PRAISE IS A CHOICE - Part 4 - Psalm 34

I’ve always loved Psalm 34.  It happened to be the next psalm on my regular quiet time reading today and it was so wonderful to read it again and then share it with a friend, and then I thought, “Why not write a blog so others can be blessed by it as well.”

In the footnote under the psalm in my Bible, it says that this psalm was written by David when he pretended to be insane in order to escape from King Achish.   We read that account in the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel , chapter 21, verses 10-16.  

Saul, the current king of Israel, out of jealousy over David’s victories and resultant popularity, had been pursuing David in order to take his life.  He fled to Nob where Ahimilech the priest gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine (whose slaying it was that had rocketed David to popularity).   Armed with Goliath’s sword, David continued to flee, entering the territory of Achish, king of Gath.

Gath was one of 5 major Philistine cities – right in the heart of enemy territory for anyone from Israel – but, to David, a seemingly safe hiding place where Saul would be unlikely to look for him.

In 2 Samuel 21, beginning in verse 11 we read, “But the servants of Achish said to (their king), ‘Isn’t this David, the king of the land?  Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:  ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?’

David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.  So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at the man! He is insane!  Why bring him to me?  Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me?  Must this man come into my house?”

God used David’s pretense to save his life, and so David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

I might have expected that when David wrote Psalm 34 he would have written from a spirit of fear, or despair, or discouragement, as he has in some of the other psalms, but this psalm doesn’t reflect those emotions at all.  That makes it a wonderful psalm on which to meditate when we are going through difficult circumstances – like when we feel we’re surrounded by enemies at our secular jobs, devoid of a single Christian ally, or support system.   Or when we’re going through a messy divorce.   Or when we’re lonely and no one seems to care about us.  Or when our negative or self critical thoughts about our past sins or disappointments consume our minds.

Although David had good reason for allowing his circumstances to cause him to wallow in fear, or self pity, or depression, in this psalm, he did not land there.   This psalm reminds me again that praise is a choice.

In Psalm 34, verses 1-3, David chooses to praise the Lord with these words:

I will EXTOL the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.  My soul will boast in the Lord;

Let the afflicted hear and rejoice.   Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

 The word “extol”, as Webster’s Dictionary defines it, means:  to raise, or lift up, to praise highly. 

David not only speaks of praising.  He speaks of boasting in and glorifying the Lord as well.   

My granddaughter graduated from elementary school this week and I can tell you I was boasting to everyone who would listen about how smart and wonderful she is!   I need to do some boasting about the Lord too – not only in my soul, but also with lips that praise Him to anyone who will listen – or praise Him even when NO one else is listening!

David uses words like “at all times, and always” – to speak of how often he praises the Lord.  I have to ask myself:  Do those descriptions apply to my praise?  Do I really praise the Lord at all times and always?

David encourages those who are afflicted as he was, to hear his words and rejoice along with him – because there is always reason to praise the Lord.

Praise isn’t always easy because we don’t always feel like praising – we’re not in the mood, or it’s hard to praise when we’re experiencing affliction - but that is the very time when we need to praise the Lord the most!  Remembering who the Lord is and focusing on His glory shifts our minds from the circumstances that afflict us (many of which we can’t change!) to the God who is sovereign over those very circumstances.

And choosing to praise when we don’t feel like it takes us from simply speaking words ABOUT God to walking by faith in the God we KNOW.

2 Samuel 21 tells us that David was very much afraid – not only of Saul, but also of King Achish, enemy of the people of Israel, yet David says in v. 4:

“I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

 This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.”

David was aware that the prayers he lifted to God for deliverance and help were answered by the Lord.  And David discovered that those who committed themselves to the Lord in prayer had no need to fear that the Lord would not come through.  Thus they would never be ashamed of putting their trust in Him.  On the contrary, those who looked to the Lord in trouble and affliction could be radiant with hope because He would bring deliverance just as He promised.  

There is a beautiful painting I would have liked to have had hanging in our girls’ rooms when they were little, but I didn’t discover it till later.  It shows a child sleeping in bed at night, with her mom kneeling beside the bed praying for her.  Over the entire scene is a huge angel with wings spread wide, keeping watch over the child.

