Wilderness Wanderings

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Eccleciastes 3:1-14 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

1. What is God saying in this text?
2. What surprised you? What convicted you?
3. What part struck you as important for you? What is God saying to you?
4. What does God want you to do? How will you live life differently? What attitude do you need to change?

To you, Lord, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. … The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. (Psalm 28:1,8-9)

One of the most difficult realities of the Christian life is the experience of the apparent silence of God. We don't talk about it much, but it is a pervasive experience that most of us know. The fact that we don't talk about it can leave us with the impression that we are somehow alone in this: feeling abandoned while everyone else sings their heart out in worship. It can also leave us feeling like we are somehow guilty of something or unfaithful: we can blame ourselves.

But the psalmist and all the Israelites who prayed this prayer through the ages knew all about the experience of God's silence. And together in community, they claimed it as part of the life of faith. In praying prayers like psalm 28, they declared to God and with one another that it is not always because of our sin or unfaithfulness that we fail to hear from God. Sometimes it is, but not always. There are times when God is simply silent.

Now, to say that it is a common experience is not to say that it is a pleasant one. The psalm cries out to God: "if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit." In other words, the experience of silence and separation from God feels like death. Which is perhaps why Paul in Thessalonians imagines hell in these terms: an eternal separation from God. Because to be separated from God is hell. It feels like death. And the experience of God's silence can feel eerily similar.

But the life of faith is not only valleys. There are also mountaintops. And this is where the psalm closes. The Lord is strength and salvation: a God who blesses, shepherds, and carries his people forever.

In that last line there are echoes of the famous "footprints" poem, which perhaps helps to tie these two threads together. At the end of life's journey a person asks God why he was absent for long stretches—why she looks back and sees only one set of footprints in the sand—to which God replies: "it was then that I carried you."

God's apparent silence and absence is a common experience, but it is not an accurate barometer of reality. Our God is a God who carries his people forever. A God of salvation and strength. In those mountaintop moments we know this to be true. But in the valleys where we aren't so sure, we need to continue praying prayers like psalm 28 together so that we can remember these truths again and believe, despite what our eyes fail to see and our ears fail to hear.

May God continue to save his people and bless his inheritance, being our shepherd who carries us forever and who breaks those moments of apparent silence so that we might have life.

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: 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 seek him in his temple" (Psalm 27:4).

Here's a story I've told before on Wilderness Wanderings. One day while Stuart Sacks was serving as a Christian Missionary in Paraguay, a Maka Indian named Rafael came to sit on his porch. Stuart went out to see what he wanted. Rafael responded, "Ham, henek met." Again, Stuart asked what he could do for him, but the answer was the same. Stuart understood what he was saying but not its significance: "I don't want anything; I have just come near."

Later Stuart shared the incident with a local veteran missionary. He explained that it was Rafael's way of honouring him. "He really didn't want anything; he just wanted to sit on your porch. He found satisfaction and pleasure just being near you."

This is David's desire in Psalm 27. It is not that he wanted to give up being shepherd or king and become a monk. David knew that no one was allowed inside the holy of holies in the temple. That was the place God dwelt among his people and only the high priest was allowed in there, and him, only once a year after lots of preparation.

But the tabernacle stood for God's presence. David wanted the pleasure and protection of unbroken communion with God in His house. What is our ambition in life today? Is it to get rich? Is it to make a name for ourselves? Is it to do some wonderful thing for God? The highest desire that can possess any human heart is a longing to see God.

Jesus taught us that there would be a day when we could experience that reality. It came with Him. God has no address on this earth. The universe is His and He is everywhere. We live in the presence of God all the time, even if we forget. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is with us wherever we are.

I think that David desires more than just to be in the presence of God. He wants to gaze on his beauty and to seek him. Like many other psalms, this one comes from a place of trial and tribulation. Enemies are surrounding him; it is easy to be afraid. Our world is not a safe place either. Jesus tells us not to worry. The solution for worry is to look at our heavenly Father. Trust in God is built by paying attention to him.

The most challenging words in this psalm are the little three letter ones, "one," and "all." "One thing, only one, I have asked from the Lord," David says. "I am no double minded man. I don't want to love God and love the world too. If the Lord will grant this one request, then he may deny me everything else and I will still be happy. I am single minded in my longing."

