Psalm 119: Prayer for Purity through the Word of God

Psalm 119 was written as an acrostic of sorts (in Hebrew each line in an individual section begins with a different letter of the alphabet) and was likely used in the training of children. In other words, it is also likely this prayer-song was firmly embedded in the minds of the men of Israel not only for their lifetime but for generations.

So it ought to be with us. How we ought to pray this prayer fervently from our hearts, desiring God to purify us through His Word, pleading with Him to grant us a love for His ways, His laws, His will! Remember: What better way is there to pray than to pray the prayers authored by the Holy Spirit for His holy ones to use in their daily prayers? God will hear such prayers—I have no doubt whatsoever—when we offer them up from our hearts as well as by our lips.

How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O Lord!
Teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I have declared
All the judgments of Your mouth.
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate your ways.
I will delight myself in your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

My soul clings to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.
I have declared my ways, and You answered me;
Teach me Your statutes.
Make me understand the way of Your precepts;
So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.
My soul melts from heaviness;
Strengthen me according to Your word.
Remove from me the way of lying,
And grant me Your law graciously.
I have chosen the way of truth;
Your judgments I have laid before me.
I cling to Your testimonies;
O Lord, do not put me to shame!
I will run the course of Your commandments,
For You shall enlarge my heart.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;
Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies,
And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,
And revive me in Your way.
Establish your word to Your servant,
Who is devoted to fearing You.
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your judgments are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
Revive me in Your righteousness.
(vv. 9–40)

Thinking about Tomorrow

“Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1)

If you think you are in control of anything, think about tomorrow. For that matter, think about yesterday. You cannot change the past—as much as you sometimes wish you could—and you have absolutely no control over the future. You do not know what that next day, next year, not even the next moment, will bring forth. A man’s heart may well plan his way, but there is Another who directs his every step (Proverbs 16:9). Not we, but only He not only knows the future but has it completely in His control—for His glory and our good.

If that is a scary thought to any of us, that is because we are still far too jealous for control in our lives. But if it is God’s will we truly want, and if it is God alone in whom we trust (as our money still says), and if we believe God has been good to us thus far, then we will lay down any claim we have to power or control or manipulation of events and gladly anticipate and receive with joy whatever it is He has coming down the pike for us. Think about it: Do you really trust yourself that much, I mean, to orchestrate future events, even if only for yourself? Talk about scary thoughts!

Trusting in God this way for our future comes from the same sort of heart that gives thanks for all the past. Whatever God has done is good. Whatever. If it had not been for God’s mercy and grace and providence and wisdom entirely driving and covering all things that have come to pass—it is unthinkable, of course. Could you have done better? Again, we sometimes think we could have, but honesty requires us to lay that one down too. Best to leave it all in God’s hands—past, present, and future.

None of this means we are to be passive, of course. One of the things God does is work in us “to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) We are called upon by this sovereign God to will things, to will His will, if you will—to desire and determine and decide what it is God desires from us. And we are then equally called upon to do it. But our doing it will be much closer to the kind of doing God desires the closer we are to the kind of people who trust in a God who is in complete control of everything—most especially the tomorrow in which we plan to do the pleasure of God.

No boasting in tomorrow but only trusting in the God who holds it. No “living in the past” but only the giving of thanks for all the good God has done in it.

“Lord God, You are the one who performs all things, and You perform all things well. We do not know what tomorrow holds, but we know You know, and we know You have planned it perfectly for our good and for Your pleasure. We give thanks to You this day for all things past, for all the wonders You have performed, for Your careful and gracious design, and we give thanks for all things future, trusting and knowing You will do all things well. Help us in our planning and doing to desire and to do Your will; guide us by Your Holy Spirit in every step that we might perform Your holy will. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Psalm 77: Hope in a God Who Does Wonders

I cried out to God with my voice—
To God with my voice;
And He gave ear to me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;
My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing;
My soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God, and was troubled;
I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

You hold my eyelids open;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old,
The years of ancient times.
I call to remembrance my song in the night;
I meditate within my heart,
And my spirit makes diligent search.

Will the Lord cast off forever?
And will He be favorable no more?
Has His mercy ceased forever?
Has His promise failed forevermore?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?

And I said, “This is my anguish;
But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember the works of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
Who is so great a God as our God?
You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah)

The waters saw You, O God;
The waters saw You, they were afraid;
The depths also trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
The skies sent out a sound;
Your arrows also flashed about.
The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
The lightnings lit up the world;
The earth trembled and shook.
Your way was in the sea,
Your path in the great waters,
And Your footsteps were not known,
You led Your people like a flock
By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Trust

“The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.” (Proverbs 31:11)

Many describe “trust” as the number one characteristic of successful marriages. Whether it is number one or not, it is certainly among the chief, and there is no good marriage without it. The best kind of woman is the one who is trustworthy. When a man is looking for a wife, or evaluating a woman as to her fitness as his wife, he should seek to understand if she is counted trustworthy—by her parents, by her friends, by her employer, etc.

The woman described by Solomon here is dependable, her word is good, she follows through with her commitments. And, as a result, prosperity ensues. If there is lack of gain, it won’t be because of her. The economy might crash, other “friends” may not come through, the weather may not cooperate; but this virtuous woman is a woman you can set your clock by. She will be there, with her hat on, sleeves rolled up, and ready to think, do, and say whatever love and devotion call her to. She loves her husband and desires his success, and so this is what she pursues with a passion.

But a man can hardly expect trustworthiness out of a wife if he is not completely trustworthy himself. Not only will his faithfulness, reliability, honesty, forthrightness, integrity, loyalty, and devotion encourage and be an example for the same in her, but, just as surely, the absence of such things will undermine the relationship whether she is trustworthy or not. Again, no relationship can survive where trust is not present, and broken trust robs the relationship of the necessary atmosphere it needs for trust to be able to breathe and thrive.

Likewise, when a husband does not freely give his trust to his wife, e.g., if he treats her as though she cannot be trusted with the cares of the household, or if he is continually telling her how incompetent she is, she will grow neither to trust him nor herself—and again the marriage breaks down. Trust is essential, and trust must be given as well as earned. A woman’s (or, for that matter, anyone’s) maturity and success depend on our trusting them enough to give them the room and responsibility to build and demonstrate their trustworthiness. Belittling criticism, crippling perfectionism, and prideful micromanagement have destroyed trust in as many relationships as anything else. A faithful husband loves his wife and pulls for her success as equally as he expects her to pull for his, and in this way the whole ball of trustworthiness in their relationship is bound up and repeatedly fed by love.

As with all else, trust between husband and wife begins and ends with their respective trust in and devotion to God. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5, 6) is the only true foundation for trustworthiness in marriage or any other relationship. If we devote ourselves to the “gain” or success of God’s glory and kingdom by trusting in His Word and His ways, we will be more and more successful in becoming those who can be relied upon by others. After all, this virtue as all others is understood and known best when looking to God: Who is more trustworthy than He?

