The curse of time

Ps 46 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. "Selah" .... 5 bGod will help her at break of day.

God is outside of time. Gods purposes are not subject to the constraints of time. When the Psalmist speaks of the new day he is not really speaking of it in the constraints of time. Because time puts boundaries on our image. On how we are viewed in this world. In this sense we are always opposed by the judgement of the demands of time. But Gods judgements are absolute at all times. Because Gods judgements are eternal. Our success is based upon Gods transference of His attributes. Because God blesses us according to His eternal attributes. So then God opposes our opposition as He is completely just at all times. In Gods view He is absolutely successful in His judgements because there is no one who can thwart His purposes. Since Gods judgments are not under the constraints of time we define this God as eternally existent. Gods eternal existence is mysterious to us. This mystery is an every present help to our time constraints.  

Our adversity to time is motivated by our understanding the mysterious power of God that goes beyond our understanding. So time works as a measurement of the curses power. The apostle says that the world is on a course. This course is defined by the constraints of time. The constraints are how we are viewed according to the limits of the attributes of time. Time is sort of a personality in which all the measurements are limited to the finite. At every tick of the hand it forces us to view the world by progression. Progression is not a creative idea. Progression is simply being controlled by progress. In this sense we are always motivated by non being unto the worth that we obtain by our progress. But God always defines us according to His view that is not constrained by the limits and measurements of progress. 

In this sense as time forces us to view our own image according to the finite we are being opposed by the curse. All men face the failure of the constraints of the tension of time that opposes the exercise of spiritual gifts. When we say that the Spirit has made us free we are making value distinctions that go beyond the measurements of time. The opposition of the curse of time is always trying to define Gods image of us with the limits that are faulty. Because we do not create as God recreates us. This is why the Psalmist speaks the curses because he is fighting against the tension of these limited judgements. He is seeking to feel the weight of the eternal variables. In actively opposing the power of time he faces opposition from men who are under the dominance of the limits of time. This is the extent of the spirit battles in a meta physical value system.

Gods grace overcomes all of our sin

Ps 143 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.3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead.4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.6 I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. "Selah"7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.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.9 Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD, for I hide myself in you.10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble 12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

This Psalm is teaching us that the Holy Spirits work in our salvation is acting on our behalf as an advocate. The Psalmist opens this Psalm with two covenant attributes that he presents as his argument as the basis of the Holy Spirits success in our lives. We are taught that God has promised to deliver us in all of our lives by His faithfulness and righteousness.  The Psalmist knows that Gods saves us according to His unfailing love. Throughout the Psalms when the Psalmist presents his argument to God he argues on the basis of Gods attributes as the way to gain confidence that he will be delivered by God. In this sense the Psalmist is encouraging himself by reminding himself and God of Gods promise to act on behalf of the Psalmist in showing that He is serious about doing as He promised. 

These two attributes provide us with the view the Psalmist has about Gods work in salvation.  God is faithful in that He has completed the work that was necessary to make us acceptable. If you examine this Psalm you will see that the Psalmist stands on Gods love and faithfulness and uses other words that describe his salvation that are interchangeable with Gods love and faithfulness. This is the normal way that the Psalmist approaches God. You will see that sometimes the Psalmist pleads to God in describing his sorrow and sometimes the Psalmist pronounces cursing and blessing and then appeals for God to act on the basis of His unfailing love alone. Appealing to God according to His unfailing love is this application on a much more detailed way in appealing according to the specific promises in the covenant 

He is saying that our salvation is a completed gift that cannot fail.The reason that we cannot fail is because we stand before God as completely righteous. In saying that  "no one living is righteous before you".the Psalmist is that every man is guilty so that when we fail there is no one on the earth that we can point to and "I dont deserve salvation because another person is better than me". using the lowest common denominator to show that God has gone low enough to take care of the most severe suffering that we can go through on this earth. We are always taught that we grow from hearing the bad news. But this is not really the covenant message to us. Rather God lowers Himself to our level as if he were a man judging our success in comparison to other men. Instead of saying that we do not deserve salvation because these other people are not doing a sin and we are...God says that if He were to remember our sin and judge us He would need to judge all those men outside of Jesus ...He would need to judge them first even tho among men our sin may be consider worse. Gods forgiveness is His forgetfulness even if we fail in sinning over and over again. The success of our getting better is that we always receive forgiveness for free. It is so free that even tho we sin we cannot be judged because there is someone that is always farther along than us and worse than us. This is the basis of arguing for the Holy Spirits success in the rest of the Psalm. 

