Our God Who Sits Enthroned Above

Our God who sits enthroned above,
And stoops to look on those He loves.
We meditate with heaven in mind,
Enraptured with wonder outside of time.

O Sovereign God!
O  Lord Most High!
We kneel before Thy holy throne.
We cry, Abba, Father!  We adore Thee!

Our prayers are weak, Your Spirit so strong.
You help us to have a heavenly song.
The river, that flows down from Your throne,
Is the Spirit of Wonder Who makes You known.

We drink of the water of Your Spirit Divine.
He’s come from heaven enlightening our minds.
So we can know of our Fathers heavenly love,
And be taken one day to our home above       

The word of God will not return void

The Psalms describe the human struggle and teach that man acts as Gods representative on this earth by seeking to be transparent before God. The expressions of transparency are the emotional language that we use to tell God how we view our circumstances. Because we are not God we do not have a circumspect view of the circumstances that we experience. This is a big disadvantage to being united to God in how He is working the events of this world for our good and for His glory. Because there is a real threat to our faith God provides for us the words to unify our view by giving us a language of our hearts. This is why I believe that the scripture is given to us so that we might think like God and experience eternity in our hearts as God has made us like Himself.

We naturally view things in our world through the eyes of Deism. Its very difficult for us to believe that God has made everything right by the work of Christ and has reordered all things to work out for His glory and for our good. God has established His kingdom over the earth and yet from our view we see events that seem to be out of control. This is the question ive been trying to answer. If God is absolutely sovereign and He has promised to work everything out for our good then how can we come to a sense of satisfaction if there is no reasonable advantage for us to experience His on going redemption in our practical lives? Has God only given us His promise that He is in control and we should accept the sorrows of this life because it is His mysterious work. Or has He given us a language in which He kills anything that is purposed to destroy us? If every time we experience sorrow we must conclude that God is doing something that we do not understand isnt this reasoning the same thing as saying that Gods power is all mysterious, God keeps Himself at arms length so that He can prove that He is God?

Here in Ps 17 the Psalmist engages the enemy like he is fighting in hand to hand combat. Its hard for us to believe that there will be times in our lives when we face a clear attack from the enemy. The christian life is not really about being devotional but its a life in which we apply ourselves to learning from the scriptures how to engage the enemy in hand to hand combat. This is how the Psalmist describes the christian experience. Its becoming proficient in speaking the covenants, curses, laws, decrees and human longings so that as we become the high priest in Gods redeeming plan we will rise to experience greater opposition.  If you have experience in using the Psalms and in pronouncing Gods words you will find this psychological battle in which there is the hunter and the hunted. There is a single line that is woven in the Psalms that leads to using these words like you have gone out to battle and faced the enemy in hand to hand combat.

This is terribly important because Satan rules men by presenting a way of thinking that is very complicated because it is motivated by spiritual strongholds. His opposition is to use spiritual powers to make the ideas that are presented in our world like a physical threat to our well being. So we face an enemy that is controlling places of authority that are outside of our level of influence. He is the Prince and power of the air. Or He creates the ideas of men as if the weight of the threats are more prevalent and powerful than Gods language of peace and rest. Hate is kind of like fire. As more people talk and plan against Gods word , we begin to feel the evil heat. You will find that its always directed toward the weak. The bible warns that mens hearts will fail them. So we are suppose to be out in the front lines so that we can prepare for the evil day in which there are multiple attacks in our circumstances that will destroy the weak. This is what we do to prepare for the evil day. We seek to define the enemies tactics through these prayers. These prayers that go out in a universal way but bring the fight to a beach head.

You will find that when the evil day comes , you will face powers in which these defensive expressions in the Psalms create a paradigm where you are fighting forces that are too powerful for you but your advancing through desperate cries. Ps 18 17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. This is Gods ongoing deliverance. We naturally believe that there is a method to bring everyone to be united against the scheme of the Devil. But salvation is never obtained through the arm of man but God must kill the opposition and provide victory on behalf of His servant. To obtain real freedom Gods curse ... or His law being carried out through war ...must destroy the hunter. But it is not in our power to overcome the enemy. We are using words that are contained in themselves which are life and death proclamations. 

Gods government over the earth.

Ps 1 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

The Psalms are not written to focus on the situations that David experienced in his life. But they are the doctrines of grace applied to the nation of Israel. You see this in verse 3 where there is a promise to those who meditate on Gods law. The Psalms are describing two governments. The government of God that was established in the creation ordinance. That is the tree of life in the garden that was planted near the river Euphrates was representing Gods kingdom that was established for man.
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden,.... Before man was created, as Aben Ezra observes, this river went out of Eden and watered it on every side; but what river is here meant, is hard to say. It is more generally thought to be the river Euphrates, when that and the Tigris met, and became one stream or river, and as such entered and passed through Eden; and as it was parted into four rivers afterwards, in two of which they retained their names: the learned Reland (k) thinks, this river is now lost; but the learned writer before referred to thinks, as has been observed, that it is the river Jordan; see note on Gen 2:8 and which, as Pliny (l) says, was a very pleasant river:" http://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/genesis/2.htm As you read in Ps 8 God created the earth and made it for man to rule through His laws, decrees, statutes, curses and covenants.Ps 8 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Ps 115 16 "The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man."This is in the context of the righteous ruling the earth which will be renewed in the future... but the mans authority over the earth is established once again through the covenant of grace. The wicked worship dead idols and are like the chaff but the righteous rule from Israel ...Gods kingdom. So here the tree by streams of water is the man who establishes his rule through the words in the Psalms. The trees branches represent mans power that is established by these words on his lips.

