“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”” Revelation 7:9-10 NIV
This post, originally published over two years ago, was released during the height of the Covid pandemic in the UK.
While I hope we have now moved on from lockdowns and restrictions, the UK now faces another crisis in energy costs. I am sure it is the same where you are as well.
As our bills in every area increase, what does that mean for our giving to God? Should we cut it back? Should we stop altogether?
I hope you find the post interesting, and welcome your thoughts in the comments.
Giving can be a tough subject to discuss, and particularly at the moment with all the other issues going on in the world. However, a Christian who does not give is like a Christian who does not pray. Christians should be generous givers. There are many individuals and groups struggling because of the impact of…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2020/04/16/dont-give-up-giving/
My family and I are experiencing a challenging time at the moment. this means I am blogging on the go, and so please excuse any formatting or lack thereof!
Over the past few days, I do not think I have stood still for one moment! My time with God has been seriously restricted, as has my time in his word.
Can you relate? Have you had similar seasons in life?
I rejoice that I have had opportunities to store God’s word in my heart in the past, and can draw on those resources now.
I strongly encourage you to hide God’s word in your heart during the sunny seasons in life. Life will always throw times of trouble at us, but we can prepare ahead of time.
This verse tells us that by hiding God’s word in our hearts, we will reduce the risk of sin. The more Bible we have within us, the stronger we will be to face temptation when it comes. And temptation is harder to resist during times of trouble, when we are tired or stressed.
It was my intention this week, to begin a series on Psalm 37 and to also write about the Prodigal son. however, I have had a change of plans…
Unfortunately my father had a pretty bad fall at the weekend, and has had a stay in hospital.
I thank God his injuries were not worse, and I’m pleased to report he is now home.
It has been a tough situation on all the family, so would very much welcome your prayers at this time.
As you can imagine, I have not had much time to write! in the next few days therefore, I will share some older posts of mine and posts from fellow bloggers who I am sure you will enjoy reading.
I hope that normal life, whatever that is, will resume again shortly and I can return to my keyboard.
In the meantime, I thank God that he is indeed in control. He has watched over us as a family, and I praise him for that.
If you are going through a difficult time at the moment, I can relate! I would love the opportunity to pray for you to, so do get in touch.
Have a fabulous day, whatever you are getting up to, and keep on keeping on! don’t allow a change of plans to derail your faith, and know that Christ is always with you.
Pearls of Wisdom As Christians, we are here to serve the Lord, not the other way around I am certainly not against all television ministries, but an unguarded look at Christian TV might make you think that Christianity is all about getting the best life you can. Some falsely lead you into thinking that having…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2020/07/06/were-here-to-serve-god-pow/
Today I share a timely post from Nicola over at Eaglesight – A blog I highly recommend!
I find myself feeling overwhelmed at the moment, trying to keep up with the demands of life and family. so this reminder in due season that Christ is my anchor and loves me dearly, is much appreciated.
How about you?
Nicola also links to another blog by Alan, which I also encourage you to have a read of.
I woke in the early hours with thoughts racing through my mind of all the tasks I had not done and were overdue. As I went through them one by one I …
Yesterday we considered the first few verses of Psalm 36 in my post – A Revelation of Wickedness. Picking up where we left off, we take a sharp turn away from the wickedness of humanity to the wonders of our gracious God. Perhaps the psalmist – King David – was hoping to convey the absolute contrast between the evil of men and the goodness of God.
5 Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like a great deep.
Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
Psalm 36:5-6 WEB
Verses five and six begin to compare some of God’s attributes with features of the physical world to provide a sense of scale. Sometimes, when my children take a photo of an insect or similar, we encourage them to add something else to the background to show the size of the object in question. In a similar way, King David is trying to convey the magnitude of these characteristics of God. He begins with loving-kindness.
Verse 5 in the WEB is perhaps not the most helpful rendering. It says that God’s loving-kindness is in the heavens. The NLT puts it like this: “Your unfailing love O Lord is as vast as the heavens.” Which I feel is a much clearer picture. God’s love is so vast that it reaches from the depths of the earth to the highest heavens. God’s love, which never fails, is as big as you can imagine. This is, of course, poetic language, as love cannot be measured by volume or distance. Instead, God demonstrates His love for us in the form of a rugged cross and a suffering Saviour. As John states in his Gospel, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.” That’s the size of God’s love!