Our kingdom desires are fulfilled

Ps 60 5 Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.

6 God has spoken from his sanctuary: "In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.....11 Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. 12 With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies. 

The teaching of salvation is reversed when we are comparing it to Gods view of value. There is nothing that we receive in salvation that can add to our value. Everything that God gives us makes us indebted to Him. When we are describing Gods eternal predestination, it is not really a foundation of our trust but it is through which we overcome all things as the debt increases. This process by which these things of salvation become valuable to us, the more we are indebted to God, is taught in cursing. Everything that is opposed to us both physically and meta physically has been destroyed by death. When Christ died He paid for the consequences of our law breaking by experiencing the effects of the curse. Christ became a curse for us. If Christ was eternally nailed to the cross then the symbol of the curse would be forever present. But Christ overcame the curse by leaving the cross empty or being raised from the dead and ascending to the right hand of the Father. All our enemies are gifts to us as our personal relationship to debt as that by which we overcome the opposition through the debt effects that define the free ness and the value of the gift. In this sense as we descend into the terrible destruction of the opposition we ascend to the effects of Christ victory that does not originate from us. 

This is what the apostle meant when He said that we glory in tribulation. Tribulation is simply facing opposition that weighs us down.Speaking of the political opposition to grace the Psalmist says  94 4 "They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. 5 They crush your people, O LORD; they oppress your inheritance" "They pour out arrogant words"- speaking of the state of men in blindness who speak with words that oppose Gods kingdom...the reality of the laws, decrees, curses, and the covenants.  "full of boasting"- is a man who is a god unto himself. He opposes the kingdom that God has established through the laws..etc..and he redefines the world according to his absolute law over other people." They crush your people" - any description that oppose God to rule absolutely is speaking violence. The original state of man in blindness is a culture of words that are spoken to oppose God and His people as the cause of all violence both outward and inward in Gods people. They "crush your people" is like being threatened , captured and meta physically and physically harmed. This is why all of teaching of grace and salvation are interwoven as God weighs every word that has ever been spoken in mans horizontal and vertical relationships. Each man is created as a government in which he rules himself and others as his own god or as fully seen in the work of Christ. Each man responds to everything that he experience by either blessing or cursing.  

You will see that the wicked "curse" the righteous as a reaction to the opposition This curse is a violent opposition. Speaking of the wicked.. 10 7 His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue." The wicked mans desires are not fulfilled.112 10" The wicked man will see and be vexed, he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing". The righteous speak the curse from the law. This is what the Psalmist means when he says 140 8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. "Selah" But the righteous are a kingdom who rules by Gods creative desires 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 

  

In Ps 139 the Psalmist explains Gods implantation of the seed of His word. He is saying that God design the creation of the lives of  His elect before before they were born. The principle of simplicity is swallowed up by complexity is taught in Gods creative hand in searching us out. The Palmist is saying that because God created us like Himself we also are implanted with His creative word. The word is a simplification of His detailed creative word. This is why the Psalmist who has experienced Gods speaking into his life then breaks out into the praise of Gods word that expresses the Psalmist desires that consume the Psalmist experience by the by the baby talk of His revealed word. 16 b All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.-speaking of meditating in his sleep and awaking in that activity.  Then the Psalmist unites his desires with Gods desires as the expression of the natural response of His heart . He says 19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!"