The Psalms are not teaching that man establishes his authority through wise choices or legislation. But Gods law stands over all powers and establishes righteousness through his King. Even tho God gives man governmental authority it is never separated from His creation ordinance. That ordinance which gives each man who has these Psalms on his lips as a king over Gods kingdom. Gods kingdom is His perfect creation and recreation through allowing and preventing. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Or the Lord reorders all events to fall out for our good and for His glory. Ps 111 6 "He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations."This is the working principle of God working through His word in redeeming a people for Himself This is done through His creative word. This is the principle of God smiling on His people when they are suffering. The tree is the person who not only overcomes the curse but through cursing the curse ...reverses the curse. So Gods kingdom authority grows while mans governments are turned upside down.

The problems about the teaching on idols.

God works through creation and recreation. Everything that ever existed or will exist has come from God speaking it into existence. Or its Gods idea that is described perfectly. Everything that God describes is perfect because everything that God speaks into existence has a perfect value that fits together every other valuable thing that God creates that equals perfect unity.

In Gods world all of these created things are different from all the other created things. So that the proof of Gods eternal love is His communication of the individual value of that thing in a perfect description. "God opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing." Gods perfect description of everything is understood by each thing being completely satisfied with having the needs met. Everything gives glory to God in the highest praise even tho the world is filled with loneliness, isolation, hardness of heart and the other personalities of the curse. In Gods view He has corrected every thing that is out of order in His time and with His perfect provision. Its as if God takes a snap shot of all time and shows the beauty of His work so that as He exist everything has been made to the praise of His glory. Rev 5 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.12 In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"14 The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. 

This is the problem with having idols. Idols are anything that defines God downward. This is why Calvin said that man is an idol factory because in order for us to offer God the praise that He deserves we would need to have equal power, equal vision, and equal understanding. This is what the Psalmist meant when he teaches that we are already obligated to offer God praise before we actually praise Him with our lips because we are always in dept because of our inability to offer it on His level. So there is a much deeper problem here than just using something or someone in an idol paradigm. We can use religious phrases, desires and institutions to create idols. The depth of how we create idols is on the level of how we view ourselves and God at all times. lol 

How does God deal with such a prevalent problem? He must act perfectly according to His nature as a Man at all times. See when we have idols we embrace the curse. When we change the value and describe the purpose of someone or something that exist that is not exactly correct we create false value. When we create false value we make that thing more valuable than God...we actually lower the value that God has on that thing and we use it for our own selfishness. This is such a big problem that God had to correct it apart from our view of image. God had to create a whole new order and establish His kingdom without the help of any other thing. This is why when we are saved everything that was needed to take care of false images was done by God and gifted to us. Our success is really motivated by Gods kingdom pushing in on us and giving us strength and acceptance so that we are able to curse the curse ...pushing the curse away so that we can have the family identity. In this new accepted relationship we can give God our Father praise that is acceptable even tho we are unable. We cannot be kicked out of the family. The reality creates the image.

We must view the world as Christ viewed it in the Psalms

People talk like the christian experience is mainly a psychological one. But there is very little that can be done to change a person on a horizontal level. The truth is that we are product of the culture of words that we believe are true. We are made to feel secure by creating habits of thought that parallels how we can control the outcome presupposing in creating the image of the other person in our minds that will play out to our advantage. We naturally view ourselves in the most positive light that is not necessarily consistent with how the other person views us. So we live with the purpose of training our minds to control our environment.

This is how we learn to control those ideas we get from scripture. Our understanding of a concept in scripture is defined by us in the natural way that we control our circumstances. Its very difficult for us to let the scripture not only speak for itself but be applied in a way that it changes our habits of thought. We can take a whole system of doctrine by applying scientific methods as a way to be convinced that we have given up our preconceived ideas. We seldom apply ourselves to scripture so that we go from the word to the Person. And so we never change the habit of controlling the application rather than transforming the idea so that we experience a Person that is bigger than our understanding.

This is what is dangerous about lowering the scripture and using it as a manual to explain problems and how to overcome them. We define evil as sin, corruption and a lack of christian character. But it is Satan and His children that defines the evil of sin. So we are not in conflict with the psychological results of sin like guilt, fear, and sorrow. We are in conflict with a Being that controls the world through guilt , fear, and sorrow. So the guilt, sorrow and fear are not a psychological enemy that we can control through the words of the bible, forgiveness, having joy, experiencing peace etc. But these dispositions are on a much bigger level that we could imagine. You see that we face a Personal devil who opposed Christ on the level of a supernatural struggle. We are identified with Christ in the way that He viewed this struggle. So in ourselves we have no ability to control evil. We have no ability to deal with guilt, fear, and sorrow.

