Psalm Five “The God who Sees”

In this song David, again under pressure and in the midst of enemies, meditates on the fact that God is a God who hears us when we pray, sees us in the midst of trouble, sees evil and judges it and protects his own children.

1. A Cry from the Heart

One of the reasons the Psalms are so easy to identify with is that they portray people who have the same issues that we all have. In this case what does David do? He pours out his heart to the Lord.

Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.

Note how David takes his complaints to God, rather than letting them fester. And it is significant that he seems to have the habit of spending time each morning bringing his requests to God. The morning quiet time, that includes a time of intercessory prayer, has a biblical mandate.

2. A Holy God

For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, LORD, detest.

How little we understand about the holiness of God! The moral purity of God means that to Him all impurity is abhorrent. This is continued in the fourth stanza as David reflects on the consequences of evil

Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies0
Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.

Not only are the wicked abhorrent to God, but David, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, prayer that they may come under the judgement of God. How are we, who have some understanding of love and grace in Jesus, to respond to that?

When we consider the evil that is done in this life and the damage that is done to individuals, even in our fallen state, we feel something of the sense of outrage that God feels as he observes the terrible deeds done by humans. And we should rightly come to the conclusion that a good God is one who would punish child abuse, torture of innocent people, genocide, rape and murder. God who does not punish such acts in not a righteous or just God at all, and we would wonder whether his heaven would be worth being in! But the fact is that God will judge all such acts, and those who have suffered at the hands of evildoers will have their justice. As God said to Cain “The blood of Abel calls out from under the ground”. At such judgement we should rejoice.

The word “Hallelujah” in the New Testament is only used in revelation 19, when there is rejoicing in the judgement of God poured out on those who so richly deserve it. We may rightly pray for and thank God for such judgement.

What David did not know is that there would be a window of time – in which we now live – when it would be possible for the worst of sinners to turn to God in repentance. But the day will come when that window will close, and when does we can join with David in his prayer that God will judge the guilty.The trouble is that as we read the scriptures we become increasingly aware that we too are stained and corrupted by sin.

3. The Merciful God

But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
towards your holy temple. Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies –
make your way straight before me.

David recognises that it is by the mercy of God alone that he is able to come into God’s presence. The difference between us as believers and those who will be under God’s judgement is that we have received the mercy of God. Such a realisation prompts David to worship and to plead for help as he weeks to live in a sinful world.

4. The Triumphant Conclusion

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favour as with a shield.

As often in the Psalms, even in a dark place, there is a triumphant conclusion as David concludes that those who have been redeemed can be full of joy as they experience the protection of God in their lives.
The psalms helps us to consider that God sees us when we are under pressure, he sees us on our knees as we brings our requests to him he sees the wickedness that is done on earth and protects us as we trust in Him.

JOHN MACDIARMID
MAY 2012

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Reference: Psalm 4

This song is a song that David penned reflecting on the challenges, the battles and the joys of life on the frontline.

We think of war as ugly and destructive, and so it is. No one in their right minds would choose to spend a lifetime on the frontline. Yet that is precisely where we are: we are on the frontline in the battle against the prince of darkness. The place where the frontline is fiercest is in the places where we touch the world – at home, in the workplace, in college. We all have our frontlines. It can be a challenging and an exhilarating place to be, and here David is reflecting on it.

1. Life on the Frontline

“How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods”

Our frontline is a place where people have no time for God, where they turn the very thing that believers glory in, into a joke, into something to mock at and ridicule. What a pressure to be constantly on such a frontline!

Our frontline is a place where people prefer delusions to the truth, a place where people live their lives living with the delusion that God is either not there, is not interested or is powerless. It is a place where people prefer the worship of false gods, of pleasure, money status and power, to the worship of the one true God. This is where we live our lives. No wonder the Christian life is tough!

There is help here for us all, but before we consider it, let’s consider some ways not to react to the pressure of being on the frontline:

A) Becoming “exclusive” – this means we stay in a holy huddle, don’t engage with the world, and keep it at as much of a distance as we can. Some very godly people have gone down that route, and you can certainly see why – but we are told to be “the salt of the earth” and to “live such good lives among the pagans…”. Clearly, biblically, being exclusive is not an option.

B) Becoming part of the problem. We can get so close to the world that our behaviour becomes indistinguishable from it. This is why James wrote “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” And John wrote “Do not love the world or anything in the world”. Connection with those who are not of God’s people can so easily cause us to lose our distinctiveness.

