Pondering Pain- A Challenge to Faith

Here is the link to the video:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uGx6DVEQdUYdiHlIvImXXTK9ZoSq3BGn/view?usp=sharing

I have had so many great e-mails over this time of mitigation: Here was a GREAT one: 

Good evening!  My name is _______ and I live in ________, Florida.  My brother and sister-in-law, gifted my fourteen year old, Isaac, with two of your devotionals for Christmas.  He has really enjoyed doing the daily devotions and has come to the end of the second one that he was given.  Thank you for taking the time to write these books and invest in the spiritual life of my teenager.  His looking forward to doing his devotion before bed each night makes my mama heart happy. 

That makes it ALL worth it, to me!

There are many who are hurting right now.... so I felt like we needed to explore how pain and suffering, existence of evil applies to our faith. This is NOT EXHAUSTIVE... but may begin your process of pondering these things.

Bible Meditations

Isaiah 46:9-10

I Peter 3:17

I Peter 4:19

Acts 4:27, 28

Hebrews 12:3

Genesis 50:20

Romans 8:28

A FEW POEMS AND QUOTES

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which

Only God understands;

While his tortured heart is crying

And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks

When his good He undertakes;

How He uses whom He chooses,

And with every purpose fuses him:

By every act induces him

To try his splendor out--

God knows what He's about.

                         --Author Unknown

"Whole, unbruised, unbroken men are of little use to God." A.W. Tozer

A REAL LIFE STORY

The following testimony was told by Dr. Jim Collier to Briarwood Christian School as he was fighting lung cancer- Has passed away a few months later:


I wanted to tell you the story of the woodcutter. He was a poor man in a poor country. Had to work hard cutting wood to make just enough to earn a living. He had one possession, a beautiful white stallion - powerful, majestic. He was given an offer from someone to buy the horse, but refused to sell. The people said, “You fool! For that amount, you wouldn’t have to work.”

The next morning, the beautiful horse was gone. “You fool! This is a curse because you failed to sell the horse! Now what do you have?” The poor man just sat in silence.


The next morning, the beautiful white stallion returned to the barn with ten white horses! “He was right! You were right old man!” The poor man remained calm, “Wait and see,” he said, “wait and see.”


The next day his son was trying to break one of these new horses and was thrown off. He hit the ground so hard he broke both legs. “You fool,” the people, cried again, “it was a curse!” “Wait and see” said the old man - God is gracious”


Then a horrible war broke out. The man’s son didn’t have to go...


You never know what will be a blessing.


Would you buy a house if you only got to see one room? Would you buy a car by only looking at the taillights, judge a book based only on the first chapter? Romans 8:28 says that "All things work for good...” would you pray with me?


Oh Father, help me communicate the feelings in my heart.... (Prayer closed)


In this body is a tall, blonde haired football player. In July, I had a cough. Had it checked out and it turned out to be lung cancer. Two days later and my lung was out and it was war if you got between my oxygen and me.


The cancer shocked me. Seemed like a death sentence. But.. A lot of folks prayed, sweet prayers... and some time passed. Then it was discovered that I had cancer in my hip and right shoulder... metastasis... more treatment. Now it’s in my right hip and Tuesday I’m going to get a new hip.


I’ve prayed for the school most days. And I prayed yesterday what to say and I kept coming to the story of the white stallion.


One day, your horse will be stolen. It will seem so big...so devastating, but it’s not. You say no to drugs or sex and it seems like you have no friends or no one on your side - you don’t make the team - And it doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 80. We seem to all blow it out of proportion. Rom 8:28 says it works for good!


When we suffer, sometimes we are reaping what we have sown. Sometimes it is the rain falling on the just and the unjust. Sometimes we suffer for righteousness sake - what a blessing. If you suffer for righteousness, you are indeed a special person.


I can testify to all this. I don’t think I am suffering for the cause of righteousness. I am suffering either as my reaping what I have sown or as rain falling on all. But I can testify that my cancer has been a blessing whether I live 16 years or 6 days.