“Heavenly Father, we give thanks for Your trustworthiness and faithfulness and pray You would make us trustworthy in all of our relationships—uppermost in our relationship with You and second uppermost in our relationships with our spouses. By Your grace, help us to restore any trust that has been broken, and build in us by Your Spirit and Word the trust that is necessary for the success of any marriage. We pray this by faith and in the name of the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Far above Rubies

“Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.” (Proverbs 31:10)

I give thanks to God this day (as all days) for my wife. I was not altogether a fool when I found her, but I was enough of one then for me now to say that I owe it all to the grace of God that I ended up with such an excellent woman, such a virtuous wife. One of the marks of her being such a woman is that she has such a hard time believing that she is. But she aspires to be, longs to be, and that desire, itself a precious gift from God, is what has made her so to excel. She was a rare find when I found her, and now after more than a quarter of century later, she is rarer still.

What kind of woman is this woman Solomon describes? For one thing, she is a woman worth finding, that is, worth looking for, worth waiting for. She is a rare woman, the cream of the crop, so to speak, a noblewoman, a leader among women. She is the kind of woman God wants every son of His to have—as well as the kind of woman God wants every daughter of His to be.

She is a virtuous woman, a mighty woman, a woman of valor, the excellent woman. She is all of these precisely because she is a woman “who fears the Lord.” (Proverbs 31:30) She loves God best above all else, and therefore all else finds its perfect place in her life. She serves God first, and therefore she serves others—and herself—well. She prays to God, asking for His help in all areas of her life, and therefore the other areas of her life receive the help of God. The foundation for all of the excellencies in her life is her faith in God who blesses her so as to excel.

Her worth is far above rubies. In another spot Solomon puts it this way: “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers,/But a prudent wife is from the Lord.” One can have all the wealth and property, power and position the world has to offer, but none are as valuable as a good and godly woman. A man should devote himself far more (in prayer, in contemplation, in preparation, etc.) to his “search” for a good wife than he does to seeking after wealth. And while he should give thanks for “houses and riches,” he should be far more thankful for the good wife God has given him.

Let a man himself be worthy of such a wife: if she is worth far more than diamonds, how much more should he be worth all the gold and silver in the world. To have a good spouse, one should be the kind of spouse who will both attract and complement the best of mates. God make me such a man. God make both of us all He wants us to be, that we might glorify Him who is worth all honor and excellence and virtue from the crown of His creation.

“Lord God, we give You thanks this day for virtuous women, and we pray for our own wives and daughters and mothers that they would be such women as love You and worship You and delight in You more than anything else. Grant to our sons such women for wives, and make of them such men as deserve them. Grant that we all may excel in virtue, pursue Your perfections, and model our lives after our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose glorious name we pray. Amen.”

Love Thyself

He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
He who keeps understanding will find good. (Proverbs 19:8)

He who disdains instruction despises his own soul,
But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. (Proverbs 15:32)

There is a common teaching among Christians that one must learn to love oneself before he can ever hope to learn to love others. This teaching is based on one of the two “great” commandments, quoted by Christ from the Law: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Bible, however, in one sense already presupposes that we love ourselves, and in fact states in one spot (Ephesians 5:29), “No one ever hated his own flesh.” It would seem self-love to the exclusion of other-love is far more the problem than not.

We can, however, love ourselves either wisely or foolishly. The first proverb quoted above states it positively: If you are really going to love yourself, if you are really going to find good for yourself, if you really want to pursue happiness and blessedness and satisfaction for yourself (and who doesn’t?), then the way to love yourself truly is through the pursuit of true wisdom, the kind of wisdom that is found only in God the source of all wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10) So, yes, we must love ourselves in order to love others; but the only way truly to love ourselves is to love God and pursue the one path of wisdom He has designed for all those who love Him.

The other proverb presents the same thing from a negative point of view: If you hate the wisdom of God, if you despise His rebukes and His instruction, then you hate yourself. There is no “nice” way of putting this. Hate God and hate His wisdom, and you most definitely despise and abhor yourself. You may be selfish in not loving God, but you are foolishly selfish, because you are doing the worst thing in the world for yourself: you are hating your self’s greatest Good.

Do you love yourself? Then love yourself wisely and do yourself the greatest favor you can: Love God uppermost and pursue His way of wisdom rather than foolishly rejecting His loving rebukes and all-wise instruction. Love wisdom, and she promises to love you back (Proverbs 8:17); “love her, and she will keep you” (4:6). You cannot learn to love yourself, not truly, apart from learning to love God. Rather, you will learn to love yourself best by learning to love God and His ways.

“Great God in heaven above, teach us to love ourselves wisely by loving You above all and by pursuing Your way of wisdom. Teach us as well to love our neighbors as ourselves by leading them to love You and by loving them as You have loved us. We give thanks this day for Your love and Your wisdom and for granting them to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 8: Excellent Lord

To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.


O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set your glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that you visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen-
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 141: Let the Righteous Strike Me

In crying out to the Lord for deliverance from his enemies, the psalm pray-er cries out equally for deliverance from his own sins, from his own temptations, welcoming the rebukes and correction of the Lord and of His righteous people. Otherwise, how is he any different from those who persecute him? This shows the heart of the one praying: He is not simply longing for deliverance so he can escape his trouble (he welcomes the rebukes of the righteous), but rather he looks for deliverance that he might live before the Lord in righteousness. Likewise, he does not pray for the downfall of his enemies out of sheer vengeance or self-preservation but that their wickedness might fail. The desire of his heart is that righteousness prevail—and the Lord is inclined to hear his prayer because that is the Lord’s desire as well. Pray with such a heart and for such a heart with which to pray!

Lord, I cry out to You;
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.

For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are sweet.
Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave,
As when one plows and breaks up the earth.

But my eyes are upon you, O God the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.

Choices and Rewards

“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward.” (Hebrews 11:24–26)

All misery is the result of sin in the world, and all sin rewards us with misery. We have inherited misery from our forefathers’ sins, we are miserable because of others’ sins against us personally, and we are miserable due to our own damnable sins. It is impossible for us always to know which misery comes from which specific source, but when it is all said and done, where misery is, sin is involved somehow, even if the only one we know to blame is Adam!

For all that, however, God calls us to suffer. “In this world you will have trouble,” Christ said. (John 16:33) “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” wrote Paul to his beloved Timothy. (2 Timothy 3:12) To the Philippian church he wrote, “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” (1:29) The Christian life is chock full of blessings and joy and the most wonderful things imaginable—and a goodly amount of misery.

The choice for us to make is which misery we are going to take for ourselves. Are we going to take the misery that accompanies godly living, as Moses did (as did Paul and Timothy and the Philippians et al.)? Or will we choose the misery resulting from “the passing pleasures of sin”?

For sin not only produces misery—it is pleasurable. If sin did not contain pleasures, who would partake? The pleasure stolen from God's creation is what makes sin so attractive in the first place. But here is the important point not to miss—the point between heaven and hell, actually: the pleasures of sin are passing, while the misery sticks around forever.