We died and our life is hid with God

Ps 60 1 You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth upon us; you have been angry--now restore us!2 You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.3 You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger.4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow. "Selah"5 Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.6 God has spoken from his sanctuary: "In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.8 Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?10 Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies?11 Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless12 With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

This Psalm teaches that salvation is anti intuitive to the mind and heart of man.  We are always guilty of making salvation harder than it is. The hardest lesson to learn in our christian lives is not to trust in the things that are easy to trust in. The hardest lesson to learn is to trust in things that do not seem to be important in the religious culture. Why did God reject the nation of Israel? Because they turned away from His law. But if the answer is to turn back to His law then the Psalmist would not end the Psalm by saying "the help of man is worthless." 

The point is that God burst forth upon the nation. In other words God acted apart from any other will or power in rejecting Israel. This is why the Psalmist concludes that there is no hope of being delivered if man is required to change. The hardest truth to learn is that when we exalt man we turn Gods covenant into something that is not valuable. When any man rises as to be powerful it leads to breaking Gods covenant. You see the simplest success in the gospel is that it is already successful by our not adding to it. 

The point that this Psalm is teaching is that we are unable to save ourselves. We fail to rise up to the level of success that is required to deliver ourselves. This is the point that in order for us to live we must die. This is why the Psalmist ends the Psalm with acknowledging that the only hope of being saved is in God. The cry that the help of man is worthless is more than acknowledgement that man is powerless to restore Israel but it is a wish that God would give the nation an understanding trust in anything other than God must die. This is how we live. We are always freeing ourselves from the rudiment principles of this world by accepting the teaching or the counsel in the context of "the death of the importance" of the person who is teaching these truths. The point is that the only power in the real support of the soul is in the work that has already been accomplished by Christ. So we are all vessels of holding up the weak and rescuing them by giving. 

This Psalm teaches that there is no principle of importance in thinking that God is responding to rebellion. But it is teaching that God displays His free acts in the judgement. God preordains whatsoever comes to pass. Look at the things that God does. He actually not only judged the nation but He provided the sedative so that they could not be sensible enough to return to their first love. This is to show that all change that happens in society is left to Gods free choice. In this men stray from God because they are blind to His salvation. God acts to provide them with a sedative to relieve their helpless suffering.  As you can see this Psalm is teaching that there is no remedy unless all things die. This is why we are given the words of the curses to mediate on because we are always trying to deliver ourselves without coming to the mystery of life and death. 

His word unifies all reality

Ps 12 1 Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.

2 Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.

3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue

4 that says, "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips--who is our master?"

5 "Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the LORD. "I will protect them from those who malign them."

6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.

7 O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever.

8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. 

This Psalm is teaching that there are two kinds of communication that are in opposition to one another.  God has created and order all events in this world by His word. When we come to God we come to Someone who is can be trusted because there is nothing that can thwart His word which is spoken to us through His covenant. Gods covenant is shown as faithful because it is given to us in a complete document in which the words are held together by a single thread. His word is so powerful that it reorder all of reality. Since we are gifted in salvation with these words of creation that reorder all reality we are able to oppose every enemy at the point of being as successful as God is able to redefine our image. The answer to all of our problems comes when God corrects this miss understanding by thwarting all the opposition to His substitutionary work on our behalf. 

This Psalm is teaching that God created the world with perfect personality and interaction. His word is complete from the beginning of time to the end. It is purified seven times. It withstands the heat of the opposition in the sense that it destroys all the intents of man in redefining His word. This description is kind teaching that we are made by His description of us as the only secure language that we can trust. We are in a sense all that we are in a world that is totally unified in the total description of Gods creative and re-creative word. All of our success is dependent upon the success of Gods holistic description of us. 

When the Psalmist faces evil it is in the attempt to redefine Gods recreation of us. You will find that God communicates on a level that is more detailed that His revealed word. All of these pronouncements like the law, curses, covenants, etc are given to us in light of His ability to oppose the heat of the opposition that is mysterious to us. So you see these terrible storms that create devastation in societies. You see the heat in the power of Gods word in the mysterious level of destruction. God speaks in the storms that show His personal presence in how he over turns the culture. He has spoken this mysterious destruction to show that His judgements are sure and steadfast. This kind of mysterious destruction is present in us in the curses of the law. Everything that opposes us is only real as it can be view with the wisdom and the eternal foresight of the perfect order in unifying Gods purposes as He defines judgement. This is why there is freedom in finding mystery because our experience with sorrow and all the cursed effects in this world are powerless when we experience Gods terrible response in His destructive curses. 