History proves that we must endure bad things to get good things. Abraham Lincoln lost every election he had ever entered until he became President. Winston Churchill, alcoholic family. So depressed and sad. But that sadness forged a man of steel who stood during one of Europe’s dark hours. Biblical examples include Abraham - old and childless and Joseph - thrown in the well.


I can testify that when you have a bad day, when you have a deep hurt.... remember the white horse.... You never know.


Don’t you hear God saying, (quietly) “Trust me”?


Coach Mathews’ Articles:

The Pain of the Profound

“David must have been plagued by a very fearful devil. He could not have had such profound insights if he had not experienced great assaults.” Martin Luther


We have many in my midst today struggling with the sovereignty of God through the mis-steps of man. A lot of my dear friends are saddened by a perceived sea of error, sin, cover-up, and bungling.

How do we respond to these times of disappointment without it seeming so weak and trite to quip “God’s will, man”?

We know the scripture of Romans 8:28 and Joseph saying “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” But that doesn’t help me right now.

So let me do some more examples from Church history. Can God be glorified through the splinters of theological and doctrinal disputes?

Is He glorified on a missed field goal or a botched fly ball?
Is the gospel going forth as stories unfold of slander or suicide?

When we say God is in control and victorious- you need to understand that there is nothing trivial about that answer.

We don’t get hurt so much today. We live with pain, but I want to suggest that it is less than the saints of old. Just over a hundred years ago, it was not uncommon to lose children. Old gravesites show us a world of lost infants, and toddlers, and sweet school children.

People did not have access to Tylenol or Advil. And there were not “Docs in a Box” on every corner.

Families did not have acu-weather red icons of tornados rushing to their city and almost no way of calling for help in an emergency.

I guarantee you that I am making someone mad right now when I propose that we don’t hurt as much anymore.

“You are a fool- I know pain” You say, and I know you are right. But even a diagnosis of cancer is done in the light of prognosis and MRI’s and understanding. It is not the mystery of the day of darkness – and that helps.

AND it hurts. We win more than we lose. We get our way. We have food and clothes. We have enough peace for leisure and recreation. We have holidays and celebrations. We have so much good that we lose our need for God.
As I study history, especially church history, I am amazed at God’s good sovereignty. He allows the pain and screw-ups for reasons. Some of the times, the mystery remains- but in most cases time reveals the whys.

We want the “why” NOW!

For example, Why did the Ottoman Turks advance and threaten Europe during the 16th century? How could God allow such to advance?

Some would say that it is judgment of sin. And they would be right.

Others say rain falling on just and unjust. And they would be right.

I say it was also to the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel and the growth of the church.

How? One way is that Charles V was prevented from wiping out the Lutherans because of his distraction of the Turks and his desire to keep a unified populace in a time of tension.

God allowed secular and sacred events to provide the right climate for growth and sustaining of The Reformation!

Please, don’t run from God during times of trial or trouble. Don’t distance Him in distress. Instead press in to Him. Have the confidence that He can and will work things out!

Romans 4:20 No distrust made him (Abraham) waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Does this answer all questions about our part? Do we stay “frozen chosen”? My answer is absolutely not. Step out in courage and go- but please, don’t wring your hands in defeat and keep a loser’s look and lean.

“You are worrying yourself sick because you cannot know how or where it will allend. But were you able to understand it all, then I would have nothing to do with thiscause!” Martin Luther to Melancthon

“Human life without knowledge of history is nothing other than a perpetual childhood, nay, a permanent obscurity and darkness.” Philip Melanchthon

Keeping Your Wits When Others Are Insane- Psalm 134- Last One!

It has a blessing for me to go back through these wonderful Psalms. Today is our last one and each time I take the journey, I come out better and stronger. This section of the Psalms in a historic stream of grace and truth. We have walked with pilgrims from ages path.

The rest of the week I am going to write about Holy Week and then will take a break from blogging for a short time

This was made into a song- you can hear it here:

Bless the Lord (Psalm of Ascent 134)

Today's reading.......