So again we have the choice before us, the choice facing Moses in the courts of Pharaoh in Egypt. We are going to suffer one way or the other, and we are going to experience pleasure one way or the other. If we choose the way of sin, the pleasure is passing and the misery eternal. If we choose the reproach and sufferings of Christ, the misery is ephemeral, relatively speaking, but the pleasure deep and weighty and everlasting. Faith always takes the second option, looking out ahead to the final and lasting reward, not the present fleeting one.

“Heavenly Father, grant us the grace to suffer for Christ’s sake and to choose suffering over sin every time. We give You thanks that not only Moses but especially our Lord Jesus suffered for our sakes that we might know the eternal bliss of His joyful presence. And we pray in His name. Amen.”

Everlasting Temple of God

Jesus answered them and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

(John 2:19–21)

The Body of Christ is a temple.

Just as in “Herod’s” Temple in Jerusalem (the temple to which the Jews refer here, the temple Jesus had just swept clean with a whip of cords), there are sacrifices—of the lips, of the heart, living sacrifices—in the Body-of-Christ temple. There are priests in it who pray and proclaim the Word of God. Praise to the heavenly Father is lifted up in this temple day and night. And the holy shekinah of God Himself resides there. Beautiful is the Body of Christ, as beautiful as ever shone the glistening gold and polished stone of the first-century temple on Mt. Zion.

There are differences as well, however. Herod’s Temple is no more, decimated to its last foundation only forty years after Jesus’ triumph and never rebuilt. The temple of the Body of Christ, on the other hand, has risen from its destruction, just as Jesus predicted, never to be destroyed again. The Body of Christ has been and will be persecuted in innumerable ways, but she will never be taken out.

Thus the worship of God continues forever, world without end. And all those who take shelter in this Temple-Risen-from-the-Dead will never die either, their voices preserved for the glory of God, their hearts rewarded for their undying praise.

“Great God in heaven above, we give You thanks for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and for our resurrection in Him. Thank You for establishing Your Church on the foundations that will stand forever, Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. We pray, dear God, You would cleanse us and make us holy, that we as the Body of Christ might bring You glory and pure worship, and we pray You would fill us with Your Holy Spirit as You filled the temple of old with the cloud of Your Presence. For unto You alone belongs all praise and honor and glory and worship forever and ever. Amen.”

“Better-Than” Wisdom Fleshed Out a Little

“Better a dry morsel with quietness,
Than a house full of feasting with strife.”
(Proverbs 17:1)

Better a 750-square-foot apartment with a cramped but happy family,
Than 3000 square feet of luxury and constant fighting.

Better one small salary and a serene couple,
Than two lucrative incomes and a marriage strained to the point of bust-up.

Better to get by on pennies and be at peace with each other,
Than to load up on stuff and stuff and more stuff and then fight over it.

Better to be poor and content,
Than to be rich and never satisfied.

Better to picnic at the park,
Than to blow the bank on a vacation that begins and ends in an argument.

Better to sit down to your beans and rice with a clear conscience,
Than trying to digest ribeye on a guilty stomach.

Better wafers and "the cheap stuff" with the peace of Christ,
Than forty-dollar wine, a loaf of the finest, and strife and envy to go along with it.

Better a PB & J with kids under control,
Than fine restaurant dining with kids that are not.

Better fat souls with thin bellies,
Than full bellies and lean souls.

Better to have little and be grateful,
Than to have much and be easily peeved.

“Lord God, we give thanks for all You have given us, great and small, and we give thanks for peace in our midst. Grant us contentment with our “dry morsels,” and forgive us for striving and arguing and chafing when the feasting is so plentiful. Grant us wisdom to choose peace over prosperity when the choice is before us, and multiply our peace in our prosperity, O God. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Not for Cowards

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7–9)

All good things take courage. Cowards are shut out of the kingdom of God. (Revelation 21:8) Who are those who are “strong and courageous”? Those who love the Word of God and obey it; those who love the Word of God and fashion their lives according to it. Yes, it takes guts to be a Christian. It takes genuine courage to follow in the steps of Joshua.

At the point these words of God are spoken to Joshua, he is on the cusp of a new world. All of his peers (except one other courageous, Caleb) are dead, and the greatest leader of his time, who provided courageous in-the-face-of-danger-and-rejection leadership for forty years, has just died as well—Moses the man of God, the servant of Jehovah. Half of Joshua’s life has been spent in slavery; the second half wandering in the wilderness. Now he is being called upon—at the age of eighty—to lead all Israel in executing swift and terrible judgment on the heathen nations, conquering them in God’s name, and settling the land of Canaan, promised by God to His faithful.

The Word of God to Joshua? Seize the land, slaughter its inhabitants, divide it among the children of Israel, and judge them righteously as the servant of God. How is he to do all of this? Trusting in the God who alone gives victory—who unseats kings and exalts the lowly—by observing to do all His Holy Will revealed in His Holy Law. If God’s Word is on his lips and in his heart and at his fingertips, then Joshua will prosper and be successful. He will face impenetrable city walls and see them crumble; he will do battle with giants and see them run.

Christianity is the only avenue to true peace, but it is not a “peaceful” religion. Jesus (whose name is Joshua in the Hebrew, by the way) leads us ever onward into new territories, putting the sword of God’s Spirit in our hand, commanding us to engage with the enemy. There are sins—strong, old, deeply-embedded sins—in ourselves, in our families, and in our culture that deserve nothing but the slaughter mentality: “By the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh.” (Romans 8:13) It takes courage to face them and do them in, but face them we must, the Word of God our only light in doing so. There are nations to conquer with the gospel of God, kings to be converted, civilizations to be built with the cross of Christ at the center. This always takes courage and strength, and these are supplied in abundance to those who will follow, laying down their lives for the sake of their Lord who is with us in the midst of the battle, wherever we go.

Be strong and courageous! God will make you to prosper—if You follow Him as He leads you by His Word into strange and wonderful worlds where the Word of God reigns supreme.

“Great God and Father of us all, we ask that You would make us like Joshua, and grant to us the strength and courage to do Your will, to obey Your Word, to do battle with sin, to face off with giants. We pray You would make us to prosper and be successful in all to which You call us—implant Your Word in our minds, on our tongues, in our hearts. We give thanks to You for all the strong and courageous men and women who have faithfully brought the kingdom to our doorstep, and we pray we would be like them inasmuch as they are like our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Spirit Sticks

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

My step-father, Onis Smith, is one hundred years old. (I have told him that I sure hope I get his genes!) Like just about everybody you meet from a century ago, Onis grew up on a farm—and he worked a farm himself until he became an electrician. He put in just about all of the electricity in that part of North Arkansas—a lot of it before he had it in his own house! But I stray—as I was saying, Onis is three-parts farmer, and boy does he have the proverbial green thumb. He can make anything grow and produce.

When he and my mom (now 86) got married about thirteen years ago, he took what was to all appearances a mere stick from his former residence and stuck it in the ground in their back yard. Just a few years later hundreds of delicious figs were being harvested from that “stick,” and as far as I know, are still to this day (they have since relocated).

