As the Mountains Surround Jerusalem So the Lord Surrounds His People

Consider three texts:

  • Psalm 125:1-2: Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.
  • Jude 24: [God] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy
  • Luke 22:32 (Jesus is speaking to Peter after prophesying his denial): “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”

To whom do these texts refer? Who can count on such promises?

We 21st-century Americans tend to see in these texts promises to ourselves and other individuals:

  • “Since I trust in the Lord, He surrounds me and protects me.”
  • “God will keep me from stumbling and present me blameless before Him.”
  • “Jesus prays for me, strengthening and securing my faith.”

Praise God – these precious promises do indeed apply to us as individuals who trust in Jesus.

But Psalm 125:2 closes with the phrase, “from this time forth and forevermore.” When is “this time”? Well, the psalm was written more than 2500 years ago.

For all these years, God has been surrounding His people, advancing His purposes, building His church, keeping her from stumbling, seeing to it that the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) does not fail. We today stand at the end of a long line of faithful believers, all witnesses to God’s surrounding love. Through the dangers of persecution and the dangers of acceptance, despite indwelling sin and the enticements of the world, through times of renewal and times of apostasy, God has preserved, established, and spread His church century after century, continent after continent, culture after culture.

These promises apply not only to believers as individuals but also to God’s people as a whole.

Beth and I glimpsed this truth last month while in Turkey with Matthew and Kailie. We visited Cappadocia, a region of great importance in the history of the church. Three hundred years after the resurrection, theologians from this area known as the “Cappadocian Fathers” were instrumental in combatting heresy by clarifying the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. In subsequent centuries, believers created amazing churches and homes by digging through the volcanic rock. We were able to visit a number 1200-year-old cave-churches, some complete with frescoes of biblical characters. The most well-preserved of these churches are in the Goreme Open Air Museum. The Dark Church is particularly striking, with frescoes of Jesus and John the Baptist, among others.

But most stirring for us was a church far away from the tourists. We hiked down steep slopes into an ancient valley, past old grape vines and apple trees, approaching a rock face pocketed with holes – were they windows? We climbed through an opening, up some stairs carved into the rock – and came out into a massive interior space, with large columns from floor to ceiling.

No one else was there – just our family and the seeming presence of these believers from ages ago. I felt such a sense of oneness, of shared family with those who for the glory of the name of Jesus chipped away at the rock centuries ago, hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

There was a continued Christian presence in this area for centuries – until 1923 when many Christians were expelled from Turkey to Greece, and Muslims expelled from Greece to Turkey. So for the last century there has been no worship of Jesus in these rock churches.

Since our return home, I have learned more about the genuine faith of many in this era through reading The Reformation as Renewal by Matthew Barrett, who argues that the Reformation built on much of the theology and piety of the medieval church, including the writings of Anselm, Thomas, and Lombard – even when the Reformers themselves did not perceive their influence –  and that the Reformers’ arguments were focused much more against the positions taken by later Scholastics such as Ockham and Duns Scotus.

Be that as it may, as we celebrate twenty years of God’s faithfulness through Desiring God Community Church, let us also look back over twenty decades, over twenty centuries, and praise God that as empires rise and fall, as economies thrive and crash, as Christians are exiled and welcomed, God is always building His Church, spurring His people on to acts of devotion and witness, showing in Cappadocia and in Charlotte, in cave churches and in modern buildings, that Jesus is worthy of all our efforts and the source of all our joy. God’s Church is like Mt Zion – the Lord surrounds that Church, and He will present Her blameless before His presence with great joy – all of us, those who carved the Cave Churches, we who are part of Desiring God Community Church, followers of Jesus from every tribe and tongue and people and nation – and century.

Be Confident Because of God’s Passion for His Glory

Is God’s passion for His glory an encouragement to you?

Scripture tells us again and again that God is determined to magnify His fame; all peoples must recognize His holy character. Isaiah 48:9-11 is particularly explicit:

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

The New Testament is just as clear. We are to do good works for the glory of the Father (Matthew 5:16). Lazarus was sick and a man was born blind for the glory of God (John 11:4, 9:3). We could list a hundred other examples.

Upon seeing this truth, many become uneasy. For we do not like people who magnify their own glory. Such people are uncaring and inconsiderate, self-absorbed and self-promoting. Do we really want to follow a God like that?

The prophet Samuel helps us to see that we need not have such uneasiness. Indeed, God’s passion for His glory is the basis for our hope!

Recall the setting of 1 Samuel 12. No Israelite has served as king in the years after God brought His people out of Egypt. Instead, God Himself has been their king. Yet the people have asked God to make them like other nations, providing a king for them. God acquiesces; following God’s instruction, Samuel anoints Saul king. The prophet lets the people know, however, that their request is a rejection of God, and thus is sinful.

