In our FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE series, we have come to the book of Psalms, which connects for us in a remarkable way what we know about God with actually personally encountering Him in first-person worship. And last week we began taking a look at Psalm 146, which we will continue today. In it the Psalmist writes…Psalm 146:3-6a (NIV)-- 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day thei...
In our FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE series, we have come to the book of Psalms, which connects for us in a remarkable way what we know about God with actually personally encountering Him in first-person worship. And last week we began taking a look at Psalm 146, which we will continue today. In it the Psalmist writes…
Psalm 146:3-6a (NIV)-- 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them--
Biblical Trust-- Now we see that the reason that we can give praise to God is because, unlike those the world puts their faith in (rulers and other fallible human beings), our God is not like them. They pass away and their plans (if they aren’t rooted in God and His plan) end in the grave. That is why they are not worthy of our praise. And if you base your life on them, you are going to be beyond disappointed. The psalmist points us to the reality that the true cause that we have for praise is the trustworthiness of God. In fact, aside from the personal name of God, the most important word next to this is probably the word "trust". In Hebrew there are five different words in the Old Testament that can be translated "trust." We will only talk about two of them. The first is frequently translated "believe". When it says in Genesis 15:6 that Abram "believed the Lord [Yahweh], and he credited it to him as righteousness" the verb is from the Hebrew word ’-m-n, which means "to be sure, to be certain." In fact, it is the source of the Hebrew word Amen, meaning "certainly, surely,”. And it means to accept the word of someone. Abraham was choosing to live in the certainty that what God was saying to him was true. And for this reason, that belief was credited to him as righteousness. And someone said in regards to this, "the only right thing a human can do is to put absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God. Without that, everything else we do is filthy rags.”
batah-- Now [there is a second word in Hebrew: batah, which means “to trust.” {And one scholar I read said that} Of the two words, this is the more common one in the Psalms. ’amen is found in the psalms, but not a great many times. It is a bit like an obligato line in music, while batah is the main motif that the psalmist never gets through playing. It just keeps coming back, and coming back, and coming back. Of the two, batah is more graphic. It is “to lean upon.”]
The Mega-Swing-- Recently I saw video footage of a young woman sitting in a chair on the edge of a cliff that was attached to long ropes. And after much fear on her part, her friends pushed that chair off the edge and she fell straight down; and after free falling that line suddenly went taught and her chair immediately became a swing; and she is swung this huge distance between these two cliffs. Now I am telling you. There is nobody in this world who could convince me to take that leap of faith. I’m sorry. I don’t care how strong you tell me that rope is, I am never going to put my life on THAT LINE, if you know what I mean. But this word for trust carries with it this idea of putting your weight down; accepting and trusting in God so implicitly, that you are willing to put your life in His hands. [You are leaning against something or someone, and if he or it falls down, you’re in trouble. So the psalmist is saying, “In whom shall I trust?”] And you know that is one of the central questions that every human being must face at some point in their life. What am I going to trust in? What do I put my hope in? What is my anchor?
Atheists & Trust-- Some time ago I got to have a number of dialogs with members of an atheistic group. But they were not very much interested in having friendly dialogue as much as they were interested in mocking Christianity (and Christians) for their faith. In this group I have tried to engage their questions with solid evidence for the truth of Christianity, but I got the impression that it didn’t really matter how much evidence I could give; they were not going to change because lack of evidence wasn’t their central problem; their central problem was that if a God really existed to whom they are morally accountable, they couldn’t be the masters of their own lives. They didn’t want to be accountable to anyone. Now past all their mockery and delusions of being “free from God” lies a horrible truth. If atheism is true, then there is no hope for any kind of future that matters. It has nothing to offer you for eternity. There's nothing that you can cast your roots into in this world that will give you a sure foundation. In a Biblical (theistic) worldview there is hope; but not in man. That is why the Psalmist tells us not to trust in the world’s heroes; not to trust in creation; and certainly not to trust in ourselves. Because the temporal will pass away. However, God will never pass away; and those who place their faith in Him in and through Jesus Christ will have eternal life. As he writes in…
Psalm 146:6 (NIV)-- 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—he remains faithful forever.