You see in scripture Christ has defined our struggles in His view of love, anger,and trials that are made to consume us as we draw near to God. He sees the righteous and the wicked as they really are. This is what faith is all about . Its believing that the world is much worse that we could ever imagine. And its being able to envision that our future is beyond our understanding. And so we measure situations according to our view of understanding with an ability to empathize. So our view of the world is constrained by our natural desire to control it. But most of us have never been to the level where we oppose evil as Christ opposes it.  We hardly ever speak to God in the words of anger or love as they are spoken by Christ in facing His opposition. We never reach a hot level of anger, or consuming love of God because we believe in our natural selves that its out of control and mysterious. But unless we use these words on the level that Christ prayed them in the Psalms we will never understand the nature of evil or the kind of opposition that we are facing.

True Freedom

In the Psalms true freedom is only obtain by grace. The reason is that in order for a sinner to be set free from his sin he must be justified. But if he is justified only once then its no a free justification. Grace provides us with true freedom because our justification is gifted to us. But how can the world function if there is no judgement for a persons actions?

The reason the justification by grace is the most responsible freedom is because the One who justifies is the same One who allows and prevents. The truth is that unless all of mankind are perfect in their attitudes and actions then there is no legitimate practice of freedom. The reason there can be no corruption in the creation or in society is because with corruption comes destruction. In speaking of the physical destruction we see that everything in creation is subject to decay and death. In speaking of meta physical destruction we see that man has been reduced by forces that are constantly opposing  his power to accomplish enough goodness to overcome the common destruction. Because man is subject to this physical and meta physical tension he cannot be free.

This means that man cannot obtain freedom within himself. He must have Some else live a perfect life and overcome this destruction as He lives in this world by thinking and acting to undo all of these ills. This is why Jesus was the way to God, Savior of the world and the Great Physician. Every act that Jesus did was successful in overcoming the destruction that is in this world. He substituted Himself in our place to overcome every destructive power that we face and conquered the great enemy which is death. Jesus provided sinners with the freedom to sin (the successful method of overcoming sin by substitution) and still be justified so that they could be delivered from this present evil world and stand before God without spot or wrinkle.

When Jesus became the perfect sacrifice and Savior,He provided us with an identity that justifies all of our actions. He reverses the curse  How does He reverse the curse? He pre ordained everything that He recreates. So when Jesus became our substitute He saw every choice that we make and He substituted for us as if He was walking by our side..in front of us and behind us overturning all of the sorrow, guilt and pain from the corruption that we experience and provides us with a complete deliverance. Jesus life was a perfect description of our blessedness.  This is the only relationship in this world where Someone can take the place of a sinner to allow circumstances to fall out as if Jesus was doing the actions in our place and prevent the sinner from being destroyed. Our experience is determined upon Jesus doing the complete work that was necessary to free us.

The kingdom is established in our hearts

Ps 9 10 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. 

Our success is dependent upon Gods covenant love.  The Psalmist declares that God will never forsake us. The reason that we cannot be forsake is because everything that God has created is good. Our salvation was not just a gift given to us but it was God placing us new spiritual kingdom in which Christ rules by His word. This is how the Psalmist describes Christ authority.
2" I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." The Most High is a term used for Christ absolute and unhindered exercise of His will over all creatures. Even tho the Psalmist is a finite creature who is constrained by time and place yet he is connected to the universal created work of Christ that is gifted to him through his renewed desires. 4" For you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne, judging righteously." In declaring that this kingdom lives inside, the Psalmist is expressing his total dependence on God as the authority that unifies the Psalmist desire with Gods universal purposes. He is teaching that even tho this desire is encased by corruption yet it contains all the words of Christ in His creation and recreation that mysteriously orders all things. 6" Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.7 The LORD reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment. 8 He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice."

In declaring the authority of Gods word the Psalmist is pronouncing Gods order over the corruption of his present experience. If God has upheld these renewed desires by the pronouncement of absolute authority over all things in the Psalmist mind he has brought the future into the present. In order for the Psalmist to be confident in God working through his desires he must visit the future kingdom through Gods pronouncement and unite it with his present experience. In this way as the present passes into the future these words create in his mind as overcoming all opposition. 11" Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what he has done."

Since the Psalmist has shown his dependence upon God in his accurate description of the authority of Gods word and Gods kingdom that is established in the nature of the Psalmist he now distances himself from the intrinsic value that it give him. The Psalmist identifies with the poor and the oppressed.  9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." He is acknowledging that even tho God has gifted him with a full salvation in which the future is always coming into the present yet salvation is also an ongoing sequence of overcoming one opposition to another.13 " O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,14 that I may declare your praises in the gates of the Daughter of Zion and there rejoice in your salvation."

