Posts about David, the psalmist, the shepherd king of Israel

Why Tame Darkness is Nothing to Be Afraid of

Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139:12

I asked my Sunday school kids what people were most afraid of, what THEY were afraid and I was surprised at how many of them said the dark. Whether it was the woods outside, the basement, or their bedroom, they did not like the dark. Even the kid who worked in my office at the college is afraid of the dark. He was a big, hulking kid, built like Hagrid’s little brother, but one trip through the darkened theater, down the back hallway to deliver something to the dressing rooms, was enough to give him the shivers for the rest of the afternoon.

I admitted to my Sunday school kids that I was afraid of “wild” dark, but not the tame dark, like at my house. I’m not afraid of my living room, or my attic, or even my basement. I asked them why that was so. We decided it was because I knew what was there, and I knew where the light switches were. In a couple of seconds, I can make the dark light. “But something could be hiding!” one of them added.

And that’s what makes the difference.

What is hiding in the dark?

In David’s masterful psalm, he transitions from a discussion of God’s imperviousness to the dark to an examination of his innermost self. I don’t think that’s an accident. When David says in verse 1, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” that includes even the darkest corners of his heart and mind. Unlike most of us– who shy away from solitude, who shrink from deep confession, who avoid transparency– God is not hesitant to go there.

Why not?

Because He knows what is hiding there.

That is the amazing, wondrous, awesome thing about the God we worship and serve. He knows all of those things about us, the secret sins, the hidden thoughts, and He brings light to them. With His great grace and boundless love, He further ensures that we no longer have to be afraid of what’s in the dark or of His discovery of it. He has already seen, already searched, and inventoried and already chosen to love us. To love you. To love me.

Because He has seen and known and loved, the darkness is “tame” now.

He knows what’s there and He can make the darkness light instantaneously. By the end of the psalm, David invites God in to deal with the darkness.

No one can tell you not to be afraid of the dark. That is something you have to reckon with on your own. In the same way, it does no good to tell you that you don’t have to be afraid of what’s hiding in the darkness of your innermost self or that God can deal with all of it in love and grace. That is something you have to reckon with on your own.

But I hope you do.

Abigail

By Paula

The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. And he was of the house of Caleb. 1 Samuel 25:3

It’s worth reading the whole chapter. The short version is that after David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds, Nabal refused to pay them and insulted them instead. David intended to exact bloody revenge on the entire household of Nabal.

Until his wife, Abigail, intervened.

She was a woman of good understanding. Wise, sensible, discerning.
Then she was decisive. (v.18)

She was tactful and humble in dealing with a crisis she did not create.
Then she diffused a volatile situation. (v.24)

She was devout, pointing David to God’s promises to him.
Then she prompted a change in David’s course of action. (v.32)

Conflict is common, maybe not on the scale of David and Nabal, but it is all around us.
We can be a rare voice of calm.
We can be peacemakers.

We can be like Abigail.

Like Incense

By Paula

Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

Incense was a vital component of worship in Israel, but one that we don’t often incorporate in Protestant services. However, knowing that incense symbolizes the intercession and prayers of God’s people, and knowing that so many facets of tabernacle worship were also object lessons, we can learn some important things about our worship and prayer.

The background on incense

In Exodus 30-34-38 God instructs Moses on the makeup and usage of the incense for Israel’s worship. He said to use stacte, onycha, and galbanum, and mix with pure frankincense in equal amounts. Frankincense you’ve probably heard of. Of the others, galbanum is the only one that scholars have positively identified. (However, if you Google them, “essential oils” is one of the autocomplete suggestions for each.) The bottom line is, it smelled terrific, distinctively terrific. But before any of the spices could be used there was some prep work. Each of the ingredients had to be crushed and ground to a fine powder. During the tabernacle and temple ceremonies, it was burned by fire on an altar. One final note: Israel was not allowed to copy the recipe and whip up a batch of the incense for their own personal use.

So let’s take some principles from all that.

Ground – Our sincerest worship often comes from our authentic brokenness and need.