When we (the Izards) moved into our current house almost five years ago, Onis gave me a stick—literally—from that same tree. He had been using this stick as a stake for one of his pepper plants. My tree has not grown as quickly, of course (those green thumbs really do come in handy), but there it is in my own back yard, loaded with its own figs—for which I am abundantly grateful come harvest time.

God is a producer. God is love, yes, but He doesn’t just sit on His love or “feel” His love—He produces love. Wherever God goes, love takes root, blossoms, and bears fruit—the same with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—where these things are popping up in earnest, the Spirit of God has been dropping sticks of His own!

We are the branches—the sticks—of God. The Gospel of John says that if we abide in Christ the Vine, we will bear much fruit. What kind of fruit? The same kind God bears. We may not look like much compared to the Tree from which we fell—to begin with, just an old stick that seems worth throwing on the burn pile. And depending on the kind of green-thumb nurturing that goes on between times, we may not bear as much as the next tree (I’m on the stubby side, in more ways than one). But if we are cuttings from the Old Stock, we will be producing, to one degree or another, the same love/joy/peace/etc. as God Himself.

“God, we are nothing apart from You. But with Your Holy Spirit residing in us, and us in Him, we can do all things—even bear the fruit of God in love and joy and peace and all things good. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, dear God—may His sap run through us, producing in us and through us the same fruit You have always produced and always will produce in those You have borne Yourself. We pray You would do this for Christ’s sake and in His name. Amen.”

Good as God

“Now behold, one came and said to Him [Jesus], ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’

“So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.’. . .

“The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’

“Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’”

(Matthew 19:16–21)

My six-year-old son Ian received a sucker this week in Sunday school. It was one of those specialty suckers—made entirely of sugar, of course, like all the rest—but this one not only was fashioned in the form of a snail, but you could eat the stick as well. He was thoroughly impressed, and I was too.

As we prepared to sit down to Sunday dinner, his mother investigated: “Now why again did you get this sucker?” I had not thought to ask this. I had thought it was merely a gift, but my wife knows many things I do not—she senses them, intuits them.

I think Ian had probably forgotten momentarily the why part of the equation as well. He seemed more interested in that he had gotten a sucker rather than why. Nonetheless, the truth was called forth from the now-ancient (three-hours-earlier) past.

“It was because I was good as God.”

I know he was not meaning to be blasphemous. Even I can intuit that much. Language is a really funny thing with six-year-olds. He says things like this all of the time—like, “Let me ‘tell’ you a question”—the grammar teacher has learned much patience. The theologian in me gets a little more anxious, however. Regardless his actual meaning, I was quick to the correction. “I am proud of you for being good, Ian—What? All of the other kids got suckers, too? Well, whatever the case, look—nobody is as good as God. But we are all supposed to be trying to be good like God. Maybe you mean to say you were being good ‘like’ God.”

Maybe. Who knows? And who knows what lessons of mine really sink in? Sometimes he soaks up a lot more than I give him credit for.

It is a lesson hard for grown-ups to grasp, not just six-year-olds. There are some people who act like they really do believe they are “as good as God.” Indeed they are like God in this way: they never apologize, never ask forgiveness, never even admit fault. Intellectually, they know “we are all just human” and “nobody’s perfect”; but, practically speaking, they function as the exception to the rule, having built up seemingly sturdy walls of defense against the reality of their own actual imperfections and uglinesses and sins.

Here is another problem, though. Because we all know we are not as good as God, and because we know good and well we ain’t never gonna be (see, I can let my grammar hair down), we tend to be altogether too lax about shooting for the goal—which is, guess what, to be as good as God. Jesus said to His disciples, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The mark is set high, and, looking to God for grace, we are to jump with a sincere desire to reach it. Our desire should be to be as good as God, and our actions will always reflect our true desires. In fact, because of the Christian’s desire to be like Christ in all His ways, he is that much more inclined to admit and grieve over the so many ways he is not. He desires to be morally pure like God, and that desire drives him at the same time both to confess that he is not and to strive with all his might for that very goal.

“Good and Holy and Perfect Father, thank You for your goodness. Forgive us our sins, which are many, and forgive us for our pride in not admitting them. Help us to be good like You are good: help us to follow in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Yet Shall He Live

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’

“She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’”

(John 11:25-27)

It is fascinating to me that the Creator of all things, the One who is the Life of all things living, the One who spoke all things into existence and gave them being, also built Death into the woof and warp of His creation. We often think of death as being introduced at the moment of the Fall of mankind into sin, and in one sense, of course, that is true. But in another sense there was death present in creation from the start, although not a death alone or final—rather a death, burial, and resurrection.

For example, every tree that bears fruit produces a fruit that must die—literally rot into the ground—and the seed it hides must be buried into the earth and die to itself before new life, a new fruit-bearing tree, can come forth. This was God’s design from the beginning, the gospel told in the fabric of creation.

Another example is the death of the sun each day in the west, its burial through the night, and its subsequent resurrection each morning. Each morning’s sunrise is a fresh proclamation of God’s love and mercy in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lamentations, God’s song of sorrow for the death of Jerusalem, sings it this way: The Lord’s mercies do not die, His compassions do not fail, but “they are new every morning—great is Thy faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I hope in Him!” (3:22–24)

Death seems so final to us. But to those of us who, like Mary, believe in the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who has come into the world to give life, death is but a momentary step in the direction of life—resurrection life, life again, everlasting life. Life that believes in Life Himself, though it dies, yet shall it live again. Life that believes and trusts in Jesus the Lifegiver, Christ promises, “shall never die.”

Do you believe this? Then do not fear death, and do not mourn as those without hope. Christ the Resurrection and the Life speaks life and hope to us this day—as He does all days—“He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live.”

“For this life, Holy Father, compassionate Lord, we give thanks—we give thanks for our life through Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life Himself. Grant us grace in this day, that we might trust and hope and glory in You, who bring both life and death into life again through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is the forgiveness of sins, the defeat of all death, and the life everlasting. Amen.”

Red Dirt

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

The name Adam literally means “red earth” or “red dirt.” This might lead one to believe Paradise was actually located somewhere around here where I live because we have certainly got the stuff. Our local Red River does not have its name for nothing. Certain other aspects of paradise may have slipped away over time, of course, but the red clay on which my lawn struggles to eke out a living is still with us, apparently, from creation days.

What is the difference between me and the red mud that clings to my boots for dear life on a rainy day? The breath of God—and that is about it.

It is so helpful for us to remember we are but dust. Dirt is, well, dirty. I again want to give thanks for it. All of my food either has its roots in it or chews on that which does. Dirt forms the ground upon which I stand, upon which my house stands, upon which the road lies that leads to everywhere I go and do and live. Thank God for dirt.