The people therefore ask:

“Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” (1 Samuel 12:19)

Samuel responds:

“Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.” (1 Samuel 12:20-22)

This expanded paraphrase attempts to highlight Samuel’s logic:

You indeed have sinned. You deserve God’s judgment; indeed you deserve His rejection. But remember how you became His people! He did not choose you because you were obedient or powerful; He made you His people because it pleased Him to do so. That has not changed! He promised that you are His – and He is faithful to His every promise, for He is passionate for His glory. He always acts consistently with His character, so that His glory might be displayed in all the earth. Therefore, acknowledge your sin – and then serve the LORD with all your heart! You belong to Him – so repent! Worship Him! Don’t turn away from Him, turning aside to other gods, or to anything else that you think might benefit you! None will! You belong to Him! In Him alone will you find joy and fulfillment and peace! So serve Him alone.

Friends, God’s reputation is all wrapped up with His forgiving and perfecting His people – that is, all who come to Him through Jesus. It is God’s good pleasure to act this way, and thus to display His mercy, grace, love, and justice to the entire created order. God’s passion for His glory is thus for our good, for our joy (unlike the passion of any human for his own glory).

So delight in the God-centeredness of God – particularly when you sin! He will never forsake His people, for His great name’s sake.

Fight the Good Fight of Faith: The Key Battle During the Pandemic

“Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12).

Paul tells Timothy: Fight the good fight to believe that what God says is true. Fight to believe that God is Who He says He is, that Jesus became man, that Jesus died for your sin, that He reigns now, that He will return and bring in the new heavens and the new earth.

This is a fight, isn’t it? And not only for Timothy. For you and me also.

The Greek word translated “fight” is an athletic term, particularly used of wrestlers. Wrestling a powerful opponent is difficult; he uses every ounce of energy to defeat you. You have to exert a supreme effort to win the contest.

In these days of the coronavirus, we must fight this fight of faith. We look around and see fear, even panic; we see starkly different forecasts for what lies ahead; we see political leaders guessing about the best way forward; we see many around us lose their job, lose all their income; we see or hear of others who are horribly sick, isolated, connected to a ventilator, with friends and family forbidden to visit.

How do we believe in God, how do we trust Jesus, when around the world we see pain, chaos, and hardship?

David shows us how to fight that fight of faith in Psalm 27.

In the first half of this psalm, David’s life is going well:

  • His known sins are under control;
  • His enemies are present, but not exerting any influence;
  • He’s very confident in God.

When our life is going well, we can be tempted to relax in our pursuit of God. It’s easy to begin to coast.

But David doesn’t do that. On the contrary, he continues to seek to know God better, to worship Him more fully – and in these ways he prepares for the inevitable future battle.

That battle comes in the second half of the psalm. Enemies attack – but David is prepared. He fights the good fight of faith.

You and I need these lessons in the midst of this pandemic – but we also need these lessons in the good times that will come again. We will need to use those coming times of peace, when we’re on the mountain tops of our life with God, so that when the battle comes again, we’re equipped. We’re ready. We’re strong in the Lord.

Gathering Strength for the Fight of Faith

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. (Psalm 27:1-3)

Note David’s strong focus on Who God is. He uses three metaphors in verse 1 to remind Himself of God’s character:

First: God is Light.

Imagine you are walking in a strange place on a moonless night. There are no electric lights anywhere. You have no flashlight, and your cell phone battery is dead. You can see nothing around you. You don’t know what danger might lie ahead.

But in that darkness, God shines! He is light! He shines into the darkness of our ignorance; He shines into the darkness of evil.

Second: God is our Salvation.

He not only lets us see the danger we were blind to; He delivers us from evil. And that deliverance includes not only the attacks by evil forces from outside us, but also the evil inside us.

Third: God is our Stronghold.

He is our strong tower. In Him, we are protected from every evil attack. His walls are unassailable.

So we need not fear.

David elaborates on these points in verse 2 and 3. Even when enemies try to “eat up [his] flesh,” to completely destroy him, they are the ones who fall. Even if overwhelming numbers attack him, David is confident. In what? Not in himself! Rather, he is confident in His light, His salvation, His stronghold – God Himself.

So in these first three verses, David highlights the benefits God gives him.

But beginning in verse 4, he tells us he worships God not primarily for benefits; rather, he worships God for Who He is:

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

David asks for one thing. Now, David does ask for other things, even in this psalm. But this, says David, is the center. This is the key. This is the foundation. This is the greatest good – better than protection, better than healing, better than long life, better than fame and riches and success.

If we are to successfully fight the good fight of faith, we must seek this one thing also: To desire God. To treasure Jesus above all the world has to offer.