Psalm 134
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord! 
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord! 
May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!

It is hard to have good endings.

Some of my biggest letdowns in life have come at the anti-climatic blah at the end of a special moment. The sun finally sets and the golden hour of fishing is done. You have just hit the tee shot on the 18th hole on an amazing golf course. You wake up and it is the last day of vacation, time to pack.

There is a depression at the end that sours the whole experience if you let it.

Do all good things come to an end? On earth.....yes.

Author's have struggled with this for ages. Someone once said that Mark Twain was frustrated into depression over his inability to bring Huckleberry Finn to an adequate close.

It is also hard to finish well. Very few great men have been able to end at the right time and in the right way. Great athletes hang on too long or find their life tedious after retiring too soon.

Does Psalm 134 fit that mold? 

It is the culminating hymn at the end of the Psalms of Ascent.


I imagine it being sung with the glorious city and temple in full view. The peak has been reached. The journey is done.

Of course, in your Bible, Psalms keep on coming 135 through 150. But traditionally it is understood that 120-134 encompasses that special section of the Songs for the Climb.

Do you ever worry that heaven will be boring?

Years ago there was a survey in which it was revealed that a large number of evangelical youth were worried about that very thing. Who could blame them? I wouldn't care to be in clouds and plucking a harp for 2 minutes, let alone 10,000 years!

Hank Williams, Jr sang, "If heaven ain't a lot like dixie, I don't wanna go."
Billy Joel echoed that sentiment, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints."

But the biggest problem is not with heaven.... the biggest problem is a lack of understanding WHO God is, HOW magnificent and powerful He is, and how dark and dreary is our sin and world.

You should know the famous C.S. Lewis quip:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

My experience with the Corona virus has driven home the realization all of the things in my life that cannot sustain satisfactory living.

When life is 'normal' ... our frantic pace hides a stark reality that we are indeed 'half hearted creatures' who live on the vapor fumes of idols that offer mere seconds of distraction, but not a shred of meaning.

It didn't take long for leisure activities to get old, when we were shut in for just a few days. Screens offer a lot of promise, but they deliver very little.

We mistake the THINGS and MOMENTS that God gives us and cling to them like they are the gods who can free us and love us..... shame on me. There are times that I grow weary of the things of God using boredom as an excuse.

But it is MY God who created the capacity for me to love the thrill of a roller coaster and it is HE who has way more in store. More than I have the capacity to dream about!

A memory I miss.....

I took my oldest daughter to the Birmingham Zoo when she was a toddler. It was a beautiful day and when we first walked in the park, the pink flamingos were majestic!

I smiled as she absorbed the visual! Her eyes widened and she pointed and she drank every second in..... it was an act of worship!

After a few minutes I said, "OK, Jules, let's go to see more stuff."
"No daddy, I want to stay."

As much as I tried to pry her away by argument and logic,  she would not move!

And so I did the daddy thing. I picked her up and carried her away from the flamingos. You would have though it was child abuse! She fought, she kicked, she cried, and screamed.

But I knew what I was doing. 23 seconds later, she saw zebras and giraffes and elephants and gorillas...... and the tears were no more!

Aren't we like that?  We fight God. We are mad that the sun sets on our golf course or rain interrupts our baseball or a deadly virus shuts down the whole world!  But this world is only a vapor taste to what is waiting on us.

And that is the hope of this glorious Psalm. It seems so small and benign, we miss the power of its message.

We bless God and He blesses us................ forever in glorious perfection!

WE BLESS GOD?

This is a strange concept. What do you mean that we bless God? Sounds absurd.

There are a couple of images in the Scripture where our prayers are depicted as a pleasing incense to the Lord. God proclaimed, "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased!"  We can also grieve the Spirit! Does it not seem plausible that we can also please Him? Did you see how God bragged to Satan about his servant Job?