But after all is said in its praise, we sweep it up off our floors, wash it off our children’s hands, wipe it off the surface of everything in our homes, and washing-machine it out of our clothes. We don’t even want it on our cars! All sorts of nasty things live in the dirt, like bugs and worms and germs and bacterial infections waiting to jump on us and devour us from the inside out. Most folks, to one degree or another, have some sort of love-hate relationship with dirt. We appreciate its gift to mankind, but when it is all said and done, dirt has got to know its place, and that is in the backyard, on the baseball field, beneath the grass, and on the back roads, out of town.

That is the stuff from which we are made. We are but dust. Add a little water, a little wind blowing in and out, a little cellular fire, and presto, you have a clay-formed man who walks, eats, and thinks. Take away the wind-water-and-fire, and, as Kansas put it, all we are is dust in the wind.

This should certainly keep us humble, of course. But it should also lead us to wonder at the mysterious and marvelous ways of God. For this is what He always does: He takes what is lowly and exalts it, redeems what is “worthless” and gives it glory, takes what is worse than dead and gives it life.

Defiled by sin, we have covered ourselves with earthiness, dirtiness—even our best efforts are but filthy rags. God adds the water of baptism, breathes in us the Spirit-Wind of God, sets tongues of fire to dancing on our heads, and presto once again, you have a damned and dirty sinner transformed into an immortal saint, clothed in the white robes of Christ’s righteousness. Men of clay, yes; but with the touch of God—and the touch of God alone—we are fashioned over again into the most glorious masterpiece of all creation, made in the image of God Himself, “red dirt” become living and eternal souls in the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Father in heaven, Creator of mankind and all the world, we give You thanks for creating us and for forming us from the dust of the ground. Help us to remember our humble beginnings, forgive us our sins for Christ’s sake, and mold us and fashion us and make us new in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 104: Prayer-Song of Praise to the Creator

Here is a psalm to pray to God in praise for His creation and for His wonderful way of taking care of it. Look on His works in wonder, sing praise to Your God while you have being, and be glad in the Lord!

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot,
Who walks on the wings of the wind,
Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire.

You who laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever,
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters stood above the mountains;
They went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them,
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
That they may not return to cover the earth.

He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
By them the birds of the heavens have their home;
They sing among the branches.
He waters the hills from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees.
The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs area refuge for the rock badgers.

He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.
You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work
And to his labor until the evening.

O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.

These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.
He looks on the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the hills, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the Lord.
May sinners be consumed from the earth,
And the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

The Very Good

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

Emphasis on very. Not “satisfactory.” Not “that’ll do.” Not “useful” or “efficient” or “nice.” It was very. The Hebrew word might also be translated, with a little more punch, exceedingly, abundantly, with a great deal of much-ness (won’t exactly find this last one in the lexicon, but the sense is there, you know). In other words, it just doesn’t get any better than this. This is indeed the best of all possible worlds.

Now if God is exceedingly, abundantly, mucho happy with it all—forget about sin, death, and the devil for a minute—how much more so should we be. Look around on all that God has made, the way He has made it, and give thanks. God is very good. The world He has made is very good—the world and everything in it.

Don’t like Brussels sprouts? They are very good. Add a little butter and salt, and give thanks for them.

Don’t like math? You are not allowed to dislike it. It is very good—God says so. Give thanks for the way numbers work in the world, and do your homework.

Can’t stand us men? God made mankind male and female and called it “very good.” I know it’s a stretch, but . . . give thanks for them and the way God made them, and ask God for help in seeing them from God’s “very-good” perspective.

Don’t like children? God made the world to be full of them. They are very good. I know they are not always “very good” in the moral sense—sometimes they can be really, really bad. But not only are they made in the image of God, they are the models for those who would be heirs of the kingdom of God. Give thanks for them, and ask God to change your heart (and theirs) to conform to His.

Give thanks in everything and for all things, God says. Everything God has made and everything God has done is very good.

All right, Mr. Pollyanna, you say, when do we add back in all the dark side of the universe? We all know there is plenty not only not very good but not good at all. Yes, that is true. I was getting to that. Give thanks for that too. Since God causes all things to work together for our good, you can, at least in that sense, give thanks for all things without discrimination. But very good loses its meaning fairly quickly if there is not a very bad for contrast’s sake. Bring back into the picture sin, death, and the devil. You are permitted to hate these things, and with passion. God hates them too. That is why He has defeated them through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ—which was a very bad thing turned to our very greatest good.

In fact, because there is so much bad in the world, it is that much more important for us to remember, rejoice in, give thanks for, and enjoy to the max the so much more very-good stuff of which this world is made and the very good and gracious God who made it. Abhor what is evil, but embrace with fervent love and gratitude the good—which includes the exceedingly and abundantly good universe God crafted with His own hands in six days.

“Lord God, we give You thanks for the very good world You have made and all of the very good and wonderful things You have placed in it. We give You thanks also for being a sovereign Lord over all things who causes all things—good and bad—to work together for our good. We thank You most of all for our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and for whom all things are created, and for the redemption of creation through His death, burial, and resurrection. Make us by Your Holy Spirit after His image, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Giving Us Richly All Things to Enjoy

“And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food.’” (Genesis 1:29, 30)

The greatest thing to see here is God’s provision of food to all the animals and to all mankind. As God did at creation, so He does today: Our daily bread comes from the hand of God, and so we ought to look to Him for it in prayer and so we ought to give thanks for it every time we pop it into our mouths, roll it around on our tongues, and fill our fat little paunches with it. Food is our life, and with it God sees to it His creation is fed and thriving.

But God is not utilitarian: He did not make food merely for eating. He made food for enjoying. When God made our food for us, He made it taste good. Delicious. Joyous. Satisfying to the soul as well as to the body—to the whole man. Tongues didn’t have to have taste buds that sent pleasure messages—sometimes simple, sometimes intricate—to our busy brains. But they do, and in abundance. God is a rich man, and He knows how to be extravagant, and so He gave us richly all good things—including our daily food—for us to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17) Give God thanks, and live out your gratefulness sincerely by enjoying the food with which He feeds you.

It would appear on the surface of things that God made man “in his perfection” vegetarian, and there is actually no shortage of folks these days using this doctrine to teach vegetarianism as the superior way of life. Nobody loves vegetables and fruits and grains more than I. Give me a little butter for my sautéed veggies, melt a little of the same on fresh baked bread—and little heavy cream on frozen blueberries is to die for—but I can give a paean of praise for fruits and vegetables like no man. Yet Christians are not vegetarians.

God commands man to eat meat—yes, the red kind that comes from little lambs and cowsie-wowsies—just a few chapters later in the re-creation of the world (Genesis 9), and we are to give thanks for this just as we are to give thanks for the green stuff: “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” And if you think this is merely a concession for weak, sinning, fallen-from-grace man, it gets a little hard to explain the obedient meat-eater Jesus. Jesus ate the Passover lamb and gave thanks for it; Jesus ate fish as a resurrected Man—broiled, on the beach, at sunrise, waves licking the shore, smoke of the campfire mingled with the succulence—and He gave thanks for it. Vegetarians, as so many others, are not only missing out on God’s good gifts given for us to enjoy; they are, as so many others, swept up in that utterly vain pursuit of attempting to be holier-than-Jesus.