If instead we worship God first and foremost for what he does for us, what will we do when those benefits seem to disappear? What will we do when He seems to hide His face? What will we do in pandemics and tsunamis and wars and disasters? We won’t be like Jesus who “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

So David seeks God. He seeks to be able to worship God always. He seeks to see His beauty – how? Via His revelation of Himself in the worship He has ordained in His house.

For us, what is the equivalent? Seeking to see God’s beauty in the worship as He has ordained in our era: through the preaching of Word, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, prayer, reading, and singing.

Do you think of worship in those terms? Not as a duty to be performed. Not as an opportunity to be entertained. But as an offered privilege of gazing upon the beauty of the Lord, seeing Him better, deepening your love for Him, your delight in Who He is.

Then David adds: “To inquire in his temple.” The Hebrew verb can be translated in different ways; the NIV renders this word, “seek,” in which case this phrase reinforces the idea of seeking His face. But “inquire” could mean asking: “Am I really right before you, Lord? Am I walking in your truth? That is how I want to live, so please open up to me what is displeasing to You.”

So David’s primary desire is to see God for Who He is by worshiping in the ordained way, and for God to open up to him anything displeasing in himself, so that he can walk in His light.

May that be your primary desire also.

Then, having seen God for Who He is, what is David confident He will do?

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD. (Psalm 27:5-6)

David reiterates that God is his stronghold and salvation, protecting him. But he goes beyond those earlier themes. Now, his head is lifted high above his enemies in their presence – so that they might see that God truly loves him. This leads to David’s great expression of joy.

Thus, in this time of experiencing closeness to God, on this mountain top, David prepares himself for the inevitable valley. He roots out sin, he learns more of God’s character, he cultivates delight in worshiping with God’s people.

Do you live this way in times of victory? When all seems at peace, do you prepare yourself for the fight? Or do you relax – thinking the time of fighting is over?

The Fight of Faith in the Valley

We see a stark change of mood in verse 7. Suddenly David is no longer on a mountain top. He struggles:

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”
Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! (Psalm 27:7-9)

Now the battle is engaged. David cries out for an answer from God.

He returns to the idea of seeking God’s face, what he said was his one, primary desire. But now he has to fight to keep that one desire central. Seemingly more pressing matters try to divert his attention. But David commits himself: “I seek Your face. I remember Who You are. I delight in You!”

But the struggle doesn’t end when he makes that commitment. He must plead in verse 9: “Don’t hide your face from me! I want to gaze on your beauty all the days of my life – and I was doing that! But now it appears as if you are hiding, as if you are angry, turning me away. You have been my help in the past – don’t throw me away like trash! You are my light, my salvation – don’t abandon me!”

Does this battle sound familiar? To all appearances, God is not his salvation, does not love him. And so David cries out to God in his pain – as he does in so many psalms.

So I say again what bears repeating: Don’t be reluctant to cry out to God when you are in pain. Even if you don’t have words to say – be confident that the Holy Spirit intercedes with “groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

Note how David cries out: He calls on God to do what He has promised; He asks God to act in accord with His revealed character. We see this in verses ten to thirteen, as David lives out four steps in the good fight of faith:

First step: Remember the depth of God’s covenant commitment to His people.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. (Psalm 27:10)

The idea is even if my own parents could forsake me, God will welcome me. Now, realize: David feels as if God might cast him off. But he fights against that perception by remembering God’s revelation of Himself: He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love forever and ever. He promises never to leave or forsake His people. We today can also hold to promises unavailable to David: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6); nothing “will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Second step: Ask God to teach and lead

Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. (Psalm 27:11)

While on the mountain top, David was learning more of Who God is. Now, in the valley, he needs to apply that knowledge and to continue to learn, to continue to be led in His paths. In tough times, Satan tries to convince us that God’s path is the path not to life but to missing out on life – and so David asks God, “Guide me, direct me on Your road.”

Third step: Pray for protection

Here for the first time we hear of what prompted David’s fear:

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. (Psalm 27:12)

We often start with that prayer for protection, skipping over the first two steps David takes. By all means we should pray that God would protect us from the virus, from His enemies, and all the other dangers we face. But we, like David, must realize that we need to see God more than we need God’s protection. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus – He is the pioneer and finisher of our faith. When we are focused on Him, then we, like Him, can endure the trial, scorning its shame, for the joy set before us (Hebrews 12:2).

Fourth step:  Believe His promises

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! (Psalm 27:13)

On the mountain peak, when God seemed close, David desired to gaze upon His beauty. Now, in the valley, he believes, he has faith, that he will be able once again to look upon His beauty, even though it seems as if God has abandoned him.

This is the ultimate good fight of faith – to believe in the hardest times that you will indeed see God once again, as He has promised. And He always keeps His promises.