God performs His secret work in the Psalmist by creating victory and declaring it in the Psalmist heart. He is saying that as he pronounces Gods word in his meditation he wants God to visit him with the experience of the future kingdom when he experiences victory so that he can put a stake in the ground as a remembrance. The Psalmist lives through a spiritual vision of the future as he experiences victories like being with child. He goes through a creation of a consensus that is favorable to his purposes so that when they are united to victory in the birthing process he gloats as if he is the hope of the poor and the oppressed as they are freed through the victory. 18 " But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish."

We look upon the light of the glory of God

Psalm 115

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

2 Why do the nations say, "Where is their God?"

3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.

This is a Psalm that explains why God is loving towards His elect. He has protected us from being the bad guy. He has not only given us His covenant to prove that He will always protect us but He has given us the curses so that we can be released from the tension of sorrow from bad things that we experience in this world. The Psalmist reasons that the focus of our lives should be to point to God who is ultimately responsible for everything that comes into our lives. If God is not able to handle the worse things that we experience then He is not able to prove His love by working all things out for our good. And if God is responsible for adding to our sorrow then He is the ultimate contradiction. We are saying that God destroys the things that He has made. But because the focus is turned from us we can be assured that God is proving His love and faithfulness to us.

The concept of making our sorrows impersonal to us is taught in our use of our complaints and curses. The question is how can a sinner who is guilty be allowed to come into the presence of a Holy God to question and present arguments to distance themselves from sin and corruption? Here the Psalmist is using an argument the because of universal corruption all men are subject to instant judgement. But because God has taken on Human flesh ,died and was raised to life , He has substituted Himself for His elect. Because God has done the work in order to justify His elect then God has given us a reason to argue that we should not be treated like the wicked. In other words God has given us a language to describe the sorrows of this life as if He is treating us like the wicked. He has allowed us to approach Him in this transparent way so that we can experience complete freedom. If God has made us like Himself then as God is free to do whatever pleases Him then we are free to be genuine in His allowance.

See now we have an advantage over those who reject God. God has lowered Himself to our level in order to treat us as equals. The way that we experience this fellowship is that our anger, love, sorrows and sins must be consumed in His attributes. He has given us the language of the Perfect man to use even tho we are still sinners. This language has been simplified for us like we have the outline of Gods mysterious language. When we express our anger, love, praise, and sorrows in the language of Christ we are hearing a holistic communication that aligns our souls but we are being consumed in our desires ...a consuming that is mysterious. We are being changed through a mysterious language that creates in us deeper desires the are increased through more mystery. We are looking at something into a mirror with a poor reflection in this mysterious face to face relationship. We will one day see Him face to face by experience.

The family structure.

Ps 144 12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields;

14 our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.

15 Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. 

The history of redemption is developed by God showing Himself faithful to His covenant , as He advances to overturn mans system, in which He creates spiritual prosperity through the family of His elect who branch out in overcoming all opposition against the nations. The family is really not a government within itself as its identity but it is Gods display of His glory within the holistic creation of His universal government that was planned in His counsel from eternity past. This is why we must step back and in a universal way view how God is approaching the opposition through His covenant family. 

We must avoid the temptation to divide these different institutions and bring them down to the level of mans control. We must take seriously the bibles warning that in reducing mans liberty we fail to discern Gods purposes in this greater context of His universal kingdom. In this Psalm Gods redemption is successful only after we obtain victory. Because God has made man to advance His kingdom as each family is able to exercise their power as His kings and priest. Any other view is simply a pragmatic approach to these problems and will not advance true liberty. 

This question 3 O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?"Is taken from Psalm 8 4 " what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"5" You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. "The Psalmist is using this covenant promise that was given to Adam as a family representative who is a soldier in Gods army, to petition God for military victory. This is the typical way for the Psalmist as a representative of a greater government to obtain success with his own family. In Psalm 8 God is making a covenant promise but in this Psalm the family representative is using Gods words to plead for victory. This is why he says 4 " Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow" which is a quote from Psalm 39 (meditation is an art form for Gods future creation.)in which these words are a wish that the oppositions power would be reduced to being like the chaff of the wind. Its in the form of a wish which is like a curse. The Psalmist is enforcing Gods authority and reducing his own power over the opposition as a display that God alone should get the glory. "Not unto us Oh Lord, not unto us but to your Name be the glory."

You see the result of the victory that the social structure in Israel effects each families success. I believe the Psalmist is using metaphor in verse 12" Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. " as in a mocking way to distinguish between the success of Gods family within His kingdom and the nations who use dead idols as their display of authority. So the Psalmist is saying that the family is on display by the success of victory as the nations erect idols as their failed identity. As Gods government prospers so goes the family. 

Salvation is received by grace alone

Psalm 22

7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. 

 

This is a Messianic Psalm. These words were spoken by Jesus in His crucifixion.  He expresses being rejected by the people in how they respond to His dependence upon the Father. In my opinion these words "Let the Lord rescue Him since delights in him" is an idea that is presented to us that is faithless. This idea was presented to our first parents when Satan suggested that God was hiding from us something that was good. Anytime we are tempted to distrust God we are in conflict with someone who opposes God. Even if we have done something that is considered detestable in a cultural sense we should trust that God will respond to us when we seek to be delivered. We should never feel that God is withholding salvation from us because we have not done something. Even if we do the same sin over and over again we should never give into the idea that there is no hope or that God will reject us. 