David describes that beautiful mental picture in verse 7.  What a comfort for those nights when fear keeps us awake – the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.   

v. 8-9 David says:

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.  Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Like looking at and smelling chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven and assuming that they would be really GOOD to eat, but not knowing the reality of their deliciousness until we taste them, David says: TASTE and SEE that the Lord is good.  The original Hebrew meaning of the word taste is:  “to perceive”, David says, don’t just believe in God’s goodness with your mind, but experience it with your senses – taste it, see it, experience His goodness.

Saul frightened David, King Achish frightened David – but in the end, David didn’t need to fear men because he feared the Lord, and when we fear the Lord, we lack no good thing.

In v. 15 David says:

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry.

Have you ever been in a crowd of people and felt that no one even noticed you were there?  You could stay or leave, and no one would care.  You could wear your sorrows on your sleeve, bear them on your face – but no one would notice. 

Or did you ever shared a struggle over coffee with a friend and known that they hadn’t heard a word you said?  Their mind was elsewhere, or they were intent on watching the TV over your shoulder?

David says that we who belong to the Lord always have His undivided attention.  That means that the Lord’s eyes are intently gazing into yours and His ears are attentive to your words – as if you were the only one in the world.   

I was at a retreat last month and during the last day when we were sharing about the specialness of a weekend away with the Lord, one of the women said:  “I hate to tell all you girls this, but I am the Lord’s favorite!”

Well, the reality is that YOU are the Lord’s favorite.  And so am I.  His eyes are on us and His ears are attentive to our cries, as we walk in obedience to Him.

In v. 18 David says:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Is that you?  What or who, is it that has broken your heart?  Is it some hurt inflicted on you by someone you love?  Is it isolation and loneliness?  Is it a disappointing relationship, or the loss of your marriage, or of a loved one to death?   You may feel alone – but David says the Lord is especially close to YOU because your heart has been broken.   He wants to save you – to rescue you – from being weighed down by a crushed spirit.  It’s not the way you were meant to live as a child of the King.

In v. 19 David shares an unpleasant reality, and a wonderful promise:

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

Reality – those who have been declared righteous by grace through faith in Jesus – will not be spared the troubles that afflict the rest of mankind BUT, we do have the promise that the Lord will deliver us from them all.

The original Hebrew word translated “delivers” has a more complex meaning than we might think.  It can mean: defend, escape, pluck, preserve, recover, rescue, rid, and save.

So, while the Lord might not change our circumstances, although He is certainly powerful enough to do that, He may instead choose to defend us against opposition by intervening on our behalf or granting us favor with those in positions of influence in the midst of opposition.  God demonstrated that in David's life.

God had anointed David to be the next king of Israel after Saul, but David waited years for God to fulfill that promise.  In the meantime, he ran from Saul who wanted to take his life.  The Lord did not change David’s circumstances – but he did, many times, intervene on David’s behalf and protect and deliver him from his enemy.  At another time later in David’s life, he even turned the advice of an enemy advisor in David’s favor.  God knows how to care for His own.

Or He might provide a means of escape, or rescue – as He did for David when King Achish wrote him off as insane.  

It might mean that the Lord will pluck us out of troubling circumstances, or rid us of them, or preserve us IN them.   

His deliverance might take the form of helping us to recover from our troubles once they are past.  

For a variety of reasons the Lord has made 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 verses that have become very meaningful and practical to me, and they apply well in this instance.

“Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

The most active battlefield we have in our lives is the battle that goes on in our minds.  In difficult circumstances, and even just in the everyday out workings of our lives, there is constant tension over whether we’re going to give in to discouragement and fear, or walk by faith; to take the easy route of living as the world does, or walk by faith in God’s truth.

Paul says we don’t wage that war the way the world does.  God has given us weapons of divine power – the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and prayer, and those are the weapons with which we are to fight those battles.

God’s weapons have the power to demolish the strongholds in our minds – the things that keep us from walking by faith, like worldly thinking, fear, the pain that keeps us enslaved to sin, or to past hurts.  The use of God’s Word (the way Jesus used it against Satan in His 40 days in the wilderness), and the prayer of faith, have the power to demolish those arguments in our minds that set themselves up against what we know to be true of the God who loves us.  

The key is to choose to wield the divine weapons we’ve been given:  to refuse to allow our minds to replay the hurts or sins of the past, or to give in to despair, or fear, or loneliness, or  self loathing, or in worldly thinking that is contrary to godly thinking.

