“Then you will delight yourself in Adonai, and He will give you your heart’s desire. Commit your way to Adonai; trust in Him and He will act.” Psalm 37:4-6 There are two verbs here that stuck out to me: give and act. They have something in common. Neither have anything to do with me! My usual thought is to ask God, pray about something, and then do something, maybe “helping” it get going. I give the situation to God, and then I act, assuming that I’m doing what He wants me to do. But these verses are pretty clear. HE gives and HE acts. All the action that involves doing is done by Adonai, not me. So what am I supposed to do? Sit there? Well, yes, sort of. I have to delight in Him (trust, settle in the place He puts me, and feed on His faithfulness), and I have to commit my way to Him. I have to believe and trust. Trust is inaction in action. I can believe and then do nothing about it, acting contrary to my “beliefs,” but trust implies that I act on my trust (or in this case, not acting, but rather waiting an allowing Him to act, which I believe will be a good thing because I delight in Him and He loves me). Once again, my actions are unnecessary. God does the acting. God does the giving. I don’ t need to “help” Him. I just have to release control, let it go, and find joy in the One who loves me with a passion that is unfathomable! And that is amazing!
The post today, or rather yesterday, at Today’s Word brought out a lot of comments, and one of the posters expressed how lonely and isolated she felt now that she is trying to follow Torah. I can relate to that! Another poster responded to her and reminded her how God uses the wilderness as a place of renewal and teaching. Skip has SO many wonderful teachings on that! So I wanted to post some of them here. There’s one in particular I’m looking for, but I don’t think I’ve found it yet. Oh well, these are are still a great reminder that the wilderness is not necessarily a bad place to be! Days in the Wilderness Are you thirsty? The wilderness creates a desire for life-giving water, and the only one who can provide that in the wilderness is YHWH! Like the desert deer, we are in a place where the only hope for survival is to draw near to the Living Water. Theological Geography Our culture tends to think of running to the mountains as a good thing to do in order to find safety. However, to the Hebrew people that was nuts. Wide, open spaces meant that they could see what was coming long before it arrived (in contrast to a mountain that was full of narrow valleys that could easily hide danger). Perhaps we should seek these wide, open places even though (or maybe because) they force us to rely on God’s protection instead of the edge of a cliff or a twist in the valley. Redemptive Purpose The desert is where YHWH brings His people so that they can worship Him. It’s away from the world, part of His kingdom. It’s where He provides nourishment to His children, teaching them to rely on Him for everything they need. There are definitely benefits: there are fewer distractions, I have to trust Him to provide, He protects me, and it helps me learn about His kingdom. Movable Feast The Feast of Sukkot (which actually just ended on Saturday, I think) is all about celebrating God’s faithfulness and protection in the wilderness! By living in “booths” (tents) for seven days, we are reminded of Israel’s journey through the wilderness and His protection and provision. Instead of just listening to the “stories” we live the historical (and present) reality of His Kingdom. Next year I hope that my family can celebrate some of these holy days. God commands them to be celebrated with good reason. Instead of holidays emphasizing candy, costumes, or piles of presents, His holi-days are reminders of the amazing gifts and privileges (and responsibilities) we have as adopted children, and of His incredible faithfulness, provision and protection.