 

The transperancy of repentance

Ps 42 9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"

10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

All reality is created by God. There is nothing that exist in the physical or meta physical that does not come from Gods spoken word. When the Psalmist faces opposition and he complains about God forgetting him , he is saying that he is struggling with opposition because God has not lowered Himself to the level of satisfying his desire by communicating that God is with the Psalmist. The point is that God is absolutely free to be questioned by the Psalmist about anything that God is able to change. When we come to God with boldness we are only genuine and free in our communication to Him when we speak to God as only bringing our need. In this sense we are weighted down with sin and corruption and God is absolutely free in the sense that there is no weight that He cannot handle. 

God communicates to us in through anthropomorphism. God speaks to us in lowering Himself to our understanding by taking on human characteristics. God is only free in our view of Him as a man when there is nothing that is strong enough to thwart His desire and will. We are only free when we view Him as substitute that we are as successful as His is as a man. When the Psalmist complains about oppression , he is saying that the perfect communication is God allowing us to be as prosperous as we are able ...as God has gifted us ...so that the opposition to the highest expression of our prosperity is man attempting to thwart our achieving Gods standard. Sin and corruption are not just destructive but they are the force that weighs us down so that we are prevented from receiving all the good that God has given. This is why all of our opposition is a redefinition of Gods perfect description of His kingdom that are spoken in words of violence as threats to our personal kingdom safety. We can say that we dwell in the kingdom of peace because we are enjoying the benefits of the substitution of the only real man. The opposition to this peaceful communication comes from the kingdom of hate which is the cause of all our personal problems. Since we do not have the vision that God has, we are not able to examine the level of anger that we experience in this violent expression.  

This is why the Psalms teach that the personality of Satan is exposed in Satan's children.  The Psalms do not describe Satan. But they teach that Satan is exposed by the personality of his children. The point is that all the invisible forces like angels, demons, Satan , cannot speak to us apart from the communication that opposes Gods word. We are not able to be the judge of these invisible creatures. But we know that God opposes these spiritual beings by being completely successful in Christ speaking the judgements on them , so that we follow a warrior who overcomes our opposition , by His obedience to the whole law that is able to support sinners who are made righteous granting us blessing and preventing us from being cursed. We are able to pronounce blessing in the sense that even tho we fall short of the laws demands we still fall back on the obedience of Christ in receiving this blessed substitute. This expands our heart of praise. At the same time we are able to unburden our anger by speaking the curses so that in Christ dying we kill the satanic personality or language. In this sense we experience true identity which is transparency of repentance.

Our trust is in God alone

Ps 62 5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 

 

The Psalmist is chiding himself to trust in God alone.  Let me give you a testimony.  When I got married it was to a woman who is very social. Let me just say one thing to make this short. My wife and I were so like one another ..not in personality but in our view of life that we raised our family with the philosophy that child growth is developed by an adult guiding the child by teaching and social interaction. The family is not really a unit or a secluded society but its unity is developed in a kind of caravan of like minded families. So we believe that the old norms of family were more important than the organized religious connections. Kind of like living in the 50s in family structure while living in the present. 

  

This is why I believe what I have just written. Because the verse above is in the context of the culture of communication. You will find this teaching throughout the Psalm. What do the Psalms teach about being like minded? They teach that all men are examples by blindness. God has made us all to be comfortable in our own skin by being absolute convinced that we are right. This is why the Psalms teach that its dangerous to just assume that if we act correctly that we are right. Because the truth is that we all would die for what we believe even if it was wrong. The problem of our blindness is not really that we havent accumulated enough applied knowledge in order to be right , but we are products ..i dont mean that we are made by our view of the world but the Psalms teach that the christian view of control and ownership in the absolute perfect world is Gods creative visible acts viewed by us in the present in the success of how all people communicate. The perfect world would be every person communicating from learning and applying Gods word. We must admit that sin has eroded the normal language of Gods kingdom. So you cant divorce the eroding of the culture from the danger that it creates in christian institutions. 

