December 21, 2016
Worship:
If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee by Georg Newmark
If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
What can these anxious cares avail thee,
These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
Be patient and await His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To Him who chose us for His own.
He knows the time for joy
And truly will send it when he sees it meet,
When he has tried and purged thee, duly
And finds thee free from all deceit.
He comes to thee all unaware
And makes thee own His loving care.
Think not that God has thee forsaken
When sorrow crowns your acts of care,
Nor that he sleeps and cannot waken
While evil prospers everywhere.
Each recompense will have its hour.
God sets the times with truth, with love and power.
All are alike before the Highest;
‘Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
So do thine own part faithfully,
And trust His Word, though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need
The soul that trusted Him indeed.
http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/john-piper-s-favorite-hymnIf Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee by Georg Newmark
If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
What can these anxious cares avail thee,
These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
Be patient and await His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To Him who chose us for His own.
He knows the time for joy
And truly will send it when he sees it meet,
When he has tried and purged thee, duly
And finds thee free from all deceit.
He comes to thee all unaware
And makes thee own His loving care.
Think not that God has thee forsaken
When sorrow crowns your acts of care,
Nor that he sleeps and cannot waken
While evil prospers everywhere.
Each recompense will have its hour.
God sets the times with truth, with love and power.
All are alike before the Highest;
‘Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
So do thine own part faithfully,
And trust His Word, though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need
The soul that trusted Him indeed.
This video of the song differs slightly in lyrics and does not include all the verses above. It is a simple homemade video, but the harmony of these gentlemen is very good.
Witness:
It has been a long time since I last journaled. The business of the season and the fact that my vacation filled up 9 days of this, contributed to my hiatus from journaling. However, I am back, and I hope that the habit of coming before You God in quietness and study and meditation will become my daily holy habit again. Lord, please forgive me for being so easily distracted. The 2 hours planned is too often whittled and wasted away with fruitless searches for a worship song, distractions in the home, and useless rabbit trails pursued instead of focusing on You and your Word. Today I read several articles relating to Christmas. I was struck by one article, and it stimulated some thought on something I wrote about last year at this time.
How Mary and Joseph must have felt as they settled down before a feeding trough, amidst the mess and smell, exhausted from the trek from Nazareth. I will unpack and put pretty things up. They will sparkle and blink and twinkle, but for our Savior, through whom all things and creatures were created, there was only dust and the din of animals and voices from a city overcrowded with people. He created it all, all things were His. He deserved the best but was laid in the least. The Sovereign of the universe should abide in a palace but is born in a stable or worse, as some say, in an open courtyard in the center of the city.
(from my journal entry Dec. 8th, 2015)
The One who owns it all chose to enter into this world in the humblest of settings. That was the thought expressed in what I wrote last year. This truth is expressed by the apostle Paul in this way:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
2 Cor 8:9 NIV
Yet, what if he did come in a palace. Would that really be fitting for the LORD of the universe?
The article I read this morning put forth this thought:
God became man. Even more, God became a baby — tiny, helpless, fully dependent. He could have been welcomed into the finest palace, with the most advanced technology of the day, into the greatest comfort and luxury, and it still would have been the deepest descent the world has ever known. It still would have been the birth that altered history, announcing a new beginning and promising a day when even the heavens and the earth would be born again.http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/fullness-of-god-in-helpless-babe
Nothing man has built is truly worthy of the King of the universe. Even the earthly Tabernacle God revealed to Moses was only worthy because of Who dwelt in it by condescending to do so. All our works are as filthy rags unless sanctified by the holy and righteous and glorious LORD. Therefore, neither manger nor mansion would be worthy of Jesus our Lord. Yet, in the deepest of condescension, He chose to be born in a stable or cave or maybe in a public square with a public feeding troth. By that, the manger was sanctified and became worthy of containing the treasure of the universe. Like the manger, we as sinful and defiled humans are unworthy of the Lord dwelling in us, and yet when we call on Him in faith to forgive our sins and give us the gift of eternal life, He comes to us and sanctifies us making us worthy for Him to dwell in us. What an awesome thought that the Treasure of the universe would condescend to dwell in this vessel of clay!
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WORD:
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Ps 25:11-15
11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
NIV
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Ps 25:11-15
11 For the honor of your name, O LORD,
forgive my many, many sins.
12 Who are those who fear the LORD?
He will show them the path they should choose.
13 They will live in prosperity,
and their children will inherit the land.
14 The LORD is a friend to those who fear him.
He teaches them his covenant.
15 My eyes are always on the LORD,
for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
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Ps 25:11-15
11 For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.
15 Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
KJV
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Ps 25:11-15
11 For your name's sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
13 His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
ESV
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I struggled at first with the placement of this verse in the Psalm. All versions that I looked at have this as the last sentence of the paragraph that begins, depending on which version you consult, in verse 8 or 11 or 12. Yet, it seemed to me to be misplaced. Shouldn’t it rather be the beginning sentence of a new paragraph? It seemed to me to have more affinity with verse 16 and following than the subject matter that preceded it. Many commentaries seemed to agree with my assessment and coupled it with verse 16 in their comments. However, not all commentators took this route, and as I skimmed through their thoughts on this verse, it came apparent to me that verse 15 forms a bridge, a segue to use modern parlance, between what precedes it and what follows. It serves as an ending to David’s reflection on the prayer he prayed in verses 1-7 and the resumption of prayer in verses 16-22. It looks back at verses 8-14 and says, “because of these things I can trust in Him who saves me, provides for me, and confides in me.” And it looks forward in trusting petition to rescue him from trouble.
With all that being said let us look at the verse itself to see what we can learn from it. First, notice the direction of David’s focus. His gaze is towards the LORD. I think it is significant that he uses the name Yahweh here and not Elohim. At first, one might believe that he would use a name which speaks of power because of the predicament he was in. However, he chose instead to use the Covenantal name of God which speaks of His unfailing faithfulness towards His chosen people. When trouble comes, do I have that same faith in the Faithful One as the psalmist did?
Do I look to the LORD for my deliverance? Or do I look to others or even myself to deliver me from the troubles that I find myself ensnared in?
The second thing I see is the duration of his focus. He uses an adverb which speaks of continual action, a habit in this context and by implication an attitude of trust. A “habitude” as some call it. This too is convicting as I meditate on its meaning. Many times when I am in trouble, I am more prone to be like Peter out on the stormy waters walking towards the Savior. As long as my eyes are focused on Him, I’m safe, but when I take them off of Him and focus on the stormy waters, I begin to sink. David refused to look at the snare and say, “how can I get out of this?” Instead, he looked to Yahweh to deliver him.
Finally, this leads to his deliverance by the object of his focus. Notice David does not hesitate to declare that God will deliver him. He does not qualify it by a thousand exceptions to the circumstances as we are prone to do. He does not say “if” but “will.” The word used here is “yatsa, ” and it means:
Yatsa’, "to come forth, go out, proceed, go forth, bring out, come out."(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
It is a common Hebrew word. It is used in Exodus 3:10 where the LORD gives this command:
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." NIV
I cannot help but think that David has this in mind, as well as other experiences in the history and lives of God’s people, including himself. David confidently expected his own personal exodus in his time(s) of trouble.
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