I believe that if we got to the heart of loneliness these are the words that we are comfortable with. In this sense because everyone is a sinner then the level of their trust in Gods grace is how they have grown to hear these words being presented by other sinners in their level of distrust. Its like a dare. People receive blame like being dared to do something to help God along. In our natural state we want to help God along. So we believe that there is a good reason for someone to distrust us by presenting the idea that because we fail to meet the requirements of the law that this shows how much we distrust God.These words are the words of blame. Suggesting that we are so bad and detestable that only God could deliver us.  In these words they are saying "This guy doesnt deserve pardon so let God deliver him." When we think this way we are saying that God is good by judging us and condemning us. But there is never a time when God works in condemning way in order to save us. The whole point of salvation is in seeking it we are saved.   

We view everything in this world from an eternal perspective

Psalm 103

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--

3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

God has created everything by speaking it into existence. When we appeal to Him we appeal on the authority of His word which provides us with a holistic response to our souls and a kings language that is consistent with how God speaks authoritatively in creating all things. God provides us with a accurate language for our understanding so that He can condescend to us in a mysterious order that is too complicated for us to communicate as He orders all things.  When the Psalmist talks about praising God with all his heart , he is proclaiming the enjoyment he experiences by ordering his language which is speaking the covenants, laws, decrees, curses and promises through which the Psalmist experiences Gods condescending approach by consuming the Psalmist anger, love and time oriented thinking. The Psalmist has developed an inner man in which he has longings that are too wonderful to understand by dwelling in this mysterious freedom of God. This mystery is Gods fullness that dwells in the Psalmist that is like a well of desires that are consuming him.

It can be explained that when we are saved we receive a kingdom in which God rules. This is a spiritual kingdom in which God has ordered in His eternal counsel by pre ordaining whatsoever comes to pass. Even tho we have an understanding of this mysterious consuming of our love and anger yet Gods communication on a universal level grows in us by increasing our very small experience of these overwhelming desires. When the Psalmist talks about Gods benefits he is saying that in this relationship of grace God has set up His kingdom in us so that we can speak with God according to Someone else work with His authority. We receive all that Christ has obtained and the marvel of grace is that it works in us by the principle of rewards and not punishment. The Psalmist is talking about a much more complex and mysterious reception of Christ benefits than the functioning of a human government ..ie any one who exercises authority. 

The forgiveness of sins and healing of our diseases is more than just a response to our asking. But it has an eternal interaction with Gods ordering all things to fall out in our lives in which He rules through us. The Psalmist is saying that under grace, God has ordained that we are successful by experiencing Gods free access and reception of all that Christ has obtain.  As He is faithful to prove Himself we become more and more successful as we are provided space and freedom to fail . We are united to this mysterious kingdom in which we react in this world through the lens of a kingdom that far surpasses the small view of the natural man. So with more vision and understanding we attempt things that only God can accomplish.

True christian repentance

Psalms 103

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--

3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 

This Psalm is the only one that focuses on christian repentance. The other Penitent Psalms are complaints of the Psalmist who wants God to address his suffering. Look here in this penitent Psalm... 6 2 " Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. 3 My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?" Here the Psalmist is complaining about an injury he received ...probably from war and it is bringing him down so that he is confronted with the curse of sin. Look how he petitions God to bring him relief. Ps 6 10 "All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace". You will see this distinction between the inward and outward struggles. There is a single thread throughout the Psalms in which the Psalmist describes his struggles in light of being pursued by the wicked. This strikes at the heart of pragmatism that teaches that all problems can be overcome by "doing the work". It is taught that a person who complains that he is being blamed, attacked, or burdened with guilt , shame and sorrow has brought it upon himself. But in the Psalms our salvation is designed to prevent us from returning to our old relationship to the law and to being subject to an accusation that brings us under the power of anything other than God.  Our faith is determined to succeed as we look beyond the system of this world to Gods full justification of us. Here as the Psalmist describes his struggle he looks for complete vindication as a prerequisite to expressing a heart of faith. 

Here is another Penitent Psalm...look how he blames his pursuers for his struggle.  Ps 38 12 " Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception. " He is complaining about being treated with treachery. Again..Ps 38 20  "Those who repay my good with evil slander me when I pursue what is good.21 O LORD, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God.22 Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior."You will see this same complaint that forms the Psalmist petition like a single thread that runs through the entire Psalms. Basically the Psalmist expresses a completed salvation with the argument that blaming himself is actually bringing God down by describing the trouble that he receives from the wicked as a justified argument in scripture. For the Psalmist to express success in his salvation, it must be rejoicing that God will vindicate His name through the Psalmist. 