 "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

Let me walk on the edge of some heresy here...... pure speculation. I see a God in Scripture who smiles, frowns, cries, shows anger, says He is jealous and He has all of this in perfection because He is perfect. And He is in control, no doubt about that. But I imagine that he enjoys the moments, even though He plans it and orchestrates it. Is it possible that even we can surprise Him in joy and disappointment?

If we consider that God is not bound by time, living outside the linear system of Alpha to Omega, then He can come in and out of time as He desires. Is it possible that he can pause, replay, relive, fast forward in details and ways that is beyond our imagination like a Cosmic DVR. Not with imaginary characters but real life souls which he adores and died for? I know this is a pathetic attempt to understand the invasion of the infinite into the temporal, but I am living transparently in His full view. Can I choose to bless Him? I know I have MANY times cursed Him in word, attitude, passive and active deeds of selfish rebellion, weak flesh, and foolish fear.

an interesting note:

 This Psalm says, Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

Who are these servants who stand by night? A possible reference to chamber singers- but I see it analogous to a true servant, a true worshipper. A person's true nature is shown in how he conducts himself when no one is looking. What does he do in secret? This is when we can truly bless God. Praise Him when we receive no benefit from doing so.

Let us find inspiration to bless Him, even if our attempts seem feeble and preposterous. We are the toddler and He loves us as the Father and He can be pleased!


GOD BLESSES US

Consider that last verse again, it is an EXCELLENT benediction:  

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! 

What if you received a certified letter today from Tim Cook, Apple CEO. 

"I have been watching you and have decided to bequeath 25 million dollars and as many of my personal resources as I have to bless you and your work." 

Would you not freak out?

But here is a verse: May the maker of heaven and earth bless you!

So which one do we choose? Sadly, we would choose Tim Cook's blessing over God's. But primarily because we have no concept to what God's blessing has been, is now, or even what it WILL BE!

The Biblical word for 'blessed' in the New Testament is μακάριος and the Greek equivalent here in Psalm 134 is 'happy, blessed and even carries a hint of 'Congratulations! Way to go!'

Think of it this way. 

You are on a perilous journey, many have fallen by the wayside. But by God's grace, you never quit. Yes, you got knocked down and pushed around, yes you fell along the way .... but you got back up and took another step. 

You were laughed at, mistreated, ignored, misunderstood, betrayed. Even your body failed you, your supporters left, your loved ones tried but were unable to care enough to succeed- you doubted...... and then- wow- breakthrough victory!   Now see if you can really take in all the blessing! 
Who is worthy of that? 
Am I a beneficiary of even 1 drop of the blood of perfect pardon?

We have finished the race!

Sorry, Hank, Heaven is better than dixie. Poor choice, Billy, the sinners are not laughing.

We will sing at that time like the Apostle Paul:

2 Timothy 4:6–8

[6] For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (ESV)

The final song at the end of the climb is not anti-climatic at all! it is the song of ultimate victory!

And we will find that it was totally worth it! 

Keep climbing, battle weary warrior!


If this series has been a blessing, I would love to hear from you. Please send me an email: jayopsis@gmail.com

Keeping Your Wits When Others Are Insane- Psalm 132

I made this into a song in 2024- you can hear it here:

Lord of Promise

Thank you for reading along on the Lord's Day, April 5, 2020.  There are only 3 more Psalms left in this section known as the Psalms of Ascent.

Sorry for the disjointed verse today... but I had to interrupt Psalm 132 from the testimony in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings- this is one amazing story!

The One we climb to meet is a covenant keeping God who has a plan, a purpose, and a blessing for us.

One day, our climbing will be done, and gravity will finally have to power over us. All of the things that weigh us down and knock us off course will be done away with. And we will see every promise He made to us be fulfilled. Even though we are faithless, He keeps His Word, generation to generation!

