one of those. Later in the psalm he said, “I have set the LORD always before me” (v.8) indicating that he had entered into a relationship with the Lord and because of that, now a number of things followed. The first we saw in the previous meditation – that he had come to an understanding the God alone was good, and that God was his refuge.  Now he has this sense that God has allocated a certain secure life for him.

The apostle Paul when writing to the church at Ephesus, said, “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10). How far we take this depends on our faith level. The very least it means is that God has designed the lifestyle of Christians. i.e. when we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit will convict us and teach us the way to go (Jn 14:16,17, 26).  It is then for us to obey Him and apply what He says.  But it may also be that God who knows you through and through, who knows your gifts and talents and capabilities, also knows how you will be most fulfilled and so has plans for you that He wants to lead you into. This fits more into what David is saying.

Another expression of this same thing is seen in Psa 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” What this says is that if you make God your total focus, He will put desires upon your heart (that fit who you are) and will then lead you and bring those desires about.  Do you see this lovely combination of God’s activity harmonizing with your heart desires?  Yes, as we make the Lord the centre of our lives, we can, in a very real way, have a sense of being led into a life that is good, a life that is designed to match us perfectly, so that we have a great sense of fulfilment, a great sense of being in God’s will which is good! (see also Rom 12;1,2). Thus we can say with David, “I’m in a good place because God has brought me here!

22. God is Good

God in the Psalms No.22

Psa 16:2 I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

The idea that God is good almost seems too obvious to comment upon, but therein is the very reason we should meditate upon it, because very often we take things for granted so don’t think about them and don’t appreciate what we read. A dictionary defines ‘good’ as “having suitable or desirable qualities; promoting health, welfare or happiness; benevolent, not troublesome” and goes on to give reams more uses of ‘good.’ ‘Good’ signifies in our thinking something that is pleasant, something positive that we are happy with.

When David brought the ark into Jerusalem the song (psalm) he composed spoke of God in a variety of positive ways and in one line he declared, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (1 Chron 16:4). When Solomon finished the temple, they sang of the Lord this single refrain, “He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chron 5:13). When they sacrificed and fire came down to consume it at the dedication of the Temple, again they sang this single refrain of the Lord, “He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chron 7:3). When Zerubbabel laid the foundations of the new temple this refrain was yet again used, “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.” (Ezra 3:11), a refrain that cropped up various times in the Psalms (Psa 106:1. 107:1, 118:1,29, 136:1). When Jeremiah prophesied restoration, one of the signs of it would be that this refrain would be heard again (Jer 33:11).

David reminded himself of this truth when he needed lifting up: “according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.” (Psa 25:7), “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psa 34:8), “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.” (Psa 86:5), “You are good, and what you do is good” (Psa 119:68), “Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good” (Psa 135:3). In the midst of his terrible prophecies of judgment, Nahum declared, “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.” (Nahum 1:7). Jesus emphasized this when he replied, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone” (Mk 10:18). Peter knew something of this when he wrote: “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Pet 2:3). It is a truth that is repeated again and again

The result of this, we should see is that, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (Jas 1:17) – everything that comes from God is good!   Moses declared, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deut 32:4) and all of that description could be summed up in, “He is good!”  Everything that God thinks, says and does IS good.  Now this must challenge all casual talk about why does God allow evil, why isn’t God doing something. We may not know full answers this side of heaven but Habakkuk’s declaration, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD” (Hab 3:17,18) emphasises what he had learnt, the truth that God is good and can be trusted in the face of adversity! We feel negative when we look at the world around us, at what people are saying and doing and we realize than sinful mankind is not good, and we have to agree with David, “apart from you I have no good thing”. But we do have the Lord, and He IS good!  Hallelujah!

21. In the Sanctuary

God in the Psalms No.21

Psa 15:1   LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

When the psalmist asked this question, he was assuming something that was taken for granted: that God dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem. In Ex 25:8, speaking of the Tabernacle, the forerunner to the Temple, the Lord said, “have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”  Thus the Tabernacle became referred to as ‘the sanctuary’. When Solomon eventually built the Temple we find, “He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.” (1 Kings 6:16)  Thus the Most Holy Place (or ‘Holy of Holies’ in older versions) became the innermost place of the Temple referred to as a sanctuary.

