Nathan – Time in the Chapel

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David Strangling the Lion by Claude Mellan
This is how we all envision the mighty King David but Psalm 56 gives us another view. — David Strangling the Lion by Claude Mellan
**This is how we all envision the mighty King David but Psalm 56 gives us another view.**
Image in the Public Domain

What Time I am Afraid…

We’ve all heard stories of men and women who seem to bravely and unhesitatingly face incredible and, sometimes, terrifying situations. We love to say that they’re “fearless”. But is “fearless” even possible? Looking up the word “fearless” in the dictionary yields such expected definitions as “free from fear” or “without fear”. Yes, we will encourage and/or embolden and/or strengthen one another by saying “be not afraid”. Psychologists try to give us “the formula for living without fear”. You may have even read on a church billboard that God promises freedom from fear. Well, God doesn’t actually take away fear but, instead, He prepares you for it. He doesn’t isolate you from fear, He carries you through it.

Scientists love to point out that the numbers of people claiming to be religious or even believing in God are dropping. They get all giddy when survey after survey shows that people have become increasingly uninterested in going to church. Science feels vindicated by these trends. The intelligentsia have claimed that they’ve been saying all along that people only turn to religion when times are bad and that now that science and government have it all figured out, people don’t feel they need God anymore. As long as they have science and government then what could possibly go wrong? “Thanks to us,” they say…”they” being either science or government, take your pick. “Thanks to us,” they say, “people are happy and they don’t need church. The citizens of the world have awoken and don’t go for those religious fables anymore. After all, they don’t need them. They have us. God doesn’t love them. We do. God doesn’t take care of them. We (science and/or government) do.” Karl Marx once famously said “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Nowadays, it’s seems to me, that science and government…and ACTUAL opiates (created by science and permitted by government) are the opiates of the masses. Science and government and chemical dependence have become the favored vehicle of happiness, of late. That’s the new religion that, by the way, Karl Marx would be very proud of. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m no anarchist nor do I advocate ignorance. I believe in order and knowledge but I just believe that neither science nor government (nor chemistry) has as many answers as they think they do…certainly not as much as they say they do. Religious expression may be dropping but it’s not because people are all of the sudden happy and well-adjusted. In fact, quite the opposite. Honest science is actually telling us that depression is on the rise around the world. (Interesting, but somehow related side note, the article linked above cites INCREASED longevity of life, a direct result of more science in our lives, as one of the factors LEADING to higher rates of depression. Remember when science convinced us that we’d be happier if we lived longer? Yeah, that doesn’t seem to check out.)

No, people are not skipping church because they’re happy. They’re skipping church because church stopped making sense to the church goer. The message from the pulpit has drifted away from Truth. God wired us for Truth and when we don’t receive Truth there is a disconnect in our spirits. You see, despite what critics and even churchmen try to tell you, God isn’t a choice of last resort. God isn’t someone to look up only when your stomach is rumbling or your hands are shaking and I honestly believe only people in a real relationship with the Father know that and what’s more, the Bible isn’t some talisman to rub when you’ve missed your last two car payments. The Bible is our guide to getting closer to God. Scripture is what the Holy Spirit uses to reveal to us God’s True Nature and once we know what He is really like, we don’t find ourselves going to Him less often; when we start to see God and His Son in their true roles in our lives we will find ourselves turning to prayer, worship and praise more often! Listen, you can’t blame the drop in church attendance on the Heavenly Subject Matter. Instead blame the earthly, earth-centered, backside protecting, people-pleasing and, too often, greedy teachers who are misrepresenting God. If you think the Bible is irrelevant then I blame you, your teachers (which include your preacher, pastors and priests) and the devil. If you’re taught properly and you want to learn Truth then you’ll find out that God and His Word are your only True Path to eventual, ultimate and eternal joy. I’m not saying you’ll get all of this at once. It takes time to wipe off, shake off and tear off the effects of this hostile world but little by little you will discover that in Scripture are the keys to living and life.