With poetic emphasis (and particularly in the Hebrew style), God’s faithfulness is now compared to the height of the skies. Faithfulness is not something we see a great deal of in our world today. It means to be steadfast and loyal, to keep to our word no matter the circumstances and to remain at a friend’s side in the bleakest of trials. God will never leave you. He will never forsake you. God is faithful, meaning what He says and saying precisely what He means. We can trust God because we can trust His word.
We can #trust #God because we can trust His Word – that is, the #Bible
Verse six compares God’s righteousness to the mountains of God. There are few geological features as impressive or even breath-taking as a mountain. To us mere humans standing at their foot, a mountain seems an almost eternal object. Often, from the base, the top is obscured by cloud and we can only imagine how high it extends. Likewise, God’s righteousness is seemingly unending.
The word righteousness here is integrity, or moral uprightness. God is righteous; He is morally perfect and without fault. God is both pure and just, and He is blameless and holy. As we stand before a mountain and feel rather small, we ought to stand before God and feel wholly inadequate before Him. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in comparison, and we dare not hope to approach Him without the cleansing work of Christ. Thanks be to God who no longer sees our sinfulness, but instead sees us as pure and righteous as His Son through the shed blood of the cross!
Verse six then points out another massive geological feature – the great deep. Indeed, the psalmist compares God’s judgements to the depths of the mighty ocean. I do not mind admitting to you that I have something of a fear for the ocean. Partly due to its size and partly owing to its power, I rarely venture into the waves. I recall a story my wife tells of a time when she was swimming over a coral reef. The water was perhaps a few feet deep, but as she swam out further over the edge of the reef, the ocean floor dropped sharply away and there was apparent nothingness beneath her. Rather unsettled, she returned to the relative safety of the reef. The thought of it sends shivers down my spine! It is not only the imagined creatures lurking in those depths, but also the vast volume of water and absence of light that disturbs me.
The deep, here, is perhaps not meant to be so terrifying as I’ve made it out to be! Put simply, it is a huge mass, and again gives us a sense of scale to the judgements of God. I read this as God’s ways being higher than our ways, rather than God’s judgements being harsher or harder than ours (although perhaps that is also true?)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
Verse six concludes by noting that God preserves both man and animal alike. We could spend a long time considering the preservation of man at God’s mighty hand, but I rarely pass a verse like this without pausing at the inclusion of animal kind. While we know that humans are far more valuable than animals, God is not dismissive of His Creation and willing to care for animals of all kinds as well. I recall a poorly dog we once had, and reading closing words of the book of Jonah where the city of Ninevah is spared. The book of Jonah includes concern not just for the people of Ninevah, but also the animals that live there too (see Jonah 4:11).
God is indeed a saving God; a Rescuer! He is able to preserve our life on this dangerous world but also to save us from sin and its consequences in the life to come. I have only managed two verses today, and perhaps this isn’t the longest of posts, but this seems a good place to pause. I rejoice that despite my failings, and my disturbing familiarity with the first four verses, that God is able to save me. Despite my wickedness, and that of the world around me, Jesus was willing and able to step down into the mire, live the perfect life, and suffer the consequences of sin which was alien to Him. He paid the penalty for me and for you. He died a brutal death, physically and not to mention the spiritual element, in order that you and I might go free.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in the preservation business. God sees the trap we find ourselves in, a pit of our own making, yet He is not content to leave us there. Giving up His most precious Son, God paid the price for each of us. If we call on Him today, trusting in what He has done and letting go of our pitiful efforts, we too can be saved – preserved – for all eternity. It is not a mere nod to Jesus that is enough, we must give Him our entire lives and learn to live for Him, and learn to let Him live through us.
As you stand before God today, is it a mountain of righteousness you see, or a righteousness which stretches to the heavens above? Do you feel small before Him, aware of your own failings? I know I do at times! Yet, as we put our faith in Jesus, we are cleansed and made new. Do not let this moment pass you by! Make a commitment today, and begin to follow Jesus. Learn His ways, and rest in Him. If you make that choice today, I’d love to hear from you.
We will return to the rest of this psalm another day. Blessings on you!
What a dark title! Hope it did not put you off reading any further!
Psalm 36 is very much a psalm of two halves. The first four verses remind us of the wickedness of humanity, and the latter eight verses contrast the wonderous righteousness of our God. Today we focus on the first few verses, and consider the sinfulness of rebellious man – but hold on to hope for the goodness of God which follows another day.
For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh.