So what is a ‘sanctuary’? Well do you notice the similarity to the word sanctify which means to set apart. A sanctuary is a place set apart for refuge, almost a hiding place. There is this sense to it – a place where God comes to dwell among men and women but is yet hidden away, a place where you have to go to seek Him out. Again and again in Scripture there is this sense of God being hidden away because of His holiness. Thus this ‘Most Holy Place’, the innermost part of the Temple was special and “only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.” (Heb 9:7) For most of the time the Jews simply referred to the whole of the Temple as ‘the sanctuary’.

But notice also the reference to God’s holy hill. Yes, Jerusalem was sited on a number of hills and the Temple was located on one of them. A hill is a distinct prominence, a feature that stands out, a feature that requires effort to be climbed. Often in Scripture there is reference to the mountain of the Lord (usually Sinai) and the picture is of ‘going up’ to the Lord, a symbolic picture of God being higher and separated off from the ordinary day to day life. The Temple is on a holy hill, a hill that is separated off for the purposes of God.  We saw previously in Psa 2:6 “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” God’s dwelling place on earth was in an elevated location that required effort to get to. Thus David asks the question, who is worthy to live in the holy Temple on this holy hill?  He then goes on to give a list of requirements of righteous behaviour that would be required of such a person.

Yes, it was moral behaviour that gave access to God. The list of things that follow in the psalm are indeed a good list to attain to, but what about when we fail?  This is where Scripture needs to be read as a whole. Failure was an accepted part of the life of Israel, and God provided for that by the sacrificial system. To approach God you had to come with a sacrifice that was given, first as means of your sin being transferred to it and to be carried into death (sin offerings), and then as a sign of your desire for friendship with the holy God (fellowship offerings).

When Jesus died on the Cross at Calvary, something particularly significant happened: “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Mt 27:51).  That immensely thick curtain that separated off God’s refuge from His people, was divinely split (it was too thick to be done by a man). Suddenly the way is open into God’s presence because Jesus has dealt with all causes of separation from Him in us. No longer do we have to strive to achieve worthiness to come to God, no longer do we have to appease with sacrifices. The sanctuary is opened to us by Jesus. Hallelujah!

20. Looking God

God in the Psalms No.20

Psa 14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

There are a variety of aspects of this verse that need considering. The first is the opening phrase: The LORD looks down from heaven. There is a sense here of the Lord who is enthroned in heaven, the Lord who reigns there, who is distinct, high and lifted up, separate, holy. The opening sense is of God who is distant and completely different from us. He is in heaven and we are on earth. He is superior and we are inferior. That is the clear divine order. But when we say looks down, we don’t mean he looks on us negatively and demeans us. The Lord understands us, He knows our frailty and He is still there for us. No, when it says He looks down, it is simply emphasizing His position, a place where He oversees all that happens on the earth.

The Bible tells us that the Lord sees all that happens on the earth. A good example of this was God coming to Moses at the burning bush, where He says, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people… So I have come down…” (Ex 3:7,8). There is the same sense in the Lord’s words to Satan in Job, “Have you considered by servant Job?” (Job 1:8, 2:3). Satan had been roaming the earth and the Lord had looked down and seen Job. It is the Lord who reigns on high but sees all below. Indeed in David’s words, we see that the Lord looks specifically on the sons of men, on mankind. He’s not just looking at the wonder of the earth; He’s specifically looking at mankind.

But then we’re told that He’s looking at men for a specific reason. The Lord is looking for those who are not corrupt (v.1), but who understand what is happening, who realize how awful it is, and who turn and seek after the Lord. There is in this, first of all a sense of the God who longs for fellowship. As we’ve previously noted, John wrote that God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and love is something that wants an object to express itself to. It is said that the Trinity communicated or fellowshipped between themselves even before they created the world. Fellowship and communication is a natural aspect of the Lord, and so it seems in Scripture that He is constantly looking to make Himself known to men and women, in order for them to have a relationship with Him.