A Future Different From The Past--Now this view of the world stands in contrast to every other religious view during that time. No other culture believed in one universal creator. The Hebrew religion stands alone in this. And it made the Hebrews’ view of the universe remarkably simple: if you see it, God made it. Period. And with that understanding (that God created the world and the world had a beginning) came also the idea that history might have an end. You see pagan religions during that time believed in a cyclical view of time. Everything just repeats itself over and over again and tomorrow cannot be any different than today anymore than today can be any different from yesterday. And the pagans were bound by this cyclical view of time. And yet what the Hebrew religion introduced was this idea that because God is the Creator and there was a beginning, then there also could be an end; a climax toward which everything else was building. It was a linear view of time. And what this meant was that for the first time, mankind was able to conceive of a future that was better than the present. And what this did was it laid the groundwork for invention and innovation because there was hope for a better future. This was a one of the most important discoveries of all time. And it is a truth that was made manifest not in some grand theological tome, but right here in this psalm; this hymnbook of Israel. Yahweh is the Lord of Creation; and He’s the Lord of time; and because of that we can have hope for a better future. I don’t know how many of you feel stuck in an endless cycle. Maybe you do. But I want to tell you that with God comes the hope that your future can be better than the present; and will be if you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now from here the Psalmist moves on and begins talking about those that are uncared for and oppressed. He says…
Psalm 146:7-10 (NIV)— 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.
No Legal Rights-- Now the reason the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow are all linked together is because none of them have any legal rights. None of them had anybody to stand up for them in court. There was no father; no husband; and if you are a foreigner, you had absolutely no rights. But what is amazing is that God steps in and chooses to be that father; to be that husband; to be that one who puts His arm around the foreigner; and gives them rights and defends their cause. And when you and I come to faith in that same God, we also will have concern for those people as well. Because one of the things that God does in the human heart when we place our faith in Jesus Christ is He turns us out of ourselves. Suddenly life is not just about me, it is about a world that is broken and my coming alongside God to help bring about healing to those who are in need of His saving touch. And all social concern has to begin here; with our allowing God to so fill us with His presence and with His love, that His very nature reflected through us will be the Light that extinguishes the darkness in our world.
William Wilberforce’s Conversion-- Some time ago I became acquainted with the story of [William Wilberforce. When he was twenty-one he was elected to Parliament. He came from a well-to-do family in England and so, at twenty-one he had a seat in Parliament. He was sort of an odd young man, and so his family felt that Parliament would be a place where he could make his mark and become something. He was a member of the Anglican Church but was far from a Christian—he did not even believe in God. He was not even sure if he believed in much of anything When he was twenty-five years old his mother said, “I want to take a vacation. I want to go to the Riviera.” In Those days there were no airplanes, so she had to go by coach. How would you like to ride in a stagecoach from here to New Orleans…with your mother. And you are a member of the House of Commons. But he was a dutiful son so he said, “let’s take two carriages”—and he looked for a friend to go with him. Finding such a friend, he said, “We ought to take something to read; it’s going to be a long ride.” So they checked the best-seller list At that time, a book by Philip Doddridge, titled The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, was popular. Now, being a good politician, he was interested in what folks were reading, so when that was suggested he agreed. So, to the Mediterranean and back, they read Philip Doddridge’s The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. By the time they got back to England, Wilberforce believed there must be a God. The next year his mother wanted to go back. So, William Wilberforce went to find his friend. This time they decided to read the Greek New Testament. There are very few seminary graduates today who can read a Greek New Testament. But one hundred fifty years ago a twenty-six-year-old member of Parliament in Britain could. So, they read the Greek New Testament all the way to the mediterranean and back. When William Wilberforce got back to London, he believed in Christ. In the next session of Parliament he introduced the bill to free the slaves in the British Empire. For thirty-seven years he reintroduced the bill every year. And thirty-seven years later, on a Friday, they passed the bill to free the slaves. On the following Monday night, about 2 o’clock in the morning, William Wilberforce died….You see, William Wilberforce met the same person the psalmist met.] And his heart was turned out onto the world.
A Praise Eruption— The fact is, that when you and I approach the living God personally and truly encounter Him, our lives will erupt with praise, with joy, with a renewed sense of purpose, an entire change in our worldview, and a burning compassion for those who are in desperate need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ. And we will be willing to go anywhere and die anywhere if it means that we can bring at least part of the world a little closer to Him. Make it your goal to (every day) encounter God in a real and personal way. In that encounter will be life not just for you; but for the whole world. Seek that encounter this week. Amen.