PSALM 132

Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, 

how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 

 (David's oath) Then David said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a palace made of cedar wood, but the Ark of God is in a tent!” (2 Sam. 11)

 (David's hardship) David’s army had won the battle that day. But it became a very sad day for all the people, because they heard that the king was very sad for his son. 3 The people came into the city quietly that day. They were like an army that had been defeated in battle and had run away. 4 The king covered his face and cried loudly, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam. 19)

“I will not enter my house or get into my bed, 

I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, 

until I find a place for the Lord,

a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” 

Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah (Bethlehem);

we found it in the fields of Jaar (land of the Philistines)

“Let us go to his dwelling place;
let us worship at his footstool!” 

Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might. 

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,
and let your saints shout for joy. 

For the sake of your servant David,
do not turn away the face of your anointed one. 

The Lord swore to David a sure oath
from which he will not turn back.

“One of the sons of your body
I will set on your throne. 

Since it was almost time for David to die, he gave his son Solomon his last commands. 2 David said, “My time to die is near. Be a good and strong leader. 3 Obey the Lord your God. Follow him by obeying his demands, his commands, his laws, and his rules that are written in the teachings of Moses. If you do these things, you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. 4 And if you obey the Lord, he will keep the promise he made to me. ( I Kings 2)

If your sons keep my covenant
and my testimonies that I shall teach them,
their sons also forever
shall sit on your throne.” 

Then Solomon said, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel. He has done what he promised to my father David. The Lord said, 16 ‘Since the time I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel where a temple will be built for me. But I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’

17 “My father David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. 18 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘It was good that you wanted to build a temple for me. 19 But you are not the one to build it. Your son, who comes from your own body, is the one who will build my temple.’

 “Now the Lord has kept his promise. I am the king now in place of David my father. Now I rule Israel as the Lord promised, and I have built the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. 21 I have made a place there for the Ark, in which is the Agreement the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.” ( I Kings 8)

For the Lord has chosen Zion;
he has desired it for his dwelling place: 

“This is my resting place forever;
here I will dwell, for I have desired it. 

I will abundantly bless her provisions;

I will satisfy her poor with bread. 

Her priests I will clothe with salvation,
and her saints will shout for joy. 

These are the last words of David.....

“This is how God has cared for my family.
God made a lasting agreement with me,
right and sure in every way.
He will accomplish my salvation
and satisfy all my desires. (2 Sam 23)

There I will make a horn to sprout for David;
I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. 

Then Solomon stood facing the Lord’s altar, and all the Israelites were standing behind him. He spread out his hands toward the sky  and said:

“Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep your agreement of love with your servants who truly follow you. 24 You have kept the promise you made to your servant David, my father. You spoke it with your own mouth and finished it with your hands today."

His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but on him his crown will shine.”


The pilgrims who made the journey to Jerusalem did it on more than one occasion every year. Some made it for every festival, thus creating a pattern of duty and delight. I liken it a little bit like those who travel on Saturdays in the fall to tailgate and keep going to basketball and baseball games as well (man, I am longing again for those days!). It is quite a commitment of time, energy, and finances for those types of fans.

At some point, it all becomes routine. You know the road, you know how to pack, you know the resting places- it is old and new at the same time.

The first time you do it, there is a level of anxiety. But after a while, you can do it in your sleep.

Be careful! The perplexity of normalization can be a trend toward monotony. When you were unsure and it was new- you were filled with the adrenaline of adventure. Now that you know the road, and the routine doesn't create the same excitement. What a tough predicament! You want to accomplish and experience, but doing the routine over and over creates ritualism, fatigue, and boredom. Sadly, this can happen in good marriages and in good pursuits!

This current crisis is no difference.... we are slowly entering a strange routine, though it is so different that even a few weeks ago!

This Psalm probes the solution to this quandary. How can I capture David's passion? What gave him the driving resolution to pursue the return of the Ark and the building of the Temple is such a way that the fire never died?

Here are a few important points of note:

Passion is not about activity- it is the power of personal relationships: Yes, we go on the same road- but the variety in the experience is the people we intimately share it with. Even if it is the same people, people are variations within themselves.