But then comes something that is first of all quite terrible: He looks but cannot find anyone who fits that description.  First of all we are told there isno one who does good (v.1). Then we’re told, All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. (v.3)  This is the state of sinful mankind. Every one is tainted by this thing called sin. What is even worse, is that this includes Israel, the people called by God to be His people. They should be righteous, but again and again they fall away from the Lord. Will they not cry out?

The final verse of this Psalm reveals the true state of things: Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! (v.7). Did you see it?  When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. That is the truth: without Him they could do nothing. This is what is incredible: God who is perfect and holy, looks down on an imperfect and unholy people and takes action to bring them into a right place with Him. This was his work with Israel of old, and His work with us through Jesus. Without Him we’re lost. He doesn’t just look down; He comes down to bring salvation and blessing to us. How wonderful! Hallelujah!

19. Unfailing Love

God in the Psalms No.19

Psa 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

We live in a world of disappointments and of rejection. Because of the sinfulness of mankind, we experience rejection, of being let-down, of people failing us or not living up to expectation. A partner makes professions of love and then years or even months later, deserts us. We’ve learnt that you cannot trust people!

That’s why David’s declaration of trust is so helpful. He has come to a place in life where he has learned to trust the Lord, i.e. the Lord can be relied upon.  You remember when David arrived at the army camp, facing the Philistines, especially a giant named Goliath. Eventually he gets to see King Saul and is able to say, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Sam 17:37). He knew that he had experienced God’s enabling in the past and that could be relied upon for the present. So too, in this present psalm, he is able to have this confident assurance (trust) that God will always be there for him.

But this trust has a focus, for it is trust in God’s love. Possibly we take God’s love for granted, so perhaps we should pause over it. John told us that “God IS love” (1 Jn 4:8) so that everything about God is love, His words, His thoughts and His actions. Everything that comes from God, every expression of God IS love, and in case you’re not sure what love is (because someone professed it and it didn’t come to fulfillment), it is a benign, strong commitment and regard for another. It’s not just a mushy feeling. God’s love is a much stronger thing than that.

It is first a commitment.  That is why Moses was able to say, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” (Deut 7:9). Note there, a “covenant of love”. To help them appreciate it and trust it, God declares to this early people of His, that He covenants, or promises them, this love. It’s a lasting or ongoing thing. But it’s not merely a commitment to be around for you, it’s a commitment of good for you. Love “is ever ready to believe the best of every person” (Amp. 1 Cor 13:7). Moreover, love means that God is for us (Rom 8:31), everything He does is for our well-being, and that means all the time!

Which brings us to David’s description of this love: it is unfailing. If something is unfailing it means it is going on and on and can be relied upon. God will never withdraw His love because it is a natural part of Him Himself. Unlike the unfaithful partner, God will never leave you or forsake you, and because His very Being is love, you will always know His love. Now we do need to recognize that we can turn away from God and if we do that we will not be recipients of His love (Deut 7:12), but that isn’t because He wishes to remove His love from you, it’s simply because you moved away from Him and He is love and so you turned your back on love. As soon as you turn back to Him you encounter love again, because He is love. He is utterly unchanging and therefore whenever you encounter Him, you encounter love.  David knew that when he encountered God, he encountered love and that love always brought salvation – which is simply God’s rescuing process in whatever situation!  Isn’t that wonderful! Rejoice in it!

18. Communicating God

God in the Psalms No.18

Psa 12:6 the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times

In this Psalm in our verse today, we find something that seems so obvious and yet is something that few of us really believe. God is a God of communication. The Bible is all about God communicating. Verbal communication, communication with content, is a feature of humanity because we are made in God’s image (Gen 1:26,27) and the Trinity communicates between themselves, or God communicates with Himself if you prefer that. (Even in our minds we talk to ourselves).  Even to bring the world into being the Lord spoke a word and it was (Gen 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26), and then he spoke to man and gave instructions (Gen 1:28-30, 2:16,17). Even in bringing Eve into being, God spoke about it first (Gen 2:18). Thereafter we find records of God communicating with men of His choosing – after the Fall to Adam and Eve (3:9-19), subsequently to Cain (Gen 4:6-15), then in respect of the Flood and Noah (Gen 6:7 on), then to Abram (Gen 12:1 on), etc. When John refers to Jesus, he initially calls him “The Word” (Jn 1), a means of communications. The writer to the Hebrews starts his letter-book by, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1,2). Here is a wonderful truth – God speaks to His people.