C) The third error we can make is to simply give up on the battle, as so many have done. Either to drop out of the Christian life, or to withdraw from the front line by becoming someone who is still around Christian circles but is not actively involved in the front line.

Is there help available for the believer who wants to serve God on the front line? Yes there is, and this Psalm points us in the right direction.

2. Help on the Frontline

David, in song, reflects on some of the ways that we can cope with the pressures of life on the frontline.

Pouring out our heart to God

Answer me when I call to you,
my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

David is pouring out his heart to God. Our ability to handle the stresses of life on the frontline will depend on the extent to which we draw on the limitless resources of God in prayer.

Understanding our call

Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself;

The call of the believer is to be set apart for God. This is the root meaning of the term “set apart” for God. So we are called not to be conformed to the world, but to the word of God and offer ourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness.

Searching our hearts

In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent

There is much to make us angry. Injustice, unrighteousness, sin in all its ugly forms. It is right to be angry about such things, but we are called to make sure that this is godly anger – not criticism. So we search our hearts to see if there is offence in us before we pass judgement on others. This is most true when we find ourselves outraged by bad behaviour amongst God’s own people – people who should know better.

Offering sacrifices

Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the Lord.

The Psalmist was writing in an era when there were daily offerings and sacrifices of all kinds to make worshippers acceptable to God. We now live in a day, thank God, where one offering has been offered for all time. But there are still ways to offer sacrifices to God. The New Testament identifies four:

a) “A living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1) Here Paul talks about our sacrifice as being one in which we lay down our lives before God in surrender to Him.

b) “A fragrant offering” – (Philippians 4:18) – in this passage Paul is talking about the sacrifice of financial giving to god’s work and in support of the poor.

c) “A sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15) the writer to the Hebrews talks about the act of offering praise to our God being a sacrifice – how often that is the case!

d) “Do good and share with others” – this all – embracing exhortation from Hebrews speaks of the sacrificial acts of love and care towards others.

So the need to offer sacrifices has not ended with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament!

3. Joy on the frontline

All the above can make the Christian life sound like anything but joyful. However David has no time for those who turn these exhortations into doom and gloom

Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”

David shows that it fact the challenge of living on the frontline, though exacting and demanding is one that is full of joy and peace:

You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.
8 I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.

There is always a tension between the challenges of living for God and the joys of knowing that God is in our life. What David is saying is that the challenges and difficulties, and sometimes the anguish of the battles on the frontline are more than outweighed by the joy of knowing Jesus as Lord of our lives. He is saying that the reality to be found in him is greater than anything that the world can give.

The song finishes on this note of triumph and optimism, greatly reminiscent of the assertion of Paul in the midst of the most severe trials that he considered everything a loss compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ as Lord.

That is the reality for us, that as we live as he wants us to on the frontline, he will give us a joy and peace that the world cannot even imagine.

JOHN MACDIARMID
MAY 2012

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Reference: Psalm 3

As we continue our series in the book of Psalms – “Songs in the Key of Life” – we come to Psalm 3, a Psalm written by King David under a time of severe pressure.

1. David Under pressure

In order to fully understand a song, we have first of all to understand the person who wrote it, and the circumstances under which he wrote it.

David was, by any measurement a remarkable man. From humble shepherd stock, he was anointed King of Israel by Samuel, but it took many years before he came into his full inheritance. In the meantime he was a shepherd, a musician, a soldier, the Kings son in law, a royal courtier and an outlaw. Eventually, at age 30, he became king over all Israel, a remarkable promotion by God. Given God’s dealing with him it is inconceivable that he would put it at risk, but he seduced a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, covered it up and arranged for the murder of her husband. Throughout the rest of his reign the outworkings of this disobedience rumbled on.

There is much to learn here. When someone starts there life well, there is no guarantee that they will finish well. Even as Christians we have to live with the consequences of our sin. We live our Christian life one day at a time. David was a man of God – yet he was susceptible to temptation and sin. David is just like us

In the incident in question, David is reaping the consequences of years of being an indulgent father, when his handsome and charismatic son, Absalom, had literally been allowed to get away with murder. An encouragement for us all is that, though much of our pressure comes as a consequence of our own errors, God does not abandon us. Here David’s son has made an attempt for the throne, and David is on the run for his life. Late in life this is not what David expected. But at every stage of life we have to learn new lessons about following him. Past success in following God does not guarantee future success. Some of the hardest lessons can come at the end of our life.