A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked:
“There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to detect and hate his sin.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plots iniquity on his bed.
He sets himself in a way that is not good.
He doesn’t abhor evil.
Psalm 36:1-4 WEB
King David, the author of this psalm and many others, launches straight in with the core purpose of this section – namely, that he has had a revelation of the wickedness of mankind. He will elaborate in the coming verses, but this opening shows us that in his meditations on the Scripture and in his time with God, he has come to receive an understanding of the sinfulness of humanity.
This may not be the kind of revelation any of us want! Yet, I think it is rather crucial to grasping the Christian faith. I recall a time when I was sharing the Gospel with someone, and they simply could not accept what I was saying. On reflection, I realised that we were on totally different wavelengths. I had understood that humanity was wicked at heart, and without hope. They were starting from a point where people were basically good at heart, despite a few bad apples and common mistakes. This latter view is not the Christian perspective.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and it is exceedingly corrupt.
Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 WEB
23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23 WEB
Having stated that he has received this revelation, David then goes on to summarise what this really means. “There is no fear of God before his eyes.” This is at the heart of the matter for me; a lack of reverential fear of God. While God does not want us to be afraid of him, in a scared sort of way, He does want us to revere and respect Him. I do not fear electricity, but have a deep respect for it and know not to play around with it or misuse it. Likewise, we are not afraid of God, but we respect and understand that He is in charge and to be obeyed.
Verse two points out that wicked men flatter themselves so much so that they cannot see their own sin. We ought not to flatter ourselves, but instead be humble and look on ourselves with sober judgement.
Paul says in his letter to the Romans:
3 For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.
Romans 12:3 WEB
The NIV translation renders this verse at to look at yourself with “sober judgement.” This is not to beat ourselves up, nor to think we are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Rather, it is to be honest about our shortcomings and the true inclination of our heart without Christ.
When we do not do this, we deceive ourselves, and become blind to our own sin. We are broken creatures (without Christ) and we have a flesh (sinful nature) which craves to please itself and not the things of God. We cannot be complacent, nor can we compare ourselves to others. Our only comparison is to Jesus Himself, and we fall woefully short. Let us have open eyes when it comes to our true hearts, and be not ignorant of our sinfulness. The more we understand the depths of our sin, the more we realise our need for a Saviour – Jesus Christ.
The more we understand the depths of our #sin, the more we realise our need for a Saviour – #Jesus #Christ. #Bible
Verse three turns to our words. I like the directness of this translation; it doesn’t say the words are full of iniquity or deceit, but are iniquity and deceit! As Jesus taught us, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and also that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Sinful words come from sinful hearts. Words of deceit flow forth from a heart that is deceived. If we think we are without sin, then we do indeed deceive ourselves as the Apostle John teaches us from his first letter.
Words are indeed powerful, both for good and for ill. My post entitled – Words Can Be Atom Bombs – is relevant here. Words can start wars, words can tear down, and words can inflict deep harm. The wicked care little for the effect of their words, and to them, talk is cheap. We know that God created all things in the power of His words, and so we must use our words for creation and not destruction.
The latter half of verse three and verse four also sets out what this “wicked man” will do. Let each of us examine these sayings in turn, and be sure they do not apply to us who believe.
The wicked and rebellious have ceased to be wise, and therefore stop doing good. It is indeed foolish to abandon good ways and seek to fulfil the lust of our flesh. To do so is to shun God and His ways, and such a path leads only to death. That is truly unwise!
The rebellious plot sin on their beds. As they lay there, staring up at the ceiling, they think of things they might do and say. We Christians are not so immune to this as we may think. For instance, have you ever rehearsed an argument you were going to have with someone while laying awake at night? “If they start, I’m going to tell them what for! And if they say this, then I’m going to say that… And if they then say this, I’m really going to say that!” Sounds daft, yet perhaps a little familiar if we are honest. Let us not plot to do evil, nor rehearse it in our minds.
The wicked set themselves in a way that is not good. What does this mean? Perhaps another translation will help us here.
They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots.
Their actions are never good.
They make no attempt to turn from evil.
Psalm 36:4 NLT
Put very straightforwardly here, their actions are never good. I think this means they put themselves in a posture to do wrong, i.e. they play with fire and are frequently burned. To set yourself up to do something, good or bad, you must get yourself into a position where you can do it. For example, recovering alcoholics do not venture into bars because they know that the temptation is too great. They have set themselves against drinking by staying away. Those who set themselves to do evil may go looking for a fight, or deliberately stay late at the office to be alone with their assistant. You cannot do anything with your body unless your mind has gone there first.