Go ahead and run with the routine, embrace day to day discipline: If we keep up the pace, we will run into what I call 'freshenings' and the slow addition of time builds stability and endurance. Most of the godly men in Scripture walked in obedience even though their face to face with encounter had ended 20 years previous. Some people chase the wind, others wait and know that it will come back to them if they are patient.

The power of the promise resides in God, not in men: This Psalm is Solomon's tribute to the ultimate fountain of blessing; David's passion meeting God's promise in providential perfection of space, time, and history. In the end, it was God who held the power to do as He had already promised. The Davidic Covenant was secure in God's promise- the beauty of it was that it shone brilliant in David's passionate response! God already knew it was going to be His Son who would pay the penalty of the broken covenant. He alone had taken on the terms of the contract (or bond in blood, sovereignly sealed as O. Palmer Robertson called it), He alone was to bear its penalty. Even David fell short in his ability to fulfill his promise. He broke God's law and was not allowed to build the temple.

Realize that it is never clean or easy: I think that idealists and perfectionists are always facing sad circumstances. A word that rises out of the page is 'resting place'- a longing that we have, but one that will never become an ultimate reality until the new Jerusalem is established.

But we can find rest in this realm if we are willing to see it and wait for it.

I love the parallel perspective:

No sleep for David- he had a life long passionate pursuit.
No rest for men- weighed down by the persistent patterns in life

Prayers/Desire in vs 9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,
and let your saints shout for joy.

Promise/Hope is vs 16 Her priests I will clothe with salvation,
and her saints will shout for joy.

Ultimately- This is ALL ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF GOD HIMSELF. That is WHO we worship on this grand day!


Yes, God is omni-present- but this Psalm is WHY the journey and WHY the ark and WHY the temple- it all represents a meeting of man and his Creator.

The Psalm is asking for God to GO to Jerusalem, a cry to "Meet us there in provision and peace" and so we climb because "Where He is, we want to be as well". It is the ultimate culmination of life itself.

In God there is the union of accomplishment AND relationship, passion and steady purpose, a hope that will never be in vain.

Until then, it is the tension of the NOW AND NOT YET. Faith and not sight.

AND IT IS ALL FULFILLED IN THE LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD:

Christ is always present in The Davidic Covenant:

vs. 6- Reference to Bethlehem (Ephrathah)
vs. 7- Footstool is reference to Christ as King
vs. 10- Anointed one in the line of David
vs. 12- a son of David will sit on the throne forever
vs. 17- the horn of David
vs. 18- the lamp for the Anointed One
vs. 19- enemies subdued by the King of Glory


We have been long enough on the journey to already be 'worn down'- but David never gave up his desire to build God's temple...even prevailing on the Lord Himself! Ask yourself these questions that David had no problem answering,

Can we stay on this journey without wearing down or wearing out or pulled into distractions?
Can we focus on the prize and not get lost in the journey?
Can we take time to enjoy the journey?
When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?

Summing it up: This Psalm is a cry to God to continue His kingdom based on His covenant promise keeping in the past, the evidence of His blessing in the present, and His covenant promise and reward in the future.

"Psalm 132 develops a strong sense of continuity with the past and a surging sense of exploration into the future. It is the kind of thing we sing to stay normal without becoming dull, to walk upright in the middle of the road without getting stuck in a long rut of mediocrity. Its words prod us to reach into the future without losing touch with the daily reality. Its rhythms stimulate us to new adventures in the Spirit without making us lunatics. For Christian living demands that we keep our feet on the ground; it also asks us to make a leap of faith. A Christian who stays put is no better than a statue. A person who leaps about constantly is under suspicion of being not a man but a jumping jack. What we require is obedience—the strength to stand and the willingness to leap, and the sense to know when to do which. Which is exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God’s ways is combined with a lively hope in his promises."- Eugene Peterson

So, I keep asking the Lord- HELP! Don't let me lose my passion for you! Keep me walking on that steady climb with joy and endurance! Don't let me get bogged down in empty ritual or routine- keep blowing that wind of renewal and power to obey. And thank-you for the grace to recover when I fail.