2. You Under pressure

Although we do not necessarily have the same situation as David, nevertheless we know what it is to life under pressure. Maybe, like David, it is pressure that comes from our own weaknesses or past sins. If that is the case, be encouraged, God did not abandon David and he will not abandon you!

Or maybe it is the pressure of being involved in the Christian life and in Christian service. Ephesians 6 vividly paints the picture of conflict. The fact is, that to be a Christian is to be under pressure.

Or maybe it is simply the pressure of life. To live in any stage of life is to experience life’s pressure, whether it is the pressure of a job, or the pressure of unemployment, of financial stress or family life. The pressure of being young and single can be intense as can the pressure of being old and vulnerable.

Whatever our situation we know what it is to live under pressure? Is there help for us. Psalm 3 says “yes”.
As it says in Romans 8 “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”. Help is available, but we have to make choices in order to access it.

3. Help Under Pressure

David’s song take us through a series of choices that he makes in order to access the grace of God in his pressure cooker.

a) Face the Facts

O LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
We have to be honest about the difficulties we face. If we are using our faith as a means to pretend that things are fine when they are not, then it is not faith at all. If we are going to see God’s grace help us in times of difficulty then we have to be realistic about the nature of the battles we face.

b) Look at the Reality

But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
Being honest about the situation we face sets the scene for looking with realism at the solution. David looks behind the situation he faces to the one who is his 360 degree shield, protecting David from harm. And he recognises that it is God himself who lifts David’s head and enables him to see things as they really are. This is not escapism – it is seeing matters as they really are, much as when Elijah prayed that his servants eyes would be opened to see the chariots of fire all round him.

c) Shape Pressure into Prayer

David then turns his pressure into prayer.
To the LORD I cry aloud,
and he answers me from his holy hill.
We must learn to bring our complaints, with honesty, emotion and integrity to God. And, as David points out there is no prospect of the prayer being unanswered.
Arise, O LORD!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.

David’s prayer for God to deliver him has to be understood in the context of a willingness to submit to God’s plan even if the situation does not change. And his prayer for God to take vengeance on the enemy seems harsh to us – but we must remember that David did not have the revelation that we should “Love our enemies and prayer for those who persecute us “ – that came with Jesus.

Facing facts, looking at reality and shaping our pressure into prayer are all key to seeing God’s grace released into our situation.

d) Live in the good of it

When we earnestly and sincerely bring our concerns to God, he has a promise that he is obliged to fulfil. “The peace of God which passes understanding” is God’s guarantee to his children who bring their concerns to Him. It is this peace that enables David to do a remarkable thing. When being terrorised by enemy troops and fleeing for your life, the last thing you would do is to lie down and sleep. But this is exactly what David does here, because he knows that God has his life in His hand. The challenge here is for us to live in the light of what we say we believe.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

e) Choose not to fear

I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.
Fear comes against the best of us. But we then have a choice about what we do with it. We can choose to give into it, or we can choose to resist it. This choice is the culmination of all the choices that David talks about in this song.

And finally…

From the LORD comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.

There is a triumphant conclusion as David recognizes that it is God who gives deliverance – either deliverance form the situation or grace in it, and prayers that God’s people may in, all the stresses of life, experience the same. May it be so with us.

John MacDiarmid
April 2012

Reference: Galatians 5 v 13-26

Bad bananas:

1. Not everyone with us will be with us
2. It hurts when this happens
3. Make sure it is not you

We all drop the ball:

1. Everyone drops the ball
2. This is what we are like
3. Find reasons to get on, not the other way round

A course to victory:

1. We are on course to victory over sin
2. So certain it is in the past
3. Be encouraged

The commands:

1. Keep in step with the spirit
2. Demonstrate the fruits of the spirit and not envy or anything else

There have been some comments, concerns and questions raised about the Sunday morning ministry, concerns which we share and I wish to address now in this statement, which I am giving on behalf of the three elders.

The central point of the message that Chris Horwood brought was that “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever”, that he lives in the lives of his children and in his church and that everything that Jesus is able to do we may rightly expect that he is able to do today. We support that view wholeheartedly and are grateful for the reminder that with God all things are possible, to ask and to believe God to move and to work in power in whatever way he wishes to do so.

However, there were some concerns about the ministry.