Rich Mullins left us this prayer: "Save us from those things that might distract us. Please take them away and purify our hearts. We don't want to lose the eternal for the things that are passing. What will we have when the world is gone, if it isn't for the love that goes on and on with our one thing? You're our one thing. The pure in heart shall see God" (My One Thing).

It is good to be near God. May "Ham, henek met" be the desire of our hearts! But also, this, "Let us keep looking to Jesus. He is the one who started this journey of faith. And he is the one who completes the journey of faith…" (Hebrews 12:2).

What one thing can you do to see God more clearly? Practice looking at him when all is well. That way, when troubles come, it will be natural to turn towards him, to sit in his presence, and receive his peace.

This Psalm—like any number of others—gives us pause. Who of us would dare say such a thing to God?

But while it might seem strange in ordinary times, there are situations that crop up in our lives like a tragic death, a betrayal in a close relationship, or the cancer word where it's not. In those situations, we might quite naturally find ourselves crying out to God, asking what it is that we have done to deserve such pain and suffering being thrust into our lives. It is a way of praying in the vein of Psalm 26.

There are some events and realities in our lives that are bigger than us—out of our control. Perhaps more of them than we might think—or like—to list. And when we realize our lack of control, we realize that we have need of God. A God who can save us. Or, in unfair or unjust situations: a God who can judge rightly and vindicate us—which is salvation all the same.

This psalm is a prayer prayed in the face of an evil world that dishes out things that we do not deserve and cannot solve on our own strength. And this is a psalm that does what it says: that relies on God fully and solely for vindication and salvation.

It strikes me more often these days that this is exactly the life that Jesus lived. Even though he had all the power and ability to control on his side, he did not wield it against his oppressors—the Sanhedrin and Romans that condemned and crucified him. He could have saved himself, but he did not. He could have vindicated himself, but he did not. Instead, he gave up his power and control, humbled himself, and submitted himself to the just judgement of God the Father. And God the Father did vindicate him, by raising him from the dead on the third day, proving Jesus' innocence and righteousness in the process.

This is the Jesus that we trust in: the Jesus whose life, righteousness, and vindication have become our own. And as we continue to rely on his vindication and salvation, we remain connected with the reality of things—the reality that our situation is bigger than us such that we need God, that our life is a gift of God, and that the invitation of our living is to respond in congruence with the righteousness of Christ that we have received from God.

We cannot control the events or realities that we face in this world, but we can entrust ourselves to the God who in Christ has saved us and who continues to save us.

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust…Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths (Psalm 25:1,4).

The psalms of the Old Testament are the church's prayer book. This doesn't mean that these are the only prayers or songs we offer, but that we allow them to be our prayer teachers. They will teach us how to pray the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who is in heaven..."

Many psalms come out of the depths of broken, harassed, or desperate hearts. They seem to explode out of the psalmist; we can feel their pathos and desperation. Others, like Psalm 25, are more deliberate; they have been brooded over and carefully constructed.

This psalm has 22 verses. It is an acrostic, meaning that each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This prayer is not offered "off the cuff'. It comes to us only after careful meditated crafting. We often think that praying needs to be spontaneous. That is an illusion. The psalter teaches us that a prayer which is thought out and stylistic is as spiritual and effective as spontaneous expressions of the heart.

I have found that praying along with saints long deceased helps expand the content of my prayers. It is very easy for our prayers to shrink to the narrow confines of our own lives. Listening to and praying along with others (even those no longer on this earth) can help us discover the depth and breath of Jesus' prayer "your kingdom come".

Psalm 25 comes out of a time of trouble; thus, it is not prayed with a smile or exuberant joy and certainly not with a detached indifference. In this season of anguish, the psalmist explores for himself what it means to lift up his soul to the Lord (1).

So, what can we learn about "lifting up our hearts to the Lord" from this prayer? We notice that significant parts of the psalm reflect on the "way of the Lord." This pray-er believes that the way of the Lord is the right way to live and therefore he wants to be taught how to live it. He recognizes that there are different ways to live. He doesn't necessarily know God's way, so he wants to learn. Trusting in God and lifting our souls up to Him means that we seek to walk in His ways.

I wonder how many of us respond to adversity this way. It might not have been the psalmist's first response either. Yet, as she wrestled with the troubles she faced, she came to that space where this became the desire of the heart. Maybe you have had that experience too. Our first reaction to stress is "Get rid of it, God". But as we wrestled in prayer, the Spirit brought us to a place in which obedience became our primary desire.