"Lord, the feelings are not the same. I guess I'm older. I guess I've changed. And how I wish it had been explained, that as you're growing, you must remember- that nothing lasts, except the grace of God, by which I stand- and Jesus, my whole life would surely fall away- except the grace, by which I'm saved." Keith Green

We only have a few Psalms left in our climb... Have I even helped you?

If so... let me know! jayopsis@gmail.com

Keeping Your Wits When Others Are Insane- Psalm 131

PSALM 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

I made this into a song- you can hear it here:

A Child's Trust (Psalm of Ascent 131)

The power of this simple little Psalm has hit me right between the eyes for years. I always seem to stumble upon it at just the right time....providentially.

As we climb, our egos grow.

Two hard circumstances to handle in life is long term defeat AND long term success. Remember that losers lean we had at the beginning of the journey- cast out, beat down, and discouraged depression?

Then we start to make our way out and up and before you know it we are loud and proud.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It captures so much of this as he observes all of the revelry.

He prophetically titled the poem: Recessional

G0D of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine
Lord God of Hosts be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,  
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!


Kipling knew the human heart! Here was Great Britain whose kingdom spread from 'palm to pine', making a reference to a famous quip during that day- "The sun never sets on the British empire"- a reference to the wide expanse of lands and people under her dominion.

Kipling also knew the danger- POWER/VICTORY unleashes 'wild tongues, drunk with power'.

And the only hope fo remedy or antidote? Never forget God, the source of our protection and provision.

The ancient sacrifice: An humble and contrite heart.

I see Psalm 131 as a break in the action. The people look down and say WOW- look at what we have done! Look how far we have climbed!

And a wise man in the crowd says.... "Be still and bow before the King. Recognize Him and humble yourself in His sight. It is what HE HAS DONE!"

And we also know the formula:

Humble ourselves and God will lift us up.
Don't humble ourselves and He will take us down.


Psalms 25:9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble".

Mark 1:7 (John the Baptist) And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

Psalms 18:27 For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.

Psalms 149: 4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

The biggest problem is that we KNOW this- but will FAIL this over and over. When our pride gets the stuffin' knocked out, it is OK to humbly come back to Him. And he does not break a bruised reed.

Here are a few 'tips' to help keep us out of the cycle of 'Puffed UP and POPPED'

• ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IN ALL YOUR SUCCESS- Not in a flippant way, He is NOT an expedient. He refuses to be one.

• DON'T BOAST- Be confident without bragging. The wild tongue must be bridled by sober words.

I Corinthians 1:31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
Proverbs 27:1 'Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.'

• SCRIPTURE, PRAYER, WORSHIP: Practice the disciplines of the Christian life.

• SERVE: Go and do things for others, say thank-you, give a cup of water in Jesus' name 

FINALLY- It is a beautiful picture in this Psalm... a little child resting in his mother's arms. When we are humble, we are at peace. Fully satisfied in our God.  He is all I need!

Keeping Your Wits When Others Are Insane- Psalm 130

We only have 5 devotions left in this series. I'm not sure what I will do after we finish next Tuesday. I'm trying to work through a consistent schedule and a varied task list everyday including prayer, exercise, professional tasks, personal tasks, and scheduled off time activities.
Please send me an email: jayopsis@gmail.com
and let me know how I can pray for you! This has been such an unprecedented time!






PSALM 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand? 

But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared. 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in his word I hope; 

my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning. 

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption. 

And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

I made this into a song- you can hear it here:

Deep Depths (Song of Ascent 130)

There was an old Steve Camp song that began, "Looks like the boy's in trouble again, living much to close to the edge of sin."

No matter how hard our intentions, no matter how surely we say we have learned our lesson- we often find ourselves sliding back on our climb up.

My own experience in this process we call 'sanctification' seems like 1 step forward, 2 steps back, 3 steps forward, 1 step back, 1 step forward, 3 steps back- and it can grow exceedingly frustrating and demoralizing.