The heresy of vegetarianism is mentioned in the New Testament as one of those nasty “doctrines of demons,” “commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1, 3, 4) Christians are omnivores, enjoying the carne with the herbs, giving thanks for it all as the great gift it is from God’s hand to our mouths.

“Great God in heaven above, we give thanks for a world filled with delicious food that not only keeps our mortal bodies revved up and running but delights the senses just as well. We thank You for giving the “green herbs” for mankind’s first course and for adding in the roast beef as the main later on. And we pray You would make us truly grateful, enjoying the rich gifts You give us each breakfast, lunch, and supper. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Be Fruitful and Multiply

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:28)

When God made man and woman, He gave them a blessing—a blessing which was also a command: “Be fruitful and multiply.” He gave the same blessing/command to the fish and the birds (v. 22), and, boy, have they obeyed! And although it is not recorded specifically here, I have to believe God gave the same sort of blessing to the land animals and creepy, crawly things—at least to rabbits and mice, cockroaches and fire ants—and He may have even given it to things like my mistakes and the items under my children’s beds. At any rate, the world has had no problem filling up, and mankind has, for the most part, been happy to comply.

I say “for the most part” because at times (and there is no time like the present) man has not only foolishly rejected the blessing but has withstood it, slighting the command. On the other hand, we can look at the refusal on the part of men and women either to marry or have children or both as one more sign of God’s judgment and the withdrawal of His blessing. Either way we look at it, God’s command to us to “get married and have lots of kids” is found in that corner of creation He labeled “very good” (see v.31), and we are blind and foolish not to see it that way too. That is the message of God’s Word from here at the beginning to the very end: Fruitful marriage is a blessing. Give God thanks for it, and do your part to bring it about.

As with so many other things in this fallen world, however, it needs to be said quickly that if an otherwise happy couple cannot have children, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are “under God’s curse” or that they are somehow being disobedient. There are people who are as fertile as all get out who also don’t want to have children, and there are people who are not but do. That is part of the Jobian world in which we live, where God’s purposes for each of us are overly scrutinized in vain. What is one to do? As with all things, pray, obey, and give thanks. Pray for good marriages, be obedient to God in them, and pray for God to reward you with children. And then give God thanks for whatever comes about (“in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you—1 Thessalonians 5:18).

“Lord God, we give You thanks again for the creation of man and woman, and we thank You for Your creation of billions upon billions of men and women and children down through the ages to the present. We thank You for the “be-fruitful-and-multiply” blessing You have poured out on mankind—to the tune of over five billion living in our time—and we pray for Your blessing to multiply as well. God, grant us good marriages, and, God, grant us good children, who will love You and serve You and glorify You in their lives forever. We pray You would grow Your kingdom through the multiplication of converts, and we pray You would grow Your kingdom through the multiplication of godly families and the godly individuals who fill them. Fill the earth with Your people, dear God, and help us to be both faithful and grateful, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Male and Female Created He Them

"Male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

I give God thanks for maleness and femaleness. For diversity and oneness. For sugar and spice and everything nice, on the one hand; and for snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, on the other. Thank God for the distinction of the sexes and for the oneness of the flesh.

I give God thanks for Adam and Eve, for husbands and wives, for mothers and fathers, for ancestors and ancestresses, for all the world of men and women who have joined God—at His invitation—in making this world what it is.

I give God thanks for men who have worked in the field and women who have worked at home. I give God thanks for women who have worked in the field and in the home, and for husbands who have worked in both places alongside them.

I give God thanks for a man’s initiative and for a woman’s intuition (uncanny and uncomfortable as it can be for us men). I thank God for making men more one thing and women more another and for throwing us together that we might learn from one another. Thank God for weaker vessels and stronger vessels who are co-heirs of the grace of life. God help us to live with one another in understanding.

I give God thanks for the way of a man with a maiden, as wonderful as a ship at sea, a snake on a rock, or an eagle in flight (all of which are too wonderful for me—I cannot understand them). I give God thanks for His built-in design for attraction to the opposite sex and for the equally God-given instinct for devotion and faithfulness and loyalty to one other for life.

I give God thanks for wives and daughters, for helpmeets, for companionship, for co-regents—queens—to rule over the world alongside men. I give thanks for my wife, for my two daughters, for the joy and goodness and industry and femininity they bring to our home. I give God thanks for not leaving me alone because He knew it was not good for me to be alone, because He knew I was better off living in society, with a woman, with this one woman, and with the be-fruitful-and-multiplied family who came of our oneness.

Give thanks to God for men and women, boys and girls, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, boyfriends and girlfriends, grandpas and grandmas. Give thanks for courtships and weddings, for long-and happy-but-not-because-it’s-easy marriages, for kisses and hugs, for oneness of body/soul/spirit.

“Lord God, we give You thanks for the wonderful way in which You have made us, for making us male and female. Grant grace to us as we live with one another as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, as men and women. Teach us how to honor one another, be grateful for one another, appreciate one another, and be at peace with one another. Grant us oneness in the midst of our God-created diversity, and teach us to glory in our differences as we pursue the unity of purpose with which You created us in the beginning. We give You thanks most of all for our Lord Jesus Christ and for the great mystery of making us His bride, spotless and glorious in time, and we pray in His name. Amen.”

A Prayer for Those Overwhelmed by Calamity

From Psalms 57, 61, and 123
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.
I will cry out to God Most High,
To God who performs all things for me.
He shall send from heaven and save me;
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.
Hear my cry, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For You have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.
Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!
So I will sing praise to Your name forever.
I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing to You among the nations.
For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens,
And Your truth unto the clouds.
Amen.

In the Image of God

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

To say that man is made in the image of God is not to say that man is like God in every way. The image of something is not that thing itself. When I look at a photograph of one of my children, I see something that looks an awful lot like one of my kids, and it may tell me an awful lot about him. But it does not speak to me, cannot hug me, is not going to think about me, and is not going to get its feelings hurt when I stick it in a drawer. My child, on the other hand, can speak, hug, think, and get his feelings hurt (especially if I try sticking him in a drawer!). There is a definite contrast between the image and the real thing.

In a similar way, it is important for us to remember we are made in the image of God but certainly are not God nor are we like God in every way. God is the Creator; we are the created. God is eternal; we have a beginning. God is indestructible; we are only held together by His will. God is infinite; we have definite boundaries (we cannot even understand infinity). God is all-powerful; we can hardly make ourselves get out of bed.

God is perfect; we are knot.

All that said, however, we are a lot more like God than the photograph is of my child. God thinks; so does man. God, a Trinity, lives in community; man was created as a family. God desires and wills and creates; man does the same, although we don’t create ex nihilo but only with the stuff God has made. God loves; man is given the capacity to do so, even if we do a sorry job at it most of the time. God the Trinity is diverse yet one; man was created male and female—lots of differences—yet they are “one flesh.”