Now we go back to this Psalm 103 and find that there is no vindictive language. Even in Ps 51which is a repentance from the ultimate hypocrisy... the king putting to death those who murder and commit adultery but yet wanting to be excused for these capital offenses. You will find that to be faithful to the covenant a king would vindicate the blood of vengeance that was taken on someone outside of war. If they were guilty of taking vengeance upon another person for crimes in a war the king had to pronounce the judgement in order for it to be justified. And yet God who makes a covenant with Israel by swearing to protect them because they we seen as poor and helpless comes to David and gives him the ultimate accusation of covenant unfaithfulness by accusing him that he took the only animal from a poor man and left him destitute. This strikes at the heart of grace. I will go over this 103 penitent psalm.

The power of our renewed desires

Ps 131 1 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

When we are saved we are given Gods desires. These desires are like carrying a new baby. We are purposing to be successful by protecting these desires. These desires are beyond our understanding. This is why the Psalms teach that the measurement of these desires are compared to the perfect creation of Gods kingdom in speaking everything into existence. We have a reflection of our soul that is mysteriously mirrored in the fulness of God. 1 " My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty".This phrase is interchangeable..could be my eyes are not haughty , my heart is not proud. Hes talking about how he views everything in comparison to Gods covenants, laws, decrees and promises. The result of putting these words on his lips in the form of petitions, pronouncements, curses and promises is that his desires go beyond the attraction to the things of this earth which he cannot control. "I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me" {Potential danger or Promises }

" My eyes are not haughty;" Here the Psalmist is acknowledging that everything in this life is under the direct hand of God because He is the only one who can redeem them.To redeem the things in this life there must be a death in order to create life. The Psalmist is saying that his renewed desires can only be pure when he has given up hope that there is another way to find redemption. He must kill anything that is opposed to salvation and be fully delivered.  In other words to die to self is to be consumed in Gods anger, love, and covenant promises by praying in accordance with the Psalms. Dying is being under the compulsion of Gods attributes that are mysterious. "But I have stilled and quieted my soul;" Or there is nothing that rises up in me that gives me confidence of any other relief other than God delivering me. 

In this stillness God speaks salvation. The old desires have been killed in experience and the new desires rise up from deep to deep. Ps 42 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. Or the experience of being consumed by Gods desires is like being under the power as if we are in the ocean being tossed by the waves. It could be pleasures that rise up in us like waves crashing on the shores. Or experiencing His kingdom control pressing in on us like we have a spiritually strong back bone. He is saying here that he has experienced the death of his desires to obtain deliverance by self effort and he has killed the self confidence that opposes his renewed desires by cursing the destructive ideas that are presented by the opposition. He has come to the line of blessing and cursing as is experiencing mystery. His soul is filled with hope.

God vindicates His name

1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.

When we are saved we are definitively justified. We now have the authority to approach God on the basis of Christ work on our behalf.  Ps 5 7 "But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple." This Psalm is teaching how the Psalmist will approach God throughout the Psalms. The main points of our relationship with God are taught in the first part of the Psalms. Now look at the Psalmist approach after he pleads Gods mercy. He says 8 "Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies-- make straight your way before me." The Psalmist is teaching that he is no longer his own enemy but that he is caught in between Gods kingdom advancement and Satans opposition. The phrase  "make straight your way before me." is not really teaching  about a physical pathway but a perfect description of Gods purposes in creating every circumstance by speaking reality into existence. Thats why he then says 9 "Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit." In other words the Psalmist is saying that Gods moral purposes are not really to correct what we have done that is wrong but to overcome the description of the opposition which he calls "deceit". The kingdom of darkness that is opposed to the kingdom of light in false words that are destructive. The wicked curse the righteous. So its Gods word against all other words. 
We are sanctified in our position before God because of Christ work on our behalf. To stand in mercy is to be in a position to be opposed by Satans kingdom. The great struggle is no longer going on inside of us but with the opposition that is too strong for us...we express our dependence upon God by depending upon His vindication of us.  This is expressed in the next words  10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you. "Banish them" is speaking of someone who is in the nation of Israel which is Gods kingdom...or Gods perfect creation of the success of Israel in His word which is the whole counsel of God that represents the justified who are opposed by those who are speaking their own words. Banish them is to bring their words to nothing. Or to bring them to eternal judgement. It is in this context that the Psalmist view of success is God doing the work to vindicate His name. In vindicating the Psalmist purposes God is vindicating His name.

The opposition

Let me talk about the personality of this cry. In the Psalms you have two men described. The evil man and the righteous men. These men are at war with each other. The wicked man is hunting the righteous man. But we oppose the wicked man through the application in the cry. The more we understand how to argue against the character in this wicked description the more we will be able to oppose the specific causes of that evil personality.

But in the Psalms every man is unable to rise up to the level of victorious opposition. Every man does evil because he does not see as God sees. In this way every man is mistaken when he does evil. So the opposition rises above the conflict of the will of man to spiritual forces behind the conflict. If we were able to rise above our own view of the conflict then we would be able to gain victory in the conflict. And this is what the Psalms are made to do.

