Post Sunday September 21 2008

Psalm 22:1-8 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, "He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!"

A week ago on Monday, I knew I needed to stay up late to plow through some work I needed to get caught up on so I brewed some coffee. Drinking coffee at night is not really that enjoyable for me so I decided like in times past to throw it in the blender with some vanilla ice cream, milk and ice cubes. That way I benefit from the caffeine and have the added bonus of an extreme sugar rush! Well, we were out of vanilla ice cream, but we did have a little bit of Moose Tracks (vanilla ice cream with mini peanut butter cups and strips of fudge) Ice Cream left. I thought, now that would make a pretty cool shake, so I put the ice cream in, the ice cubes, the milk and as I looked at the blender I realized there really wasn’t that much ice cream, but I still decided to pour in all four cups of coffee anyway. I blended it up, the peanut butter cups and fudge all blended in rather nicely, which I thought was pretty cool, I poured myself a glass, sat down at the computer, got my work up in front of me and then I took a sip of my newly created concoction that I figured I would be sending in to Rachel Ray some day in the future. Can I tell you that it was one of the nastiest things I’ve ever tasted? Well, I’m telling you, it was one of the nastiest things I’ve ever had before. However, seeing I was hunkered down in my chair and I did not want to take the time to make more coffee, I drank it anyway. (Side note for curiosity sake: I’m not sure if it kept me awake due to the caffeine and sugar content or that it made me sick to my stomach, but either way that part of the experiment was a success!)

Thing is, each ingredient by itself was good. Moose Tracks ice cream rocks, no nutritional value, but it makes the mouth happy. Milk, well what can you say, it makes the body grow. Coffee, who can live without that? Ice cubes, frozen water, the liquid of life. Wouldn’t you figure that putting these perfectly good ingredients together would form an even greater product? That’s what I thought at least. I still believe I can make this mixture a future success, but I’ve got to balance the ingredients better, more ice cream, less coffee and the right balance of milk and ice. However, when you combine these ingredients with incorrect proportions you’ll be drinking one nasty drink full of perfectly good things, that I, I repeat, I happened to misuse.

Over the past three Sundays we have placed before ourselves some of the attributes (ingredients, make-up) of who God is. We have barely scratched the surface of the fullness of who He is! We have discovered a God of Grace, a God of Justice and a God that is ever present. Yesterday we read part of one of the Psalms of King David in Psalm 139. It was clear from the words penned by David that he knew God was ever present in his life no matter where he was or what circumstance he found himself in. Yet here we find in Psalm 22 the words that would one day be repeated by Jesus upon the Cross at Golgotha, “My God, my God why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34) Why have you left me, why are you no longer present in my life? Is David confused? Does his faith and how he views God change daily? David’s faith does not change. David’s view of God does not change. His feelings, emotions and circumstances change. If we are not careful we can allow these human traits that change, attempt to change an unchanging God.

Because our feelings, emotions and circumstances go through such a wide expanse over time it is all the more important that we come to know and deeply fall in love with an unchanging God. Read the entire text of Psalm 22, David swings back and forth. One moment he is clearly caught in the depth of his circumstance desperately wants God to do something and the next moment his undying trust in who God is shines through. One of David’s keys to his life is that he understands that he does not mix the ingredients of God’s attributes together to try to form a concoction that works for him. God’s attributes, His full make-up and nature are perfect and blended perfectly together. Is God a God of grace? Yes. Is He at the same time a God of Justice? Yes. Those two ingredients of God are mixed perfectly together. When we begin to taste God in a bitter manner there is a good chance of one of two things:

1. We are allowing our feelings/emotions/circumstances to determine who God is
2. We are trying to only see God as one ingredient while ignoring the others (example: Only seeing Him as a God of Love and ignoring that He is also a God of Justice)

David was honest and sincere enough to pour out his emotions to God all the while pouring out his knowledge of who God is at the same time. He made his requests, his desires, his fears, and his hopes before God and trusted that this perfectly mixed and blended God would do the right thing with them.

If we as believers and a church only focused on the love aspect of God and that nice warm feeling it gives, then we could just come on Sunday and play Journey, Chicago and Celine Dion songs and we would have that nice feeling when leaving church an hour later. We forget that love is not just simply making others feel good, love is also just. Would I really love my children if I did not handle their misbehavior in a just manner? (This of course would include reasonable punishment and correction, which of course in a child’s eye punishment and correction seemingly say I do not love you, but as we grow and mature we know that proper punishment and correction is where love and justice work together perfectly hand in hand)

Would an all present God truly be growing character within us if He always stepped in and fixed everything for us?

As I mentioned on Sunday, last year Ben broke his finger and I wasn’t there for it, I was there for his doctor’s appointments though. During one such appointment the nurses began cutting the bandages off his finger and tears flowed down his face and he kept saying, I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to see it, and so they left the final two layers on. The doctor came in and asked why the bandages were still on and the nurses expressed Ben’s desires to him and he asked Ben, can I take them off; I need to see your finger and Ben respectfully and tearfully said, no. He’s was only three at the time! So the doctor looked at him and said, well can you take them off for me then? At that moment, inside I frowned at what the doctor said and I was about to step in and do it for my son. To my surprise, Ben in tears reached over with his other hand and began the process of removing the final two layers, each time flinching in pain and more tears ran down his face and I just gently placed my hand on his back and watched his tearful determination. He got the bandages off and looked up at the doctor and simply said: “I’m done.” I was so grateful at that moment that I didn’t step in and that I let my son do it by himself, even though I was present. It was a very painful moment for my son, but his young heart was greatly strengthened that day. As I looked at my son again, I silently thanked God that even in his pain, there was a great purpose in it. Even at this early age God was providing opportunities for Ben to teach him how to be a man, I was so honored to be there. The perfect God who is ever present may be mixing things together differently to provide you and me an opportunity to grow.

David’s calling was to establish a nation in the midst of war and turmoil. His heart needed to be tested, his heart needed to pass those tests because God had even greater things in store for Him and David’s people would need him and be in need of his strong faith and his ability to manage his emotions even when his emotions thought in ways that contrasted who God really was.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. Do you think you allow your feelings/emotions/circumstances to govern your view of God?

2. What do you think you can do to strengthen your view and trust of who God really is?

pastor e