That is why we teach from the Bible and one of our favorite places to teach from is the Book of Psalms. As you’ve heard me exclaim so many times in the past, the Sweet Psalmist never fails to hit directly at the heart of a humble seeker-after-God. We can learn so much about how to love God, fear God, serve God and please God through these gems of the Hebrew Hymnal and the one we teach on in this episode, I believe, is one of the finest examples of this truth. Psalm 56 describes the experiences of a well established, long time child of God and that includes, believe it or not, what it’s like to be gripped by fear. Yes, you can be close to God and still be afraid, at times, and God chose one history’s mightiest warriors to demonstrate that to us. Join us as we take an emotional journey through Psalm 56. In this episode we not only find out about fear but we find out how we should deal with fear. Despite what the critics may say, this portion of Scripture will reach directly into your life and present to you an effective, time-tested, king-approved method of overcoming this most basic of all human emotions: fear.

Let me, however, remind you that the best way to prepare yourself for a study of Scripture is to go to God in prayer beforehand and ask Him for His guidance. He is more than eager to assist you in discovering what He has always wanted: a long-lasting…in fact, eternal relationship with Him. The only real way to fully understand God and His Word is to have His Spirit working with you, opening your heart and mind to eternal things. Go to Him now and He will join you in your journey of discovery.

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David and Bathsheba by Georg Pencz, 16th Century — **David and Bathsheba**
Georg Pencz (German, Wroclaw ca. 1500–1550 Leipzig) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966 (66.529.82) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/336291

Psalm 51

One of the reasons that the Bible is so often rejected is because it is constantly reminding us that we’re sinners. Of course, no one will admit it but people don’t like to hear that. Not even the proudest, loudest reprobate likes to face that he was “shapen in iniquity”. It’s not that anyone really thinks that they’re unblemished by faults and failures. I’ve never met anyone nor heard of anyone who claimed to be pure. Most people admit to, at least, one or two past mistakes. “No one’s perfect” rolls very easily and naturally off all tongues but the problem with the Bible is that it makes you regret sin and what’s worse is it insists that you REPENT of your sins. “Hey, I’m willing to admit I’m no saint but that doesn’t mean I have to stop doing whatever I want.”

(Isa 55:9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“You see, it’s stuff like that. I don’t like when God says things like ‘his ways are higher than mine.'” The Bible makes very clear that in order to approach God we must come in utter humility. In fact, we must be willing to face more than humility, we must crawl to God in humiliation.

(Mat 7:14) …narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The original in Matthew 7:14 is a picture of a tight space that is contracted with pressure. In other words, it is uncomfortable. The way to life…eternal life, a life with God is not easy because, among other things, it involves stepping out in humility and humiliation. Few people are willing to go so far as to say they are a lowdown, lousy, miserable sinner…even if they KNOW that they are…in order to gain life but that is the only way God will have you. “Okay, I hear you. I’m a sinner and I want to change. I don’t want to offend God and man anymore but I don’t know what to do.” In response to that I would give my usual answer: Turn to God’s Word.

In this episode we discover the beauty of Psalm 51. This is one of the, so-called, Penitential Psalms; penitential meaning something that expresses regret and sorrow for some sort of transgression or offense. In it David perfectly presents the model by which all men and women should come to God. Psalm 51 is a picture of utter shame and disgrace for sin. During this discussion we take time to cover the “back story” of this Psalm. We go over the event that led David to such a state of despair as described in excruciating, yet, poetic detail in this well-known portion of what Spurgeon calls the “Treasury of David”. This Psalm has been referred to and relied upon and meditated over by countless humbled sinners down through millennia as an introduction to their own cries for mercy and forgiveness. With tear clouded eyes we begin our frightened, saddened, burdened pleas for redemption by saying with David, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” Even if your heart and conscience is, at the moment, clear of a conviction of moral and spiritual failure (don’t know too many of those but nonetheless) you should join us just to see inside the broken, crushed heart of one of the most mighty, favored men in all of human history.

If I were a betting man, I would wager that there aren’t too many people out there who aren’t touched by the wretched remorse of a broken king. Perhaps it would be best that before you start the podcast you take a moment to ask God to open your heart to, what I suspect, are the many ways you have failed Him. You may think I’m being a little presumptuous but if you’re even a little bit like me, you have a few offenses that need reconciliation. It’s okay. God already knows who we are. He just wants to make sure WE know who we are because once you and me and God are all in agreement on the miserable human condition then He can do something with us. So, go to the Spirit of Truth and ask Him to reveal to you…you, so that Psalm 51 will be your call to action to set the record straight, put your old self away and start the process of the complete renewal in His Power.