In Romans 12:2 the Apostle Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  

I don’t know what your day, or your life, holds at this moment.  But if you are in circumstances that feel a lot like David’s were at the time he wrote this Psalm, then the best place to begin renewing your mind is with the truths David proclaims there.

Instead of allowing your mind to spin on the gerbil wheel of futile thinking – choose to meditate on the words of David’s psalm - praise God for who He reveals Himself to be, thank and praise Him for the things David does, apply David’s words to your own life and circumstances, and take hold of them by faith.  

Don’t just think about God’s goodness to someone else - TASTE God’s goodness to YOU.   He has His eyes on YOU and His ear is attentive to YOUR cries.   Count on it.

BELIEF IN JESUS: HEAD KNOWLEDGE OR HEART KNOWLEDGE - John 3

I had a conversation with someone a while back who said she’d been asked by co-workers whether she was a “born again” Christian.  Maybe you’ve heard the term.  Depending on who you speak to, that term evokes different emotions and reactions in people.  Some, like my friend above, are really curious about what it means and whether it actually applies to them.   Others might not know much, if anything, about what it means, but they see it as a narrow minded, judgmental expression and they want no part of hearing anything more about it.  Maybe you’re someone who has heard the expression and wonders yourself where it came from and what it means.    

Actually it was Jesus who coined that particular phrase in a conversation he had with a religious man of his day.  You can read about it in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John in the New Testament.

The man was named Nicodemus and he was a Pharisee (a Jewish sect that believed in strict adherence to all of the law of Moses).   As such, he was also a member of the Jewish ruling council of Jesus’ day.  Because he had some notoriety, and because Jesus’ teachings were stirring up so much opposition from Nicodemus’ peers, he came to Jesus at night so as to minimize the chance of being seen, so he could ask his questions.

John, chapter 3, beginning with verse 2:

“(Nicodemus) said: ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.  For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him’.   In reply, Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’

Okay, so even I’m surprised as I read that again because Jesus’ reply doesn’t fit Nicodemus’ statement.  Maybe what Jesus is getting at is that it will be difficult to have a conversation with Nicodemus about the kingdom of God because he won’t be able to grasp the answer, or SEE with spiritual eyes unless he’s born again.

Okay, now Jesus has his complete attention, so Nicodemus goes on (undoubtedly scratching his head and wrinkling his brow) to ask:  “How can a man be born when he is old?  Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born?”  (In other words: “What??  I don’t get you Jesus!”)

In verse 5, we read, “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus, who probably considered himself to already be securely IN the kingdom of God by virtue of his Jewish roots, his attention to keeping the law of Moses as a good Pharisee would, and his standing as a leader in Israel, must have been caught completely by surprise.   Jesus was saying that not only could someone not born again even SEE the kingdom of God, he could not even ENTER it unless born of the Spirit!

Nicodemus' answer, in verse 9, reflects his confusion.  “How can this BE?”

Beginning in verse 10, Jesus replies:   

“You are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand these things. . . I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?  No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Jesus goes on for a while longer but there is no recorded response by Nicodemus.  Jesus was challenging Nicodemus to recognize him for who he was – not just a good and wise rabbi – but the One sent by the Father from heaven to save the world from the penalty of sin and make a relationship with Him possible.  

What it would take to enter the kingdom and grasp the meaning of kingdom things was a whole new birth.  Nicodemus had already been physically born, what he needed now was a spiritual birth, which could only come through faith in Jesus.

Nicodemus would have understood Jesus’ (who calls himself the “Son of Man”), comment about the snake Moses lifted up in the desert, and its significance.  The Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 21, tells the story.

Having been delivered by God from Egypt, the people of Israel were traveling in the desert under the leadership of Moses, when they fell into their habitual response to the lack of food and water by grumbling and complaining instead of turning to God, who had been completely faithful to that point.  God’s response is a stern one.

“Then the LORD set venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.  The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you.  Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.”  So Moses prayed for the people.  The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole.  Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”

Nicodemus would undoubtedly have gone away from his meeting with Jesus puzzling over this connection – until Jesus was crucified.  What Jesus was saying was that just as looking to that bronze snake brought life to those who expected certain death from a deadly snake bite, so Jesus, when he was lifted up on a tree (crucifixion), would bring life to those whose penalty for sin was also certain death and separation from God.  Jesus’ death would give eternal life to all those who looked to him by faith.

So, how do we understand all this in a way that makes being “born again” significant for us?