Mixture – Worship and prayer is a mixture, not based on a meticulous, legalistic formula, but definitely a combination of God-honoring things like adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, and lament.

Fire – Fire is often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, so prayer and worship that are not Spirit-infused are empty.

Distinctive – If we treat worship and prayer as common and ordinary, we dishonor God.

Sweet – The aroma lingered in the space, on the worshiper after it was over. If we don’t carry the impact of our time with God out beyond the designated time and place, it has been empty. I think it’s a fair extrapolation to say that if we bring hypocrisy and sin into our worship, it’s a lot more skunky than sweet.

How would our prayer life and our worship life change if we, like David, came before Him with authenticity, directed by the Holy Spirit, if worship and prayer were a sacred blending of our heart’s cries, and if those moments were lingering and longed for?

Lord, let my prayers be set before You like incense.

3 Things Psalm 63 Tells Me about My Soul

By Paula

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1

The words “my soul” form a kind of framework for the psalm, appearing in verses 1, 5 and 8. (If you read the New Living Translation, “my soul” only appears the first verse.) This doesn’t exactly match the divisions most Bibles have, but that’s okay.

Let’s start off by defining “my soul.” My soul is my true, total self. It is everything I am. More significantly, it is the part of me that will live on forever. David then explains some key facts about our souls.

1. My soul has a critical need.

In verse 1, David says I have a deep need for God. Like thirst, it is a need I notice after a very short time. It is a need that must be met regularly, and it cannot be met by anything else around me. God alone can satisfy this.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
Psalm 63:5

2. God more than meets my soul’s needs.

This is satisfied in the old sense. It is full, satiated. God goes far beyond just meeting my needs. He pours out the good stuff, the best stuff. Like Thanksgiving and hot fudge sundaes with sprinkles. Abundance. Not just sustenance. God doesn’t skimp. He’s not on a budget and He’s not stingy.

It’s not just physical requirements of food, clothing and shelter that He meets in His care for us. God meets us, meets me, at the point of my soul’s greatest needs– love, mercy, grace, acceptance.

My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63:8

3. My soul is in close relationship with the God of the universe.

What other response is there? Especially in view of what He’s done, what other action could I take besides following close behind God? There is a sense of my soul being stuck like glue to God. We can’t or don’t make a move without Him. The fascinating thing is it’s the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 2:24 when God joins Adam and Eve. It’s not a matter of us trying our best to keep up with God. It’s much better. We are joined in intimate fellowship with Him.

We have a need only God can meet, but He doesn’t stop there. He connects us to Himself. Small wonder a thread of joy and praise runs through this psalm as well. Good study should always produce the same results, joy and praise.

What have you learned lately that produced joy and praise in you?

Intercession: For the Sick

By Paula Wiseman

Intercession is intervening. More specifically it is going to God on someone’s behalf. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. It is strenuous and it can be messy. We have learned from Nehemiah and his BURDEN for others, and from Daniel and his IDENTIFICATION with those for whom he was interceding.

Now let’s switch gears a little and think more specifically about what we pray for. If you are in a group and someone asks for prayer requests, what do mot of the requests deal with? Illness. We live in a fallen world and one of the evidences of that is sickness. It touches young and old. It seems to strike without rhyme or reason. Along with the physical suffering, it causes emotional anguish and financial devastation. If we have any faith at all, we need to pray for those who are sick. James 5:14-15 instructs us to call the elders to pray for us when we are sick.

Does Scripture give us any guidance on how to pray for the sick?

In 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah is staying in the Canaanite town of Zarephath. A widow there is providing food and a room for him as God miraculously provides for her during the three and a half year drought. The woman’s only son becomes sick and the sickness is fatal. After the boy’s death, she confronts the prophet. While there are deeper theological implications here — like the local god Baal could not raise the dead while Yahweh could — and there is the fact the Elijah was a powerful prophet of God, he teaches us some important things about praying for the sick.

Elijah got personally involved.