Every man has a desire to experience unity in the universe. I suppose that God sees the motives and that is why He is patient. Because all men do things to protect themselves. The sin really is not being able to look at the world through a much broader philosophy. Each man is a slave to his own destructive motives. Every man has a positive vision as he controls his own life but he doesnt have the divine knowledge to be able to understand how to bring that vision into reality. This is why in Gods eyes most of the evils that are accomplished are done through faulty reasoning rather than through real reality. In this sense then we understand the vision of the kingdom of God and we implement it as a vision the wicked enjoy but have no understanding of Gods kingdom principles.

This means that we must put away our own perspectives and desires in the sense that we see how useless our own anger is and how powerless our own righteousness is. We have a much greater vision than a process. We have a whole vision of the Real Man. This vision makes all men look beyond their own view so that the blindness of the wicked is subdued even tho they do not know why and our own vision of Christ kingdom prospers. But most of this is blinded by religious fanaticism rather than spiritual power.

This is why the Psalms place in our hands the ability to make the kingdom of God unite with our vision by how we speak. You see we do not really fight other men but we fight the evidence that evil is present in other men with the speech that prevents and allows. This is why we have the curses and covenants. The curses are described in such a way that we rise up to oppose the "scheme". We destroy the evil strong hold by rising up to speak words that are like fighting hand to hand combat. When we have engaged in opposing the evil scheme we experience eternal anger. This means that we have used spiritual means to oppose forces that we do not understand. But in time God will show us how we aligned mens desires so that we enjoyed all of Gods gifts.

The cry

Ps 88 13 "But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you". "in the morning"..possibly speaking about God recreating the days as a cycle. God shows his love in the morning...or He will speak relief in the morning. But this gives us an approach to counseling.  I do not believe that is a cycle here. Pouring out the burden and then getting relief. But the level of the sorrow in community should increase the passion of the cry. This my also be a reference to the prayer  of the righteous man that availeth much. 

The cry is compared to the pain of child birth. The sorrow is the woman in labor and it is birthed through the cry. The cry is expressed in the use of the law, covenants, promises and decrees. We use the word of God to obtain victory. So you are familiar with the sorrow not to bear the burden necessarily but to be driven to the level of Gods eternal anger on behalf of those who are suffering in order to confront the adverse spiritual power. God unifies all things by creating mystery ....a connection of human to human and overcoming the enemy  in dulling the pain of the anxiety. In other words there is a human element of convincing the person who is suffering. We do not bat an eye in being the guy in the heat of the battle that provides hope. But we need to develop this mysterious sedative to the trouble by the passion of the cry in a community sense. 


143 8" Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul."You see this cry described in 143. This is really a metaphor of being saved by the Lord of Glory. In the heat of the battle the Lord comes on the chariot to obtain victory. The light shines and the enemy is destroyed.18 6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.9 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.This is like the sun rising in the morning ...compared to the darkness ended by the light of the morning. Its expressing the curse and rising to the anger of God and then arguing for victory through the law , decrees, etc which is waring with words in order to obtain victory in the morning. This is Gods unfailing love ...or His decree of victory in the morning. All of this struggle is unified in the level of the cry in community.

Some times we need to be carried

 Ps 88

3" For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. 4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength. "

Here the Psalmist is complaining about the kind of sorrows that flood our souls in which we experience constant anxiety. So the question is how can the Psalmist speak of God in a positive way when he is experiencing so much turmoil? Even tho God is never angry with us yet the Psalmist is describing God as treating him like an enemy.  5" I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. 7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. "Selah" I think sometimes we try to forget the negative feelings we are experiencing by making an effort to oppose them with focusing on God as a good God. He speaks of this anxiety as a weight that he is caring around. "Your wrath lies heavily upon me ...im overwhelmed by you waves". "My soul is full of trouble" is the way to express troubles that overwhelm us like being weighted down so that we feel weak. When we go to do our daily routine we feel like we need extra rest because we are carrying around these anxieties in which they are like weights that affect our physical strength. The Psalmist is comparing the weight of these anxieties to people who have lost connection with the world through death. He says that in this experience he is "cut off from Gods care". "Cut off" is like being placed outside the city so that we are all alone. The city in the Psalms is not necessarily a physical place but it represents our connection to a culture in which we experience Gods kingdom of love and joy. When the city is upside down there are cries of distress in the streets, people disrespecting other peoples property, and the attack on the powerless. So we see that our connection to the creation and to people are how we experience eternal life. We are sort of like dead men walking.

We have a description here of a saint who is being transparent before God who is left in this feeling of loneliness and disconnection.   18 "You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend." He reasons that there is only one thing he feels connected to and that is darkness. What happens when we do not feel connected in relationships? We are confused because we cannot find a way out of this darkness so that we can depend upon Gods promises. When we experience this disconnection even our closest relationships are affected. 8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape;9 my eyes are dim with grief. 