Years ago there was a little gospel tract with a title something like, “The 18 Most Important Inches”, (I’m making that up, because I really can’t remember, but it’s the message, not the title that counts!).  The 18 inches spoken of is the approximate physical distance between our brain and our heart.

What Jesus was saying to Nicodemus in essence was that even though he was a well respected, “religious” person, that 18 inches between his head knowledge (which contained all the laws of Moses, all his effort at keeping those laws, and all the keeping of religious ritual) and his heart knowledge of Jesus as a person, and as Messiah, would keep him from entrance into God’s kingdom.  

What he needed was FAITH in Jesus – and THAT was a matter of the heart, not the head.   In fact, all those religious trappings could actually keep Nicodemus OUT of the kingdom – because being born again of the Spirit, a new birth through faith in Jesus was the ONLY thing that guaranteed entrance!

I know a very precious person who doesn’t understand this.  All her life she has believed that her ticket to the kingdom is based on what she DOES, or DOESN’T do, as defined by regular church attendance, whether or not she’s been baptized or regularly takes communion, or been confirmed, and a host of other things.  I have tried to tell her that Jesus died to make that possible and all she needs is faith in what HE did, but she’s been working hard a long time and doesn’t believe it could be that simple.  It makes me sad.

Someone else I know says that she KNOWS and ACKNOWLEDGES everything the Bible says about Jesus to be true – but that belief has not reached her heart, it doesn’t affect her life in any way, as a matter of fact she still acts in ways that would dishonor Jesus.  18 inches is keeping her out of the kingdom.  

Nicodemus KNEW Jesus.  He had met him, he believed him to be a rabbi (a teacher).  He believed that Jesus must have come from God because only God could enable him to do the miraculous things he was doing.  But Nicodemus was missing something – FAITH in Jesus as the One sent from heaven by the Father to be the Savior.  

Head knowledge ABOUT Jesus alone will not gain us entrance into the kingdom or enable us to understand spiritual things – that is simply head knowledge.  What we need to enter the kingdom and understand spiritual things is the Holy Spirit, and the only way we can possess the Spirit is by FAITH – and that is a heart issue – we MUST be born again by the Spirit.

Long before I met my husband, I knew about him.  Our mothers worked together, so I had heard all about him and his 3 brothers from my mom.   When I would meet my mom for lunch, Jim’s mom would tell me what a lovely person I was and how I needed to meet her son.   I finally met him on a blind date.  

Now I knew him, but barely.  I knew he was a college senior.  I knew he was in ROTC.  I knew he was an accounting major.  I knew he had a really cool car!  I knew he was very quiet.  I knew he was handsome.  But I really didn’t KNOW him, I just knew a lot of facts about him.   It was only after we spent time together that I began to really KNOW him in a personal way – then, my head knowledge became heart knowledge.

 That’s the way we need to KNOW Jesus if we’re going to enter the kingdom and understand kingdom things.  And that happens when we are born again by the Spirit.  It is the work of God.   And it is also a work of faith and faith ALONE – not just head knowledge, not following a list of do’s and don’ts.

In the New Testament book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8, the Apostle Paul says this:  “For it is by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH – and this not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God – not by (your) works, so that no one can boast.”

If you have been reading these blogs and don’t really KNOW Jesus – not just in your head, but in your heart – then God is calling you into that relationship with Him now.  In the gospel of Luke, chapter 11, Jesus speaks about God’s good gifts and says this:

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Ask the Heavenly Father to help you understand what it means to KNOW Jesus in the way he spoke about knowing in his conversation with Nicodemus.   Ask him for the spiritual re-birth that comes with knowing Jesus, not just with your mind, but in your HEART. Believe me, he LOVES to answer that prayer!

So what DID happen to Nicodemus?  Did he ever go from knowing ABOUT Jesus to really KNOWING Jesus in his heart?  The Bible doesn’t spell it out for us, but it does tell us some things that might just be a hint that Nicodemus had a change that went right down to his heart.

In John’s gospel, chapter 7, verses 50-52, in a meeting of the chief priests and Pharisees to discuss Jesus, this is said of Nicodemus:

“Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ‘Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?’ 

Nicodemus was going out on a limb here to speak in Jesus' defense because his fellow Pharisees were furious with Jesus.  Nicodemus was putting his reputation on the line with those words.

“ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee, too?  Look into it and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Then later, after the crucifixion of Jesus, we read this in John 19:38-41:

“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus.  Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.  With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.  Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.  This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.  At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

Back in the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus said: "You must be born again.  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

What Jesus meant was that we can't SEE the Spirit anymore than we can SEE the wind which blows wherever it pleases.  BUT, we can see the EFFECTS of the Spirit, as we can see and hear the effects of the wind in the leaves of the trees.

I like to believe that this effort to which Nicodemus went and the tenderness with which he and Joseph treated the body of Jesus indicated a heartfelt love for Jesus that went beyond just head knowledge - evidence perhaps that Nicodemus had indeed experienced the new birth because the wind of the Spirit was directing his life.  But I guess we’ll have to wait till heaven to see if Nicodemus truly entered the kingdom.  What a conversation we will have!

The more important questions is, have YOU experienced the new birth?  If not, ask Jesus to take you from a knowledge ABOUT Him to a genuine, heartfelt, Spirit filled KNOWING of Him personally. 

That can only happen when you are born again!

OVER SPIRITUALIZING, COINCIDENCE, OR GOD INCIDENT? Exodus 28 and Psalm 25

Okay, this will be a long blog because I just can’t ignore so many God thoughts coming together in one day. 

Just the other day a friend was relating how he’d been struggling over a ministry opportunity he didn’t think he had the energy or desire to pursue.   His wife said she’d work with him, and while that was a little encouragement, it still wasn’t enough to cause him to say “yes”.   Then, while he was in the car listening to a Christian radio station, a certain song came on, and it was as if the Lord said loud and clear, “Go ahead and take that ministry opportunity.”   In explaining how the song was the means of convincing him, he said, “I don’t want to over spiritualize this, but when I heard that song, I knew the Lord wanted me to say yes.”

I’m not exactly sure what it means to over spiritualize something, but here are some examples that I think might come under that category.  

Attributing every bad thing to Satan.  Satan is certainly the author of evil, but sometimes what we attribute to him is our own fault – the result of sin and stupid, self centered choices.  Like blaming Satan for our financial hardships when we bought everything we wanted even though it was beyond our means.

Or questioning what God is doing, or not doing, in every single thing that touches our lives.  Like wondering what God is trying to tell us when our baby has colic, or we get a flat tire on the way to a job interview, or whether an idea we had in the middle of the night was from God or not.   I’ve done this.  I’ve gone round in circles trying to understand what earth shattering thing God is trying to tell me through a certain circumstance.  I don’t do that much anymore, because it drives me crazy, and most times I just don’t know the answer!  

 God can certainly accomplish His purposes through anything, but I’d rather just trust Him to do it than try and figure out what it could be.

On the other hand, I think in an effort NOT to over spiritualize, we can lean too much in the other direction and MISS the wonderful things God IS doing in our lives.   Here’s today’s example.

A friend asked me last week where I got the ideas for the blogs I’ve written.   The answer is easy, although it may be over spiritualizing!  :)   The LORD gives me the ideas!  I can’t tell you how often the Lord has used what I’ve been reading from the Bible, conversations with people, events in my day, issues I’m dealing with, and other things I’m reading all at the same time - to inspire me along a particular line.  Today was no different.

I’ve been reading my way through the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, landing today on a not so thrilling part, chapter 28, which describes God’s instructions to Moses for the making of the garments for the priests who would serve Him in the Tabernacle.  

Even in this kind of repetitive, some might even say “boring”, chapter, there were some amazing things to discover about God.  Like the fact that God loves order and detail and patterns.  

His explanations for each piece of the priest’s garments are exact and specific, like:  “Make the ephod (a kind of apron that joined at the shoulder and tied at the waist) of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. . . .It is to have two shoulder pieces attached to two of its corners so it can be fastened. . . . Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth. . . . Engrave the names on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal..”  Moses didn’t have to guess at how God wanted things.  The Lord said, follow my instructions, ”just as you were shown on the mountain”, and Moses did.

Another thing I learn about God from chapter 28 is this:  God’s work is to be done God’s way – not only in the details, but in the quality of the work, and it is to be done well – we might say, “with excellence”.  In chapter 28, verses 3, 6, and 39 all mention that the work is to be done, not just by anyone, but by skilled craftsmen who know what they’re doing, will do the work well, and who will respond to instruction, especially when the instructor is God Himself!