But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. (1 Kings 17:19)

He took the woman’s son, figuratively taking her burden and her sorrow. There would be no rest, no business as usual for Elijah as he prayer for this boy.

This is connected to identifying with those we pray for and to the burden we have for them. If it doesn’t touch us personally, if we don’t become involved personally, we will mumble, “Be with the sick,” and call it good.

Elijah didn’t have the answers.

Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?” (1 Kings 17:20)

Elijah was confused. Would God do a miracle to keep them alive only to let the boy die? What would that do to the budding faith of the woman? What about God’s reputation here in Zarephath? What about Elijah’s own reputation? Was he somehow responsible for this like the woman said?

God’s ways are not ours and it is arrogant to presume we know why things happen the way they do. Elijah was humble enough to pour out his confusion to God. We can do the same when we pray for the sick.

Elijah did not give up.

Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again!” (1 Kings 17:21)

I don’t know why it took three times. God certainly could have raised the boy after the first prayer. Maybe there were bonus lessons for the widow or for Elijah in this. I don’t know what laying down over the boy meant. The stretching out over the boy perhaps demonstrated to his mother that the prophet was identifying himself with her son. Perhaps Elijah was acting out what he was praying for by laying down and getting back up.

In any case, Elijah was actively, physically, intensely involved in praying. It is that intensity and that unwillingness to give up that we can learn from.

Now, we also know that despite our intensity and sincerity in praying for the sick, sometimes healing does not come in this life. You may recall in 2 Samuel 12 David’s fervent prayers for the recovery of his young son. Despite David’s fasting and mourning, the child died. David clung to his assurance that he would see his son again.

In my own experience, I have seen God miraculously heal and I have seen Him refrain from intervening. The same God. How God chooses to work out His will does not absolves us from the charge to pray for each other, especially to pray for the sick.

Another Time When God Told David ‘No’

By Paula

Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You shall not build Me a house to dwell in.’ 1 Chronicles 17:4

We’re continuing our look at some times when God said no. We’ve learned some heavy lessons about God’s holiness and that sin is not something to be trifled with. Today the no comes with an overwhelming outpouring of grace.

In the parallel account in 2 Samuel 7 we learn that David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from his enemies. No longer having to fight off threats to the nation or to his own rule, David was finally able to catch his breath and his first thoughts were of the God who had made him king. He wanted to build a temple, a real, permanent place for the Ark of the Covenant. He wanted to show that God’s presence with His people Israel was tangible and fixed, representing the eternal promises God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It was a worthy thought, a well-placed desire and Nathan the prophet gave his blessing. “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” (1 Chronicles 17:2).

Except that God had other plans.

He said no to the temple. (At least to David building it.) But then God said He would build DAVID a house, a heritage, an eternal dynasty. The Messiah, the King of Kings would come from David’s and he would forever be associated with the Chosen One of God. He would be called the Son of David. He would sit on the throne of David.

And David said, “Whoa.” (That’s a paraphrase.) You can read his actual response in 1 Chronicles 17:16-27 or 2 Samuel 7:18-29. It’s good stuff.

Here are some takeaways from this no.

God rejected the notion of David building the Temple. He didn’t reject David. In fact, He CHOSE David for a particular honor and distinction that went far beyond that of building the Temple. It’s important for us to remember that a ‘no’ is not personal.

God’s plan was greater than David’s. By promising to build David a “house,” God invited David to take a step back and see a bigger picture, to see a plan drawn out on an eternal canvas. When God tells us no, let’s resolve to look for the greater purpose God is working out in our lives.

The most important thing to build is not a monument but an intimate relationship with God. Since the time that God called Abraham out of Ur, He was calling a people for His name’s sake. On Sinai, He promised to be Israel’s God and they promised to be His people. There had never been a people whom God had met with the way He met with Israel. Today He chooses to dwell not just WITH us, but IN us.

It’s all about Jesus. When God responds to David, He immediately draws the focus to the coming Messiah who will rule over His kingdom forever. If that’s God’s perspective, then that should be ours as well.

Next week we’ll look at a New Testament example when God told Paul no.