Jesus, the perfect Man, is said by Scripture to be “the express image of [God’s] person.” He, of course, is God as well. But if we want to know what man was created to be, we must look to Him. Jesus is holy, loving, humble, joyful, courageous, faithful, patient, wise, thoughtful, self-denying, purposeful, and entirely devoted at all times and in every way to do God’s will. He loves all things good and hates all things evil. He speaks the truth and lives truly. He is filled with God’s Spirit, is led by God’s Spirit, and is moved by God’s Spirit to do all God the Father desires of Him.

When man sinned, it is true the image of God in him was marred. But it was not erased. And through the re-creation made possible by our Lord Jesus Christ the image of God in man is being restored. We will always be the creature worshiping and following and serving the Creator, and we will always be but an image. But through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Man who is God, we are becoming all that He created us to be, a true and glorious reflection of Glory and Truth Himself.

“Lord God, we give You thanks this day for the creation of man, for Your creating us, giving us existence and life. We give You thanks for creating us in Your image. God forgive us for our blurring that image through our sin and rebellion against Your holy will. Have mercy on us through our Lord Jesus Christ, re-create us after His image, that we might be all You intended man to be in the first place. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Psalm 148: Creation Praise for the Creator

Although Psalm 148 uses the literary tool apostrophe, calling on angels and stars, snow and wind, beasts and kings, don’t think of it as any less a prayer of praise to God. The focus of this psalm is obviously praise for the Maker of heaven and earth. In this psalm we call upon all creation to join us in giving Him praise, pretty much in the order in which they were created. (Sing it, if you know a sung version!)

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.
He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints—
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.

Praise the Lord!

Dominion

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness: let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26)

When first the word dominion is uttered, it can at times conjure up images of kings and lords, either in their kingly and lordly robes or whatever they want to wear, sitting on top of it all, calling all the shots, “dominating” the action and other people. And this is pretty much the way a lot of people like to think of this “gift from God,” whether they are applying it to man’s universal dominion over the created order or their own dominion in one of their own little kingdoms: home, marriage, self, business, church, state, friendships, or wherever else we find ourselves in some kind of pecking order.

Well, there is certainly a bit of truth in that take on things, but as with other “bits of truth,” it is in leaving out all the other bits that we always get ourselves into trouble. If, for example, a man perceives his role as “lord” in the home simply as his right to “make the final decision,” micromanage his wife’s and children’s affairs (“as long as they are under my roof”), order other folks around, having them serve him, then he is going to have a house out of order and a miserable one at that. If on the other hand, he gets a handle on what dominion really means and all it includes, he, by the grace of God, can have the peace and order, joy and happiness he’s looking for.

The same is true in every other sphere, and it is obviously true generally for mankind’s dominion over the earth. Some men interpret dominion as man’s right simply to catch as many fish, shoot as many birds, slaughter as many cattle, and eliminate as many snakes and bugs as one possibly can. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard Genesis 1:26 referred to as somebody’s child is squashing a June bug on the concrete driveway. OK, well, yes; but, again, if that is the primary application made, and certainly if it is the only app. made, then squashing, catching, shooting, slaughtering, smashing, controlling, manipulating, using, discarding, etc. becomes for us not only our God-given right, but our God-given responsibility.

Responsibility. There is a good word if we will look to God how to use it correctly. Man was created in God’s image, according to His likeness. If we want a good take on dominion, our only hope is to see how God applies the concept. It is true He calls all the shots. It is true He is the lawgiver and that all is created for His glory. But God is Trinity, and His dominion is for the sake of serving others. God exercises dominion through taking responsibility for giving, loving, serving, sacrificing, caring, nurturing, planning, growing, protecting, and providing. God cares for His creation and, in Christ, even died to redeem it and restore it—that is the “other bit” that makes all the difference in how we exercise the dominion God has given man over the world at large and over his multiple sub-kingdoms.

“Lord God, we give thanks to You this day for creating man in the image of God and for granting him lordship over all creation. We thank You that this lordship ultimately belongs to the Man our Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank You for His perfect dominion. We pray You would teach us to be like Him and that we would take up all of our responsibility to rule in our own sphere as He does in His—through grace and by faith, by justice and mercy, through service and sacrifice, with love and gentleness. Teach us to take care of the world in which we live, to be good stewards of it all, including those people and things entrusted to us in our own little kingdoms, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Doodle-bugs and Dinosaurs

“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind’; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:24, 25)


My six-year-old son’s current fascinations include doodle-bugs (alias “rolly-pollies” or “pill bugs”) and dinosaurs. He looks under rocks for the one and pretends to be the other. I am at my best when I enter into this world with him (we have dinosaur fights frequently), and it reminds me of my own fascination with these things when I was his age. I too played with the doodle-bugs, and I too pretended dinosaurs.

Apparently God is fascinated with them as well: He made a whole world full of these and other things just as fascinating. Man might imagine other sorts of creatures, but who ever would have dreamed up a giraffe or a platypus? Penguins are hilarious. And why are dogs so much a man’s best friend? I mean they really can be—it’s uncanny. Have you ever seen something so beautiful as a horse in full gallop, so serene as a field full of sheep, so regal as a lion? I may have played with bugs, but as a child I watched a line of ants for hours (I should have learned more lessons from them: “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways, and be wise.” —Proverbs 6:6). If I take the time for it—and I should—I can sit and watch in a similar way the squirrels and the rabbits of my back yard, and I have been captivated numerous times by the garden spiders and their zipper webs (throw a hapless moth into the web for quite a show!).

From the hippopotami and crocodiles of Africa to the crawdads and water moccasins of Arkansas, God’s creation is incredible. Panda bears and polar bears and orangutans and chimpanzees will always get my attention at a zoo. Even cats, nuisance though they can be (like us all), have something irresistibly attractive about them as well. Did you realize our whole world would fall apart if it were not held together by the bugs? And it would also fall apart if there were not other creatures to eat them! God has masterfully arranged everything just so—creeping thing, cattle, beast of the field, domestic animals—everything in its place, for its purpose, the greatest of which is to bring glory and pleasure to God and delightful enjoyment to man.

God be thanked for armadillos and skunks, worms and wolves, ground hogs and deer. Thank God for elephants and zebras, rhinos and cheetahs, gazelles and hyenas. Praise God for grizzly bears and buffalo, for iguanas and alligators, for termites and tarantulas. Give thanks for double-humped camels and stubborn mules, for dumb oxen and wise serpents, for anteaters and the ants to be eaten. God be praised for the multitude of wondrous land animals, so much like men themselves, so much from whom to learn, so helpful, beautiful, enjoyable—and fascinating—to six-year-olds and old men alike.

“Great Creator of all the world, we give thanks for the animals and for the capability you have given us to wonder at them. Thank You for the animals we eat and for keeping us from being eaten by others! Thank You for the dinosaurs and dragons of old, and thank You for the doodle-bugs and giraffes we still have with us. Help us to learn from them, enjoy them, be fascinated by them, take care of them, use them, and govern over them as You intend for us to do. We thank You above all for our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah who is also the Lamb of God, and we pray You would make us like Him. Amen.”