Today God speaks to us through His word, the Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16,17) and directly by His Holy Spirit (e.g. Jn 14:26, 16:13). Why is it therefore that some of us are surprised at this thought and fear the thought of God speaking to us? Is it perhaps that we’re not sure about His nature?  Have you ever read C.S.Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”? If you have, you may remember the talk about Aslan the Lion, who Lewis uses to portray Jesus. One of the children, Lucy, asks, “Is he safe?” to which the reply is given, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”  Some of us have the same fears as Lucy. We fear the Lord in the same way she feared Aslan – but, of course, that was before she knew him. She had yet to meet him and know that he was ‘good’. Everything about the Lord is good. You can be safe with Him. You can trust Him. Indeed when it comes to all that he says, you can trust it, because it is good and right – it is flawless!

When we talk about a diamond that is ‘flawless’ we mean it is completely without defect of any kind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Now do we realize that the same is true of all that the Lord says?  He makes no mistakes. He is totally truthful and therefore never lies. He never distorts the truth.  In fact, says David, God’s words are like the most purified metals. Imagine the purifying process, taking out all the impurities from silver. Imagine the process being repeated and repeated until eventually there is absolutely nothing more of impurity to be removed, and it is now totally pure silver. That is what God’s words are liked. There is nothing, but nothing, that is impure about them. They are perfect and they can be utterly trusted. So, if the Lord says He will protect the weak, He will!  God never says anything that He will not do.  If He’s said it, He will do it! You can utterly rely on what he’s said. Now this is vitally important to understand as we read God’s word. We can believe it, we can trust it, and we can rely upon it. Remember, what God says, He will do. If it’s conditional, remember, we may have a part to play.

17. God of Contact

God in the Psalms No.17

Psa 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple

At first sight, in the context of the Psalm, this seems a strange reference. David immediately follows it by, “the LORD is on his heavenly throne” indicating that the Lord’s position is actually in heaven so the ‘temple’ he refers to is also in heaven. We need to understand what David means by ‘temple’.

At the time of writing, the Temple of God on earth had not been built – that was the task of Solomon, David’s son. References to temples in the Old Testament, before this time, largely referred to buildings where pagan deities were supposed to dwell, e.g. Judges 9:4, the temple of Baal-Berith, or Judges 16:23,26 which refers to the temple of Dagon. So, in the world’s terms, a temple was a place where you went to worship a deity. However, in 1 Sam 1:9 & 3:3 the word ‘temple’ is used of the tabernacle that God had instructed Israel in the wilderness to build, “a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Ex 25:8). David had had it in mind to build a house for the Lord (2 Sam 7:2) but the Lord had said that his offspring would build it (2 Sam 7:12,13). David understood that the tabernacle or temple was the place of meeting with God, the place of contact with God, that the Lord had established.

Yet now we find David referring to God dwelling in a ‘heavenly temple’, a dwelling in heaven.  Habakkuk was later to say, “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” (Hab 2:20) which was simply an instruction to beware, to the idol worshippers, meaning that God is in His dwelling, the place of contact with mankind, and so they had better pay attention to Him, because He was in their midst.

We have noted above that the tabernacle or temple was to be seen as a place of God’s dwelling in the midst of His people. It isn’t just a distant dwelling place in another galaxy; it is a dwelling place where His people may find Him. That is the point being made. If we want to find a particular person, we go to their home, their address. For the people of Israel, they gathered at the tent of meeting, the tabernacle (Ex 33:7), to find the Lord. Here is a significant point. Where was God?  Here is a question that has haunted people through the ages. Where is God?  For the people of Israel in the desert and later in the Land, if they had a doubt it was answered for them by going to the Temple. When the Tabernacle and the Temple were completed, on both times, as we’ve seen in previous meditations, the glory of the Lord filled them both (Ex 40:33-35, 1 Kings 8:10,11­). This was His way of saying, I am here.