Finally, verse four says that the wicked do not abhor evil. The NLT is rather weaker in its words, saying they merely do not turn from evil. However, to abhor evil is rather stronger. Plotting evil on your bed is often rather direct, whereas not hating evil is somehow more passive. Yet, it is something the wicked do. If someone were to attack my wife or children, and I just stood there shaking my head and muttering, “How awful!” You would think me a terrible coward! You may also question my love for my family, and no doubt (and rightly so) brand me a wicked man. It is not enough for us to stand idly by and passively watch the sin of the world. We must abhor it. We do not hate the sinner, of course, but sin and wickedness is not something we should tolerate as believers.
All in all, I know this is something of a bleak post – focussing entirely on the wicked and rebellious! Yet, I hope there are lessons for all of us here. It can be all too easy to think of ourselves – followers of Christ – as being far removed from sin and iniquity. However, I think the difference between us and the world is not always as stark as it should be. If, like me, you read some of David’s descriptions above and some of them ring vaguely true in your life, may I humbly suggest it is time for a heart inspection.
We must not be wicked, but instead fear God for His justice and recognising Who He is. We cannot flatter ourselves, and end up being blind to our own failings. Our words should be pure, building others up and singing the praises of our God. Let us be wise, and do good. Let us not plot to do wrong, nor set ourselves towards sin. We must hate and abhor what is evil, and cling to what is good.
May you join me in meditating on these verses, and bear them in mind as we approach the rest of this psalm, and the stunning contrast between evil man and awesome God.
Do you ever feel like you are bothering God? Perhaps you have a need – a small one – and you look at all of the problems in the world and think, “This is too little for God…”
More likely perhaps, you believe that you ought to be able to handle this “thing” whatever it may be, and yet are struggling. I should be able to do this, you feel, and the Spirit urges you to ask God for help. Yet your pride stops you. You might not say the words exactly, but somehow feel like to ask God for this little thing is just plain silly.
I recall a story of a Bible teacher struggling to play a particular sport. Every move they made seemed to go wrong, and they felt a nudge from the Spirit to ask God to help them. They dismissed it, thinking “God isn’t interested in me playing this game…” But the leading persisted, and so, they prayed. “God, please help me play…” And their game improved dramatically.
When we have real problems in life, we do tend to take them to the Lord. If it is bigger than us, we know to pray to the One who is bigger than it all. Smaller matters of life though, we try to handle on our own. We think that trivial matters are too little for God. The truth is though, everything is little to God!
When you serve a God who is infinite in nature, all-powerful and beyond our comprehension; you begin to realise that every need you have is miniscule in comparison. To put it simply; God is big, and there is nothing above Him. Given that, our greatest need is but a minor thing to Him.
I do not want to speak ignorantly here, and realise that anyone reading this might be facing really difficult problems. Perhaps you are unwell, or someone you love is. Maybe you have lost a job, a home or worse a child. These are truly awful things, and I am not trivialising them today. God cares about what you care about. If it means something to you, then it means something to Him. When my youngest daughter tells me about the intricacies of the book she is reading, or the imaginary game she is playing, I do not see it as beneath me, but instead show interest in what she cares about. Likewise, our earthly trials may seem world-ending to us, and perhaps they are from our perspective, yet God – our Heavenly Father – loves us, and cares for our needs.
My point, then, is not to trivialise our problems, but to instead hold them up against our immeasurable God. A candle can light a room and burn your hand, yet if you hold it up to the Sun in the sky, you may barely be able to notice it. in the same way, your problems are very real, but are nothing next to our incredible Father.
This may not be the most theological of Bible posts today. It may not consider justification by faith, hermeneutics or apologetics. Still, I hope it encourages you!
Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
Ephesians 3:20 WEB
Familiar words these may be, but do not let them pass you by. God our Father can do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we can ask or think! That should astonish us! That should humble us! That should throw us to our knees in prayer!
Nothing is too big for God! Nothing! In fact, everything is little to Him!
Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! Psalm 34:3 (ESV) At a recent prayer event, we were thinking about “magnifying God”. The facilitator expressed the sentiment that to magnify something is to make it larger, so how can we make God any bigger than He already is? This stumped me. Surely God is…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2018/02/23/magnification/
Andy Brown 