God in the Psalms No.8
Psa 5:4,5 You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong
In theses two verses we focus on the last phrase: you hate all who do wrong. How, we might think, does this fit with the God who is love? Let’s check, first of all, what the Bible says about the things or people God hates.
Deut 12:31: You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
Deut 16:21,22 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.
Psa 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
Prov 6:16-19 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
That will do for now, a good selection. God made the world perfect. Sin came in and spoilt it, yet it is still possible for men and women of faith to enter into relationship with the Lord and receive His ongoing restoration. Such people who turn to Him, He calls His children (e.g. John 1:12). For God, perfection is normal and natural. Thus Jesus was able to say, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48). Perfect there means whole or complete, i.e. let God restore you by His Holy Spirit and the work of the Cross, so that you are the complete being He wants you to be in the likeness of Jesus.
Now because God is perfect, He loves what is perfect, all He has made, and those He is restoring but, conversely He hates anything that spoils or mars the wonderful world that He has made. Thus whenever He sees sin He hates it, in the same way that a surgeon may hate cancer cells, knowing that unless it is eradicated it will destroy. Thus in the verses above we find a variety of expressions of sin that God hates because He knows that unless it is dealt with it will destroy His people, His creation.
But people? Yes, even people. Look carefully at their descriptions: the wicked, the arrogant. These are not people who just occasionally do these things, these are people who have settled into this way of life. Like an infection in the body these are “carriers” that cause sin to spread. What to you do with a life-threatening infection? You destroy it by whatever means you can before it destroys you. No wonder God hates or detests these “carriers” of sin. They are working to destroy the wonder of all that He has made.
But note something else. As soon as this person comes to repentance, if that is possible, then God is instantly there for them. The second they turn to God He is there for them. Here is a mystery. We can see someone who we would describe in the language used above, and then somehow God moves in their life, they pause, they question, they seek and they submit, and we see God’s salvation was there for them just as it was for us. Jesus told us to pray for and love our enemies (Mt 5:44). Is it possible that God loves and hates at the same time, or is it that He sees the possibility of repentance coming in this person, and although He hates what they are at the moment, He knows they will respond and become one of His – pre-chosen! (Eph 1:4) A glorious mystery!
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Friday, November 28, 2008
God of Glory
God in the Psalms No.13
Psa 8:1 O LORD , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
In the 6th of these meditations, when we considered the face of the Lord, we briefly considered the glory of the Lord. Let’s now think about that more fully. David starts this eighth psalm off by reflecting on how wonderful the Lord’s name is. He uses the covenant name for God (LORD = “I am who I am” – see Exodus 3:13-15 and footnotes) which is another way of saying “God of Eternity” or “the Eternal One”.
When he thinks of the Lord he feels His name is majestic, higher than any other, and then he gives the reason for this: the Lord, he says, has set His glory above the heavens. Now that’s an interesting way of putting it: “above” the heavens. In some old paintings the painter showed the earth and the sky above it, and then had heavenly beings above the sky. It’s like they wanted to put the heavenly world above “the heavens”, the sky, to give a fuller or more complete picture of reality.
When we look at the rest of this psalm we see David marvelling at God’s work in Creation (v.3). He then wonders at the fact of God making man and giving him all this and making him ruler over all of it (v.4-6). As he ponders on this and on the wonder of this incredible world, God’s gift to mankind, he just bursts out with, “how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (v.9). Man may have been given this world to rule over, but God Himself is the King over all things. He’s the One who created all things and therefore He’s the only one who can really claim to be King, Lord of all.
But there’s more than this, there’s this reference to the Lord’s glory. When we considered God’s glory before, we saw it as the brightness that literally shines from God’s presence, the glory that was first revealed to Israel at Sinai. It was subsequently seen at the completion and dedication of the Tabernacle (Ex40:33-35) and the completion and dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8:10,11). Is that the glory that is being referred to here by David now? Not quite but the same sense is there in what he describes. He is saying that when you look at the wonder of God’s creation you see the wonder of the Master Craftsman, the Creator, behind it all; it isn’t just a bland piece of construction; it is a masterpiece that reflects the staggering nature of the One who brought it all into being from nothing. What it reflects is the glory or wonder of the One who made it all.
Have you ever seen it like this? Have you ever been somewhere in the world and gazed upon what you see before you – and marvelled and wondered at what is before you – the handiwork of the Master Creator? Have you ever stood on the seashore with the sun setting and marvelled? Have you ever stood on a hillside gazing on the panorama before you, and marvelled? Have you ever seen the Canadian Rockies, or any other great mountain chain, and marvelled? It would be possible to write for hours describing the incredible variety of the features of the world that are so beautiful. This is God’s world; this is what He has made. You have to be hard-hearted or blind not to see the handiwork of God in all this and remain unmoved. Paul wrote about such people, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen” (Rom 1:19,20). His conclusion about their blindness and refusal to respond? They have no excuse! Let’s not be like them!
Psa 8:1 O LORD , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
In the 6th of these meditations, when we considered the face of the Lord, we briefly considered the glory of the Lord. Let’s now think about that more fully. David starts this eighth psalm off by reflecting on how wonderful the Lord’s name is. He uses the covenant name for God (LORD = “I am who I am” – see Exodus 3:13-15 and footnotes) which is another way of saying “God of Eternity” or “the Eternal One”.
When he thinks of the Lord he feels His name is majestic, higher than any other, and then he gives the reason for this: the Lord, he says, has set His glory above the heavens. Now that’s an interesting way of putting it: “above” the heavens. In some old paintings the painter showed the earth and the sky above it, and then had heavenly beings above the sky. It’s like they wanted to put the heavenly world above “the heavens”, the sky, to give a fuller or more complete picture of reality.
When we look at the rest of this psalm we see David marvelling at God’s work in Creation (v.3). He then wonders at the fact of God making man and giving him all this and making him ruler over all of it (v.4-6). As he ponders on this and on the wonder of this incredible world, God’s gift to mankind, he just bursts out with, “how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (v.9). Man may have been given this world to rule over, but God Himself is the King over all things. He’s the One who created all things and therefore He’s the only one who can really claim to be King, Lord of all.
But there’s more than this, there’s this reference to the Lord’s glory. When we considered God’s glory before, we saw it as the brightness that literally shines from God’s presence, the glory that was first revealed to Israel at Sinai. It was subsequently seen at the completion and dedication of the Tabernacle (Ex40:33-35) and the completion and dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8:10,11). Is that the glory that is being referred to here by David now? Not quite but the same sense is there in what he describes. He is saying that when you look at the wonder of God’s creation you see the wonder of the Master Craftsman, the Creator, behind it all; it isn’t just a bland piece of construction; it is a masterpiece that reflects the staggering nature of the One who brought it all into being from nothing. What it reflects is the glory or wonder of the One who made it all.
Have you ever seen it like this? Have you ever been somewhere in the world and gazed upon what you see before you – and marvelled and wondered at what is before you – the handiwork of the Master Creator? Have you ever stood on the seashore with the sun setting and marvelled? Have you ever stood on a hillside gazing on the panorama before you, and marvelled? Have you ever seen the Canadian Rockies, or any other great mountain chain, and marvelled? It would be possible to write for hours describing the incredible variety of the features of the world that are so beautiful. This is God’s world; this is what He has made. You have to be hard-hearted or blind not to see the handiwork of God in all this and remain unmoved. Paul wrote about such people, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen” (Rom 1:19,20). His conclusion about their blindness and refusal to respond? They have no excuse! Let’s not be like them!
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