The third thing I noticed could easily be overlooked, but it jumped out at me when I read it.  Chapter 28, verse 2-3 say:  “Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor.  Tell all the skilled men TO WHOM I HAVE GIVEN WISDOM IN SUCH MATTERS, THAT THEY ARE TO MAKE THE GARMENTS FOR Aaron, for his consecration so he may serve me as priest.”

How did these men know how they were to make the garments according to the Lord’s instructions?  He had given them the wisdom (the Hebrew meaning is the word SKILL) to do so.  Men with a God given mission – and a God given skill to be tailors and embroiderers and to follow the pattern God laid out, and then gave to Moses to pass along.  

That’s part one of where we’re going in this blog.   Part 2 comes from Psalm 25 which I also read today as part of my regular Bible reading.   Here’s where someone might say I’m over spiritualizing – but I don’t think so – I think the reading of Psalm 25 is not coincidence – but a God incident to add another dimension to our understanding of Exodus 28.

Psalm 25 is written by David and its theme, written just before the psalm begins is:  A prayer for defense, guidance and pardon.  

What I noticed is that the Lord had a theme going all right and in my mind, the theme was this:  When we worry too much about over spiritualizing we miss the truth that God IS real, living, practical, personal, and ACTIVE in speaking to our hearts and lives every single day, and that when we seek His guidance, we can EXPECT that He WILL give it!  Can you see the theme?

Psalm 25:4-5 “SHOW ME your ways, O LORD, TEACH ME your paths, GUIDE ME in your truth, and TEACH ME, for You are God my Savior.”

v. 8-9  “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He INSTRUCTS sinners in His ways.  He GUIDES the humble in what is right and TEACHES them His way.”

v. 12b  “(The LORD) will INSTRUCT him in the way chosen for him.” (There IS a way chosen for ME – as it was for those skilled craftsmen – and the Lord Himself will INSTRUCT me in that way!)

v. 14  “The LORD CONFIDES in those who fear Him” (Imagine that!?  The Creator and Lord of all the universe confides in ME??!!!  Wow, what an awesome thought!)

I see in all of these a tie in to how the LORD worked in those skilled craftsmen in Moses’ day.  God Himself gave them the wisdom and skill to do what He had planned for them to do, in the way He planned for them to do it.  He INSTRUCTED and He CONFIDED.

Does that not sound exactly like what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:10? “For we are God’s workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God PREPARED IN ADVANCE for us to do.”

So it seems not over spiritualizing AT ALL to say that the Lord – who shows, teaches, instructs, guides, and confides in us – would specifically lead us into His will – usually through the counsel of His Word, and the inner assurance of His Spirit, but sometimes even through the confirming word of a song.

But that’s only part 2 of this blog.  Here’s the exciting “God thing” part – it could be called over spiritualizing, but I prefer to call it God pulling it all together so we could get a glimpse of His amazing GLORY!  

Lo and behold, Oswald Chambers reading for today was also from Psalm 25:14, “The LORD confides in those who fear Him!”  Okay, come on, you skeptics, that CAN’T be coincidence!   I read the Psalm before I even knew the theme verse of Chambers devotional for today!

Here’s what Chambers has to say:

At the beginning of the Christian life we are full of requests to God.  But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself – to get us in touch with His purposes.  Are you so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer – “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) – that you catch the confidences of God?  What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things (like direction for a blog, or His Spirit speaking through a song), because they show His amazing intimacy with us – He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.

Psalm 25:12 ‘He will instruct him in the way chosen for him (the way those skilled craftsmen in Exodus were instructed in the way chosen by God for THEM).’   

At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God.  But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us.  If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices.  And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once.  Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?”  God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense.  And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is your will?”

Don’t you long to get to the place where you have grown so much spiritually, where you’re so fully aware of God, that you never again need to ask what His will is?  Yeah, me too.

But, if you’re not there yet either, we can fall back on Psalm 25 and ask with David, “Show me, teach me, instruct me, confide in me”, and then instead of wondering whether it is God leading, take the first step out by faith, trusting that He WILL answer because that's what He says!

I WILL instruct you in the way chosen FOR YOU.   I CONFIDE in those who fear Me.

The God who loved us enough to provide, through the death and resurrection of His Son, a way back into relationship with Him, SEES us, HEARS us, and wants to be intimately and personally involved in our lives!  

It’s not over spiritualization to EXPECT these things of God.   Its faith.