You see the Psalmist is not trying to overcome this situation by attempting to cover his feelings with Gods promises. Instead he focuses on the pain and he leaves it with some questions. 9 my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you.10 Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? "Selah"11 Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction ?12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?This question" Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?" This is a description of very mature saint who has enjoyed a life of meditation so that hes had high experiences with many victories. He is speaking as if he was two men..completely divided. These high experiences are in the past in which he has lost connection with those pleasures. Like he has died and has moved on. But in the Psalms eternal life is timeless. All of the past meditations revisit us in the present being mixed with more pleasure. But here his complaint is that he has even lost connection to these high experiences. " My eyes are dimmed" he is really saying that his eyes have been turned inward and he cannot see the beauty of the creation or experience a connection in relationships. He has this far away look in his eyes...like he is under the burden of negative thoughts that keep him from looking outward. 

The Psalmist is in the position where he has lost all hope in Gods goodness. He is describing his inward experience as if he has been judged by God and is receiving Gods destructive pronouncement. But in the christian experience we know that if we are familiar with the struggle that we are not in this position to feel condemned. So this Psalm is teaching us that we can describe an experience as if we are the unsaved person who is experiencing Gods wrath as a way to unburden our feelings of disconnection. There is a place in the christian experience where describing the pain and rejection is part of our growth. 

God has created us like Himself. This Psalm is teaching us that when we are faced with this kind of disconnection and our inward experience is turned upside down that we can get help by being transparent and expressing our sorrows in the most honest way. We may not get relief from one prayer of transparency but God will lower Himself to our level so that over time He will recreate our future and respond with some kind of relief. Some times the only remedy is to go before God and be transparent. Sometimes we have no strength and we need to be carried. 

We have the fulness of God dwelling in us

God gives us a gift when we are saved like winning the lottery. The gift is only as authoritative and powerful in its creative power as we understand Gods word. The success of the gift is according to our understanding of how to use the power of eternal life. This gift cannot be thwarted or destroyed. The gift in itself is the perfect government of God planned from eternity past in His view from our perspective as He works through our individual gifts to overcome all opposition and thus to bring glory to Himself. God has given us redeemed desires.

This is what is so hard for us to understand in this pragmatic age. We think that what we do adds up to all that God has planned. But God has given us something that is complete from the beginning of time to the end. The gift that is in us is Gods experience and wisdom as He has viewed everything from the beginning of time. This gift is the description of everything that God has created and sustained in His eternal counsel. He has made us complete in Christ so that everything that Christ has obtained and overcome is ours.

God has designed everything to be unified in His view that brings Him glory. Nothing is out of order or able to thwart Gods will. Gods eternal view of all of time is in us. We have the fulness of God dwelling in us. And yet just as we have our individual desires in which the scripture says are like a deep well so our redeemed desires are mysterious. This is the way the Psalmist reasons..."You know my desires" which the Psalmist is using to oppose any enemy from within or without. This reasoning is as if we have already been translated to heaven where there is no more sin , sorrow or sickness. Its like the Psalmist is resting in this perfect kingdom in his appeal through his redeemed desire.

I think the desire is more than just a mystery. It is the total understanding of Gods view in creating all things. Its the total explanation in God reasoning through His covenants, laws, decrees, and promises.This approach by God is aligned with His attributes. So Gods explanation that He has gifted to us in redeemed desires is both mysterious and understandable. God has given us His way of speaking in the Psalms. He has provided us with the language of Christ. We have a kings language. It is according to our experience in using this language as to the level of our understanding when we appeal to God on the basis of our redeemed desires.    

Gods amazing grace

Ps 62 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. When we are saved we receive grace. Grace is simply God gifting us with everything that we need. He fulfills our needs in Himself so that our lives are defined by what He gives and not what we do. You see this same kind of thinking when the Psalmist talks about sin and forgiveness. 1 O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. Gods faithfulness and righteousness follow us all the days of our lives. So the Psalmist is saying come from before me and behind me and bring me relief. This is why our honor depends upon God. If in fact God is sovereign and He does whatever pleases Him, then it goes to reason that He is behind us and before us working all things for our good. 
But now look what the Psalmist reasons here about grace and sin. He says that if God were to bring him into judgment then God would need to judge all men. The apostle says that if God were to deal with men according to their sins then everyone would be condemned. So grace gives us certain rites in Gods kingdom. It prevents us from being judged since every sinner who does not have grace enjoys Gods leniency. If those sinners are not burdened by the a legitimate threat then why should we who have received grace be overly concerned for our sins? You will see the Psalmist reasoning like this in Ps 38 9 where the Psalmist complains about the physical ailments that are plaguing him and he feels like God is treating him according to his sin. Then the Psalmist makes this statement.10" All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. " The Psalmist is stating the reason why he is frustrated with this plague. Because the Psalmist has redeemed longings which place him in the position of vindicating himself so that he will be successful in bringing the curse of the law to bear upon the rebellious nations. vs15 But what kind of concern should we have is the question? here the Psalmist makes a statement about this in the middle of his complaint about the evil treatment from his enemies.  18" I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin." This is sort of like saying look God you know that i have redeemed longings which provides me with a natural understanding that I am a sinner but the bigger problem is how I am being treated. And this shows us just how amazing grace really is.