Finally, David concludes by drawing lessons from his personal experience for all of God’s people of all time:

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (Psalm 27:14)

“Wait” does not mean sit around and check Facebook while hoping that God might act. Rather, the word translated “wait” connotes an eager expectation, a confidence that God will indeed act. So David says, “Wait with eager expectation for the God who is your light, your salvation, and your stronghold to act. Strongly depend on Him, thoroughly rely on Him; be courageous enough to have persistent confidence in Him. Expect Him to act, especially in every dark valley.”

Conclusion

As we face the valley of the coronavirus, as we encounter other trials at this same time, ask yourself if you are feeling frantic: Did you fail to equip yourself for this battle when times were good? Unlike David, did you coast through those good times?

If so, don’t say, “I blew it! Now I can’t seek God’s face! I can’t fight the good fight of faith!”

Instead, repent. Turn. “A broken and contrite heart He will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Jesus is the propitiation for our sins – including the sin of failing to prepare for the valley. In Him, you are forgiven. So fight the fight to believe now – and commit yourself in those future times on the mountain top to prepare for the inevitable valleys ahead.

The weeks ahead will be difficult. Day after day the number of confirmed cases will rise. The death toll will expand. Friend and loved ones may well get the virus.

But God’s promises are exactly what we need in such times.

And the most important promise is that through Jesus we can see Him. We can know Him. We can be His beloved child.

So don’t lose focus! Go hard after God: In reading, in worship, in song, in learning who He is, in seeking His face. Cry out to Him on the basis of Jesus’ work, not your own. Wait for Him with eager expectation. Trust His promises.

Remember: He never promises that He will make life easy. When life does seem easy – that’s a mountain peak He has graciously given to help you prepare for the next valley.

His promise is: “I’m worthy of your trust. I’ve proved that again and again, in the history of Israel, in the history of the church, in your own life.”

So in the year of the coronavirus, fight the good fight of faith. Fight to believe.

And thus bring glory and honor to the One who brought you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

[This devotion is an edited and shortened version of a sermon on Psalms 26 and 27 preached April 9, 2017. You can listen to the audio of that original sermon here.]

 

 

Suffering and Advent

How do you respond to affliction and pain?

In Psalm 69 – our sermon text this week – David calls out to God, “I am afflicted and in pain!” He then, as we would expect, calls out for God to deliver him: “Let your salvation, O God, set me on high!” (Psalm 69:29)

But the next verse is surprising: “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

In other words: “I am really hurting. And I will sing praises to God. I will show how great He is by thanking Him.”

Is that how you respond to affliction and pain?

Note that David has not yet been delivered when he offers praise. He praises God prior to any deliverance, because God made promises to him and to his people – and He always keeps His promises.

This is what the Advent season is all about: God has made promises. We eagerly await the fulfillment of those promises. We don’t know when they will be fulfilled. But we know He is faithful.

This is the position of God’s people again and again over the centuries. We hurt. We are in pain. And we praise God, looking forward to His fulfillment of His promises.

Consider these examples:

  • God tells Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through his descendant (Genesis 12:1-3) – and he then remains childless for decades, awaiting the birth of a son.
  • God tells Abraham that his descendants will be afflicted in another land for 400 years, but then He will bring judgment on that nation, and they will come out (Genesis 15:13-14). And so the Israelites suffer much oppression in Egypt, crying out to God, before He sends Moses and brings about their exodus.
  • In 586BC God destroys His temple, His picture of His presence with His people, sending the Jews into exile. And yet decades earlier the prophet Isaiah, looking forward to this time of exile, had written, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
  • The faithful Jews held on to God’s promise of a coming Redeemer, a coming Messiah, across the centuries of foreign dominance and oppression. So in Luke 2 we find faithful Simeon and Anna in the temple, having waited for decades, and now at last seeing their Messiah as a little baby.

We find ourselves in a similar position today. Our Lord promises us, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). We will experience pain and affliction. Jesus guarantees it. And we don’t have to look far to find it. In our own neighborhoods – indeed, in our own families – we find broken relationships, poverty of spirit, and oppression of the soul, as well as physical needs and maladies.

But Jesus also tells us in that same verse, “In me you may have peace. . . . Take heart! I have overcome the world.” And the Scriptures conclude with His promise, “Surely I am coming soon! (Revelation 22:20).

So in this interval between the First and Second Advents of our Lord, we will experience troubles similar to those endured by our brothers and sisters in the faith across the centuries. Like them, we will be afflicted and in pain. Like them, we will witness suffering and suffer ourselves.

But also like them, we can follow David’s example in Psalm 69, and, in the midst of trials and hardships, cry out, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” For the Lord is a faithful God. He always keeps His promises. And all who love His appearing, all who trust in Him, will see Him face to face – and will know the reality, then, that they have believed all along: That “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.