Such movement in prayer brings with it a recognition that we have not always followed God's ways. It may even be that some of the psalmist's current problems have arisen because of disobedience. So, what does he do? Does he try to hide this reality? No. He confesses it and asks the Lord to forgive. Forgiveness is possible because in His love, the Lord forgives.

Trusting in the Lord does not mean instant success. The psalmist has staked his life on doing life God's way. If he goes down in defeat, he will experience public shame. He fears that shame even though he knows that in the end God will be proven to be right.

In the long run, God will set His people secure in the land (13). Jesus makes a similar statement: "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). We recognize this may not happen until the new heavens and the new earth. Are we willing to live in obedience to God until that time?

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:1-8)

As Christians reading this Psalm today, you can hear the themes of Creation, Fall, and Redemption flow through it. The Lord founds the world and everything in it. The people seek him, and yet the question remains whether they can stand in his presence. Do we have clean hands and a pure heart, free from idolatry? Probably not. But God is victorious, he wins the battle and the gates lift themselves up to accommodate his glory as he enters the sanctuary.

Even though the Israelites did not know Jesus, they may actually not have heard this psalm in such a different way, because since the Exodus God was a God of salvation and redemption to them. He was the one who had redeemed them from their slavery and saved them from their enemies countless times since.

But because this Psalm knows the King who redeems, it changes the whole understanding of who may ascend his mountain and stand in his presence. Psalms like this one were sung in worship, and so it wasn't an entrance exam before being allowed into the sanctuary. It was a rehearsal of all that God had done for his people and an invitation to live worthy of this God they had come to worship: the Lord of Creation, and victorious King of Redemption.

The popular worship song of a few years back gets the sense just right: "Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another." God has saved his people: and as we seek to live worthily in light of who he is and what he has done, we recognize that God will need to continue saving us if we're ever to meet the bar.

But that's exactly what our God does. He comes to us to save us. This is the work of Christ, but it is also the work of the Spirit that continually sanctifies us: makes us holy and conforms us to Christ. In the presence of our God, he makes us more and more to be the kind of people fit for his presence and service.

So let the King of Glory come! Let the doors and gates of our hearts and our sanctuaries lift themselves up to accommodate his great glory, power, and strength. But when the time is ripe—at the consummation of the ages—let our world do the same, that the King of glory may come in. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 6:1-14 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In Questions:

1. How are pride and love opposites?
2. Why does Paul contrast arrogance with power?
3. How is pride functioning in the Corinthian church? How does it show up in the church today? in your life?
4. How does pride and arrogance ruin the possibility of responding to sin? What goal should the church have when responding to sin?

Without question, Psalm 23 lingers in a post Christian culture. While most people in North America do not read the Bible, this psalm is remembered.

There is a story about two men at a banquet who recited Psalm 23. The first was a famous actor who knew how to hold people spellbound with a single word. He recited the psalm first and received a thunderous standing ovation.

The second was an old preacher whose voice was cracked with age. As he recited, people began checking their text massages and changing their Facebook statuses.

However, when he was finished the actor returned to the microphone and said, "The difference between this old man and me is that he knows the shepherd."

How many of us have not read through the shepherd psalm without really paying attention to the shepherd? How many have read it countless times never asking what the psalm professes? I encourage you to take time today to meditate on this psalm.

When I read it at funerals, I indicate that I read it for the living, not for the one who has died. It is a psalm for life, for living.

At some point in his life, David began to understand just how much like a shepherd God is. God's shepherding does not mean that everything will always be green pastures and quiet waters. With God as shepherd, we still pass through valleys that reek of death. But even there, God goes with us. That truth enables us to live with and for him as articulated in this paraphrase of the psalm, with images from the workplace.

"The Lord is my real boss and I shall not want. He gives me peace when chaos is all around me. He gently reminds me to pray before I speak and to do all things without murmuring and complaining. He reminds me that He is my Source and not my job. He restores my sanity everyday and guides my decisions that I might honour Him in everything I do.

"Even though I face absurd amounts of emails, system crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, gossiping co-workers, discriminating supervisors and an aging body that doesn't cooperate every morning, I will not give up for He is with me!

His presence, His peace, and His power will see me through. He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me. He claims me as His own, even when the company threatens to let me go.