My desires don’t include a Lamborghini (in fact, I really don’t even know how to spell it – I looked it up), but today they include not being sick (summer cold all weekend – yuck), healing for my son with autism (or perhaps just that he would learn to speak clearly), and enough financial blessing that we can afford a place of our own in which to live without wondering if we can afford to put food on the table. Yet, He is Holy. He knows my desires. He knows the ultimate “goodness” of my desires, how good they are for me and for Him. He knows me. Part of the journey (for me, at least) is learning to trust His knowledge, trust His faithfulness, and trust His love. The article by Skip Moen today says it beautifully. Check it out.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will makeyour paths straight. This verse was in my head today. I don’t know why, but since it’s not about my own understanding, that’s okay. There’s a lot I don’t understand, like why my family is stuck in this financial rut or why my husband seems so depressed and unwilling to fight or why my sons are both speech delayed. But, trust is the foundation of a relationship, and I am learning to trust God (slowly, very slowly). In a lot of ways my relationship with YHWH is starting from scratch because I feel like I barely know Him. And building trust, actually acting on that trust, is a major part of this. The part that strikes me just now is the part about acknowledging Him in all my ways. I’m not particularly sure what that means. Other uses for the word here include to be aware, to consider, to discover, to find, to recognize or realize, to take notice. So, I think that it means that as I live, in everything I do, I should be aware of God’s presence and hand in my life, I should consider His word as I make decisions, I should recognize or find His hand moving and directing me, and take notice of the amazing things He does and has done in the past. If I can see my circumstances surrounded by and saturated by His understanding, His hand, and His plan, then my path will be more closely aligned with what He has for me. Maybe easier said than done, but the only part I need to do is TRUST and ACKNOWLEDGE Him in and through everything else that I do.
Psalm 119:147 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word. In Hebrew this verse actually reads something like: I anticipate (go before) the twilight and cry out for help. I await Your word. A couple of thoughts on this: To me, twilight is a peaceful time. In the morning it heralds the coming of daylight. In the evening, the world prepares to rest. Today I am anticipating the twilight. Circumstances have made life rocky and uncertain. I know God is faithful, and I cry out for His help – to smooth the way, to speed the process, and to give me peace as I wait. I await (anticipate) daylight, when things are settled and sorted and I can see a little bit. I anticipate evening when I can rest from the running around like crazy. I await Your word. When God speaks, things happen. His word is action. He spoke and the world became. He speaks and what He says is done. His word is law. He is never wrong (wrong is different from changing His mind). Therefore, I wait (today, anxiously) for God to speak. I know that what He speaks will be. His word may be “Peace, child, and wait with me.” Or it may be, “Remember my faithfulness!” Or maybe His word will be something I can’t perceive, but the angels know and obey Him. I don’t know. I don’t have to know. My job is to remember. And to wait. So I wait for the knots to untangle and for the unhill climb to level off a bit. And I remember that YHWH has always been faithful in the past. Perhaps He will wait until the 9th hour, when everything is impossible, to move in miraculous ways. Then He will remind me, “I am God! Nothing is impossible for me!”
Psalm 119:76 Let I pray Your merciful kindness be for my comfort According to Your word to Your servant. This verse seemed rather self-serving the first time I read it. My first thought was that David was asking for physical comfort, and then I wondered if he was seeking emotional comfort. So, I looked back to the Hebrew to see if it helped. Not a lot. The word for comfort means “comfort, take pity, to be sorry, to console oneself.” It’s a little clearer. Then I found that the first word in this verse is become (as in “to come to pass”). Since verbs are more important than nouns, it wasn’t completely surprising that it all started with a verb. It seems that the first part is asking that his consolation be found in God’s faithfulness and reliability (that’s what the word for merciful kindness means). The last part in Hebrew just says “to Your word to Your servant” [1]. In one translation word means “utterance, spoken word,” and in another it translated it as” Torah.” Either way it’s interesting. Let my consolation become from God’s faithfulness to what He has spoken to His servant. The Torah is more than just laws… it also reminds His people of His covenant. God is faithful to what He says. Just because time changes the way we dress, speak, travel, and live, it doesn’t change His covenant – neither it’s promises nor its requirements. When my life seems crazy or out of control, I can be comforted by remembering that God is true to what He says and to His nature. Always return to the Torah, because in it God reveals Himself and His love and His nature through His interactions with His people. I begin to understand more and more how some people say that everything else is just commentary. [1] “Psalm 119:76 Hebrew Texts and Analysis.” 2010. Biblos.com. 03 August 2010 <http://biblos.com/psalms/119-76.htm>.