Firstly, the style of “bigging up” stories of remarkable acts of God is one that we are not comfortable with. Neither can we endorse the support of some of the ministries that were mentioned last week.

Secondly, and far more importantly, there are theological issues. Chris’ ministry was interpreted by some as saying that it is always God’s will to heal, and that when we ask him he will do it. That is not the view of this church. Our view is that healing and miracles are a part of God’s dealing with his people in every age, but it is always subject to God’s sovereignty and purposes. God’s kingdom has come now, but is not here in its entirety. Everyone will be healed in heaven – in the meantime God graciously chooses to give us down – payments and glimpses of his kingdom.

So in both style and content we wish to indicate a caution over what was said in here last Sunday.

This episode highlights a very important principle that underlies that way we should respond to ministry. The Bereans, we read in Acts 17, were commended for being noble because they searched the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul was saying was true. In I Thessalonians 5 Paul urges his readers to test everything, holding on to what was good.

In applying this in our own situation we would say that the basic point that Chris was making last week was good. We endorse it and thank Chris for bringing it to our attention. There were matters of style that we were unhappy with and doctrine that we were unhappy with. On both style and doctrine we need to consider what was said with caution, wisdom and maturity.

If you still have any questions or concerns about what has been said this morning or last week please speak to one of us about it.

Listen to this sermon (or download – right click here and ‘Save as’):

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It can be easy for Christians to develop a siege mentality. It can seem that the forces arrayed against Jesus and his Church are so powerful, so wide ranging and so intimidating that the best we can hope for is to baton down the hatches, hope for the best and wait for the Lord to return.

The word of God is both realistic about the depth of the problem, and glorious about the certainty of the future. Psalm 2 covers the ground for us.

1. The Conspiracy against God (v 1-3)

Conspiracy theories always get good publicity. “Who shot JFK?” “Is Elvis still alive?” “Did the Americans really land on the moon?”

In fact the real conspiracy is against God and against His people (v.1) It may be a politically correct establishment telling us that all faiths are equal. Or the Scientific establishment trying to con us into believing that Science has disproved God (“nothing turned into something for no reason with no designer and comes up by chance with the most intricate system of design ever seen which we haven’t started to understand yet” – how scientific is that?). Or the media bombarding us with propaganda about sexual freedom – a “freedom” that has led to more heartbreak than world wars.

In all cases the agenda is the same: “let us break off their chains…and throw off their fetters”. It is all a thinly disguised conspiracy to break away from the authority of God.

This is sobering stuff. You and I may be worried- but what does God think?

2. The Response from Heaven (v 4-5)

Psalm 2 tells us that the “one enthroned in heaven laughs”!

The pitiful attempts to rob God of his authority are destined for failure and are exposed for what they are. Then God rebukes them and terrifies them. In the heart of everyone who conspires against is a core of dread that it just may be true after all. God laughs, scoffs, rebukes and terrifies. It is a dangerous game to plot against God.

The situation may look difficult, but God is not worried because he has a solution.

3. The Solution for Eternity (v 6)

God has an answer to it all. He has “installed” his King – Jesus- on Zion. Just as King David, when he wrote this Psalm, was installed in Jerusalem as God’s King to defeat God’s enemies, so today Jesus has been installed as God’s King for eternity on Mount Zion, the new Jerusalem – God’s Church. God’s answer to the universal war against himself is King Jesus, ruling and reigning with his Church. God’s church – what a thing to be a part of!

4 The Promise of Victory (v 7-9)

All of God’s enemies will be defeated. Anyone who stands against God’s purposes and presence will bow the knee to King Jesus and he will rule and reign for eternity. With the promise of a future like this – it is a foolish man or woman who would dare to plot against God.

5. The Opportunity to choose the winning side (v 10-12)

For those who have plotted against God and rejected his rule there still remains the chance to turn to him. “Serve the Lord with fear.. and rejoice with trembling”! We live in days of grace when God has suspended his judgement. And just as those of us who love Jesus today once had our hearts won by irresistible grace, so we need to pray that the same grace will win the hearts of the Kings of the earth – the movers and shaker- who still conspire against God. Those who are in government, in education, in the media and everywhere else

And for those of us who believe, we can “take refuge in Him”. There are battles to be fought and enemies to be overcome. But Jesus is enthroned as King. The future belongs to Him and to those who belong to Him.

John MacDiarmid
April 2012