Again and again throughout Scripture, we see that God is intent on making contact with the people of the world, with those who would respond to Him and become His people. In the New Testament, the apostle John came to understand a further aspect of this as he records Jesus speaking of his own body as a temple (Jn 2:19-22). This makes Mt 24:1 all the more ironic – the temple of God (Jesus) walking away from the glorious temple buildings built by Herod but now no longer containing the presence of God!  The writer to the Hebrews links these things, speaking of the earthly tabernacle (Heb 9:1,2) and the heavenly one (9:24). Both are places of contact with God. The latter one we have contact with today by means of His own Holy Spirit and one day we will go to be with Him in His heavenly dwelling and there live with Him for eternity. The primary point that is being made here, and in which we should rejoice, is that God had made contact with man and wishes to maintain that contact. How wonderful!

16. Helper God

God in the Psalms No.16

Psa 10:14 The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

It is believed that Psalms 9 and 10 were written as one with each stanza starting with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. At the beginning of Psalm 9 is the inscription: “To the tune of, ‘The Death of a Son”. In Psalm 9 David declares his praises for God having dealt with his enemy yet in the beginning of Psalm 10 David, if it is still David writing, asks why the Lord sometimes seems to stand off when there is trouble. This we considered in the previous meditation. He then goes on, seemingly in anguish, describing the awful activities of the wicked who hunts down the weak (v.2), ambushes and murders the innocent (v.8), catches the helpless (v.9) and crushes his victims (v.10). The wicked then denies that God sees (v.11) and says He won’t hold him to account (v.13) but, David says, He will deal with them (v.14 on). Yes, he says, God will defend those who are left fatherless by the tyranny of murderers.

Israel knew God as the defender of the weak – of the fatherless and of widows (Deut 10:18, 14:29, 16:11,14, 24:17-21, 26:12,13, 27:19) – as the Law clearly showed them. God’s heart is clearly for such people in need, people who are weak and vulnerable. In this Psalm David seems to envisage the havoc caused by the wicked and those who are left in the wake of their work. It is a psalm that picks up on the worst injustices of the world, where orphans are left in the wake of the plundering of evil men. This psalm faces the most awful atrocities of sinful mankind and the resulting anguish – of being left fatherless and vulnerable. The father is a picture of security, the head of the home protecting his family and when he has been snatched away by evil, the family is left weak and vulnerable, especially the children who are physically weak, emotionally immature and socially unwise. It is a terrible picture!

There it is, utter blackness in the face of gross evil. There seems no hope in the face of the strength of evil – and then comes God. Previously we have seen God described as a shield, a refuge and a stronghold. We have seen Him as the One who is enthroned, the King who is ruling, so why do these awful things happen, why are there the fatherless? The answer must be that God has given us free will and that includes free will and free action for those who are evil. If, in the sinfulness of mankind, other strong men do not stand up to evil then it will reign. Yes, sometimes God allows it to reign as judgement against godlessness and unrighteousness. It is as if he steps back and lifts off His hand of restraint (see Romans 1:24,26,28) so that evil men are free to do what they want – and death ensues.

But then there is the next generation who are left fatherless and vulnerable, and it is to them that God comes. He is there for the weak and the vulnerable; He reaches out His hand to them in an offer of restoration – but he will not force Himself on them. See what David says, “The victim commits himself to you”. When those who are left turn to God and put themselves in His hands, He is immediately there for them. Watching the history of Israel and the way God dealt with them – it never has to come to this if there is righteousness and godliness. However, if there is and judgement ensues, it is never judgement that excludes the next generation from the knowledge of God; they can still seek and find Him. While we are still alive, it doesn’t matter what awful things have gone before; we can still reach out to God and He will be there for us, because He is the God of the fatherless, the One who comes to the survivors with outstretched arms. He is there!