"His faithfulness and love are better than any bonus check. His retirement plan beats every RRSP there is! When it's all said and done, I'll be working for Him a whole lot longer and for that, I bless His Name" (Jeff Benham).

When Jesus claimed to be the 'Good Shepherd' (John 10:11), he was evoking all the images of Psalm 23. Do you know this Shepherd?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)

I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. (Psalm 22:22-24)

Many of us hear and immediately recognize the opening words of this Psalm as the words of Jesus from the cross. But before they were Jesus' words, they were Israel's. Psalm 22 was a prayer regularly read or sung in worship that had been sincerely prayed by many who felt abandoned and afflicted by God.

In his death on the cross then, Jesus is not only shouting out his own experience of forsakenness, but is also identifying himself with the forsaken: with all those who have prayed this prayer to God—from the time of its writing right up to the present day. For, as the book of Hebrews tells us, "we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses…"

Many of our lives will include moments when we feel forsaken by our God. When a loved one dies, for instance, or when a painful situation rips through our family. And of course there are many others in our world on the margins who may feel that forsakenness far more often.

The existence of this prayer of forsakenness and the identification of Jesus with it tells us that it is a perfectly faithful expression of faith to ask God why he's absent and why he has abandoned us in those times when it feels like he has. We don't have to keep a stiff upper lip or grin and bear it. We can be honest and raw with God. He's big enough to handle our hurt.

We know that to be true because of watching Jesus' own suffering. The Father did not ultimately abandon Jesus to the grave. But rather vindicated him, raised him from the grave to new life: a new life that we will share in also.

Psalm 22 takes a similar turn. Mid-way through, a declaration of praise rings through the despair. Why? Because God does not and has not ultimately scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. God has not ultimately hidden his face, but instead has turned, listened, and delivered.

Jesus himself is the promise that the prayer of forsakenness never goes unheard. He comes to us to minister to us still today, finding us wherever we may be and saying: "I hear you, I understand, and I am here."

"The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give! You have granted him the desire of his heart, and not withheld the request of his lips" (Psalm 21:1, 2).

Psalm 21 is a song of victory. It is not difficult to imagine the people of Israel singing these words as David returned victorious from battle. The day is perfect for Israel: king and people are following the Lord and rejoicing in his blessings of victory.

Notice how the victory clearly belongs to God. It was asked for by the king; it was a desire of his heart. But the song recognizes that only God is responsible for the defeat of the enemy. The psalm exudes trust and confidence in God.

Notice also that the enemies haven't got a chance. The singers are totally convinced God is stronger than all his enemies, and thus, the enemies of God's people, our enemies. While they wither away, the king's days are lengthened, even, for ever and ever (4).

Of course, David did not live forever. Peter says at Pentecost that David's tomb is there for all to see. Like in Psalm 16, we understand that this phrase refers to the promise that David will have a descendent on Israel's throne forever.

But this means the psalm is about more than David coming home victorious from battle. It holds notes that will become the resounding chorus of Easter and Ascension. This victory of Israel's enemies is only a small foretaste, an appetizer, if you will, of Christ's victory over his enemies on the cross. It hints at Paul's conclusion in Colossians 2, "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (15). As such, the psalm gives content for our praises in the days of Easter and Ascension.

It is reasonable to think that this psalm sustained Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem and the cross. Perhaps he meditated on these very words as he was delivered into the hands of sinful men. Even as he bore the sins of the world on the tree, he trusted in the steadfast love of God to raise him up in power three days later.

After passing through death on behalf of his brothers, Jesus was met with rich blessings, greeted by throngs of worshipping angels, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death (Hebrews 2:9). This is a psalm for a vindicated Messiah.

Can we hear the ascended and exalted Christ praising his Father on the other side of the empty tomb? Can we hear, as Jesus sat down at the Father's right hand, the angels praising God, "The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give!"

There is more here for us. We can have confidence today that our enemies will not overwhelm us because Christ has prayed for us. His hearts desire is that all those whom the Father had given to him may be with him where he is, to see him in his glory (cf. John 17:24). God will give his Son his heart's desire and will not withhold the request of his lips. Our future is guaranteed.

Paul affirms this in his letter to the Ephesians writing, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (1:3). And later, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus" (2:6-7).

We cannot imagine the joy that awaits us when God's redemption is complete. Psalm 21 whets our appetite and invites us to live in expectation of what awaits us, and while we wait, to sing God's praise.