 

This is why the Psalms describe the personal human experience in light of the health of the nation of Israel. As Israel moved away from God so our personal religious experience in this world is compared to Israel being dispersed among the nations. So we see in this verse the Psalmist is speaking from experience of this uncertain life and the problems of trusting in men. Let me say that Ive observed God working in a few ways. Sometimes He works methodically in a persons life. They start from one point and grow through all their lives. But some people God does some very profound works and then He down the road it becomes methodical. Some people look at the past to support their suffering and the ones who are growing a slow and methodical rate are always taking about the future. We must understand that people come from different growth patterns and according to the way that God has made them. Some people demand a lot of intellectual stimulus and others are satisfied with the basics. But the Psalms teach there is no bliss in ignorance. God has made it so that every person can create a lot of disorder in being unlearned. At the same time every person acts according to their philosophy that they would die for it even if its wrong. The only security that we have is to understand where they are coming from and to know enough that we have a long term view.  This is why we need this verse.  

 

 

Gods display of His power over creation

Ps 18 13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. 


In Ps 18 the Psalmist is describing his experience on the battle field. The circumstances that happen on the battle field are an extreme example of how God acts in this world to deliver His elect from danger. The Psalmist begins the Psalm describing his thoughts and emotions of anxiety as he enters and fights in the battle. There is a point when the battle heats up ,where the Psalmist has expended all of his strength. The Psalmist describes the entire struggle both physical and meta physical in terms of enduring through strength. At the most trying time the Psalmist cries out to God. 

This describes the response from heaven. The Psalmist describes Gods saving presence as a voice that is behind all events for the purpose of delivering His people. In this Psalm we are taught that God responded from heaven as a commander of an army appearing in the sky ,riding his chariot with his soldiers following him. This voice is Gods work in creation and recreation to subdue His enemies and save His people. God comes in the heat of the battle and overcomes His enemies, gathers His army together and marches to the temple in a victory procession. The voice of God is the same concept as the NT teaching that our citizenship is in heaven. It is not of this world. So in this sense we are taught that our confidence is not our view of the circumstances that come into our lives but it is the power behind the creation and the hope we have in knowing the sustaining power that will deliver us in the end. We are looking at the circumstances of Gods actions that are behind the creation and our final victory over all things as a result of God power in creating and recreating. 

Yous see when there is a disaster that comes on this earth we find that God causes the course of the world to be turned upside down. The  participants in the disaster receive the benefits in the sense that God forces society to turn away from their corruption and selfishness. This is Gods eternal voice that is His display of His authority that is beyond the control of man. This is what we find in Ps. 29. Our natural response to the disasters that happen on the earth is to experience the effects as if they are produced to destroy us. But we must learn that God displays the power of His sovereignty as an example of the success of His curses that bring the freedom of His blessing. In other words Gods display of His sovereignty undoes mans confidence in his own power or it is a relief for those who are fully assured of Gods absolute sovereignty. These disasters are produced so that we cannot say in our hearts that God responds to us but He does everything in our lives for His own purposes for His own glory. God strikes at the heart of mans religious pride. 

We must learn that God comes in the weather as a saving God. When God strikes there we lose control of our lives. This experience is God drawing near to us. God is speaking beyond the normal activity of His silent re-creative daily work. This is why the Psalmist responds to the sounds of the storms as praise to God for speaking His power and His majesty from the heavens! You hear the winds and the trees splitting , and the mysterious dark clouds that are so low and are moving along at a very rapid pace as if they are crushing down upon the earth. All of these sounds are metaphors of Gods re creative voice. The result of His power over creation is perfect silence. You see this is God speaking His curses so loud that He has silenced the opposition just like when we pray the Psalms and experience the coming together of Gods kingdom and our present experience in this corrupted world. These curses silence the voices of the evil empire that is controlled by Satan and his children.