Eagles and Whales

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” (Genesis 1:20–23)

On the second day of creation God separated “waters above” from “waters below,” creating a firmament—the sky. Third-day creation saw God telling the waters below to go to their assigned places, not only making for continents and islands and mountains and valleys, but also creating seas and lakes and rivers and oceans. Now God creates inhabitants for these homes, players for the stage He has already set: fish and birds and everything in between.

God be praised for shrimp and whales, sharks and minnows, jellyfish and giant squid. Give God thanks for sea anemones, clown fish, angel fish, and Sammy suckers; for hermit crabs and oysters and lobsters and clams; for piranha and octopi and sting rays and dolphins. Thank God for the great sea creatures: for Loch Ness monsters and Job’s Leviathan and the fish who swallowed Jonah. Thank God for rainbow trout and wide-mouth bass, for Alaskan salmon and albacore tuna. God moved over the surface of the waters, blessed them, and they are teeming with life and beauty and wonder.

God be praised for eagles and sparrows, hummingbirds and buzzards, bats and mosquitoes. Give God thanks for mockingbirds, cardinals, bluebirds, and finches; for doves, quail, and pheasants; for ducks and geese. Thank God for toucans, parrots, canaries, and nightingales; for owls and hawks, robins and purple martins; for swans and flamingoes and seagulls and heron. Thank God for birdsong and fried chicken, for Canadian geese overhead, for turkey dinners and peacock feathers. God breathed a blessing in the air, commanding fruitfulness and abundance, and the sky grew wings and beaks and exquisite colors of every shade.

“We give You thanks, O God, for the multitudes of joy-filled creatures with which You have populated the heavens and the waters below, and we pray You would bless us along with them—bless us and multiply us on the earth—that we might bring glory to You in the depths and the heights. We give You thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gathered us under the safety of His wings, for the great Fisher of Men, who has gathered us into His kingdom, and in His name we pray and give thanks. Amen.”

Lights

“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” (Genesis 1:14–19)

By the fourth day of creation God had already turned the empty canvas into a living, growing, four-dimensional masterpiece, full of beauty and wonder and purpose. Now God gets happy. He was already happy, of course, but now He pulls out the fireworks. It’s as if He’s laid the carpet, painted the walls, started filling in with some furniture, and then the ceiling catches His eye: “That will not do. Need a little more excitement in that corner of creation.” And then He got busy.

Homer’s “rosy-fingered Dawn” begins the show. The sun will not only be “the greater light to rule the day,” reigning from his throne on high, but he will now be the source of all light and life that gives life to all living things in the world. His heat warms; his heat withers. All are under his all-seeing eye, all depend on him for life, all are under his domain. The sun reigns as king. No wonder those who left off worshiping God the creator chose early as substitute the sun as their god. But the sun himself is unwilling, of course: his glory reflects the glory of the God who made him. Jesus is our Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the World, who gives life and light to all the world, “healing in His wings.”

Next the moon in her own turn, in this perfectly hierarchical world, is made to reflect the glory of the sun. She certainly has her own glory and purpose, but the light shining in the midst of the darkness is a light borrowed from the brilliance of day. She waxes and wanes, as do you and I, but she is consistently there, and on her brightest nights, the waters above and below reflect her glory as well. God has created each of us to be “little moons,” reflecting the glory of Christ in the midst of a dark world: we are to be “blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (Philippians 2:15).

“He made the stars also.” God is sometimes given to understatement. Who would have known these tiny little sparkling specks strewn promiscuously across the blackness of the heavens are so many more suns and moons and worlds themselves—millions of them dancing across millions of light-years of vastness—God only knows how many and how far and how vast! We who are children of Abraham with the like faith of Abraham, worshipers of the God who made the heavens and the earth, are not only the dust of the earth, numbering as the “sands of the seashore,” but we are also the stars of the sky. Jesus is the Morning Star, the first among who-knows-how-many brethren, and we will reign with Him forever, world without end. Amen!

“God, we give You thanks for the sun, moon, and stars, for the glory of the day, for the glory of the night. We pray You would make us indeed to be the light of the world, lights shining in the midst of the darkness of the world, reflecting always the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 63: Early Will I Seek You

O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go down into the lower parts of the earth.
They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.

But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

Third-Day Plantings

“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.” (Genesis 1:11–13)

I give God thanks for onions. And purple hull peas, juicy tomatoes, summer squash, and homemade bread. Sweet corn, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and fried okra. God be thanked for rice, steaming, with loads of butter and salt; a plateful of pasta, drowned in tomato and meat sauce; rolled oats or a bowl full of grits, accompanied by, among other things, warm toast, fresh from the oven, hidden comprehensively by blackberry jelly. I give God thanks for peach pound cake, frozen blueberries with a little cream poured over them, watermelon on a sweaty August afternoon, warm butternut squash pie on a crisp autumn day. I give God thanks for peanuts, pecans, pistachios, and almonds; for grapefruit, oranges, apples, and grapes; for figs, plums, nectarines, and cantaloupe. Fruits and “herbs,” each according to its kind, and the list isn’t even half begun. God saw that it was good. I see it too. Give thanks to God.

I give thanks for grass to mow and weeds to pull, for thistle and clover, for dandelions and even ragweed. I give God thanks for day lilies, Easter lilies, tulips, and irises; for petunias, pansies, periwinkles, roses, azaleas, daisies, begonias, and creeping flox. I give God thanks for the pine trees that built my house, for the oak and elm that shade it. I give Him thanks for dogwood and redbuds in the spring, maples and hickory and sweetgum in the fall.

And the list goes on and on and on. A whole world full of trees and bushes and grasses and vegetables and fruit and flowers and moss and seaweed and mushrooms, all reseeding themselves, generation after generation, year after year, blessing their Creator, and blessing those made in His image.

“Lord God, for all this, we give You thanks—for the provision, for the beauty, for the taste of good food, for the sight and smell of flowers, for the feel of the grass between our toes, for the sound of the wind in the leaves of the trees. Thank You, dear God, for the Tree of Life, the Bread of Life, the Vine in Whom You have made us branches, our Lord Jesus Christ. Plant us firmly in Him, run our roots deep into the soil of Your Word, and produce within us and through us the holy fruit of Your Holy Spirit, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.”

Psalm 67: Prayer for the Salvation of Nations

Here is a prayer for God to have mercy on us and bless us—so that God’s mercy and blessing might be witnessed by all nations and extended to all nations. Pray it with fervency and expectancy! God created all the world for His glory and our enjoyment—He is glorified most when we take delight in our Creator and His creation. God redeemed the world through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son for the same reason. We are promised the worship and praise of our God will come from every tribe, tongue, and nation—believe the promise, and pray for it to come to pass!

God be merciful to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us,
That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!
For You shall judge the people righteously,
And govern the nations on earth.

Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Then the earth shall yield her increase;
God, our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us,
And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.
Amen!