Remember where we started this climb? Way back in Psalm 120.... 11 Devotions ago. And it seems like we can't shake the shadow of sin. I have been anemically trying to walk with Jesus for almost 40 years and I still find those times where I have simply blown it.

But the beauty of this Psalm is hope in the midst of despair!

If God counted sin.....  who would pass? NO ONE
But with God there is forgiveness.

So we wait and we hope- eager to see the break of dawn.

 Dostoevsky had this hope:

“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all
the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a ‘painful’
pitiful mirage….that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony,
something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for
the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of
humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only
possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.” 

My question is- how do we keep waiting and hoping when it seems the relentless attack of the enemy is raging or we are constantly floundering?

All of these things are easy to say and impossible to do. But here are some tools that do help me hold on when all hell seems to be breaking loose and I am in a free fall.

#1 Returning over and over and over to the gospel of grace- Notice the words here in the Psalm: mercy, forgiveness, steadfast love, redemption- these words are rooted in the story of God's redeeming love and His offer of forgiveness based on the sacrifice of His son. I don't know how people live life without knowing this message. Our salvation is a gift. It cannot be earned; it is not deserved. It is not an excuse to fail, but I am free to fail and free to begin again and again.

#2 Reading God's Word- "in his word I hope". The Psalms have become my camping ground when I am in a downward spiral. Here is real/raw human emotion. But God is also here.

#3 Serve, support, and encourage others- I know of no better healing balm than to help others when you are hurting. Something about sharing in the suffering of others and staying positive is supernatural. A lot of times it helps me to walk around and say meaningful words of encouragement to others. I love sharing the gospel to those who are weighed down by life. The last few weeks I have been able to pray for others just over the phone and hearing them being lifted up helps! Seeing human beings in small Zoom conferences has been encouraging!

#4 Cling to your family- My wife and children are solid and sturdy supports in the storms of life. Yesterday, Lisa and I shared our 32nd wedding anniversary... Oh Lord, where would I be without her!

#5 Worship- Going into God's house and worshiping the Lord is always a hope and help. I am looking forward to a day where we can return and cry out in corporate worship!

But none of this alleviates the fact that it is a wearying process to hang on as we wait for help. Hope is sometimes hard, but it never pays off for us to give up.

Pastor Rick Warren:

"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a Nutshell, life is
preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, And God wants us to be
with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--But not
the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend
trillions of years in eternity.  This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.  We were
made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make
sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of
one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.  The reason for this is that
God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life
happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, With
my wife, Kay, getting cancer, I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go
through a dark time, Then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't
believe that anymore. 

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a
railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in
your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that
needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is
always something good you can thank God for.  You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. 

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my
problem, my issues, my pain."
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and
onto God and others. 

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of
people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry
of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to
people.  

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?  Am I
going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism?  Or am I going
to be driven by God's purposes?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't
get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better.
God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I
am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
In:
Happy moments,
Difficult moments,
Quiet moments,
Painful moments,
Every moment, THANK GOD. "

The Psalmist's Desperation

As I read the Psalm, something jumped out that I has never noticed before. All of the 'Oh Lord' and the repetition regarding 'the watchmen' has a pace and rhythm of someone really desperate. This man is CRYING out to God and pleading for mercy. He is so overwhelmed by his sin.

I think back at his anger in Psalm 20- eyes at all of the world's wickedness. But now he has a different view- at all  of his wickedness.

And he does the right thing. He cries out to the Lord.

There is a point in redemption where we stop counting everyone else's failures and we start seeing our own. It is the problem that Jesus spoke of... specks and planks in Matthew 7.

When we speak of other's faults, we are justifying ourself by way of comparison.
When we cry out to God because of our sin, we are seeking mercy and forgiveness from the One we have offended.

And it is then we discover justification through Christ.

And then our song changes... you can see it in this Psalm.

The Psalmist ends with a hope for salvation to all.

That is why we plead to all we can.....

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [17] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16–17 ESV)