A Word about Calling Upon the Lord

Today I want to share a word about calling upon the Lord, as I comment on Psalm 3. This passage reads:

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

The comedy film “Ghost Busters” popularized the phrase “Who ya gonna call?”  Though not proper English, it is a valid question. Who do you call upon in time of trouble?  Do you call on the government?  Do you call on friends?  How about a lawyer?  Each of these are valid, and should be used, but they aren't the ultimate source of our help. When in trouble, despite whomever else we may call upon, we should always call upon God, as did the Psalmist in our passage for today.

THE PROBLEM:

In a word, the Psalmist’s problem was people.  He had people who opposed him. This reminds me of a joke I heard when we served as international missionaries, “Missionary service is wonderful except for two things: the other missionaries and the local believers!” 

David was not alone in having people oppose him. They opposed Jesus also, as He told us in John 15:18-19:

If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

Jesus clearly taught in this passage that the people who oppose Him also will oppose us, because we identify with Him. As I have often said, the way of salvation is narrow, and it seems to be superimposed on the broad way that leads to destruction. As people work their way towards eternal separation from God, they bump into us and jostle us who are heading toward our Lord!

This problem became a real plight for the Psalmist. Every time he faced adversity, every time something went wrong, people would say it was his fault. He must have strayed from God! God had abandoned him, or so it seemed. 

This situation reminds me of the attitude displayed by the test pilots featured in the book and movie, The Right Stuff. Anytime a pilot crashed and died, it was because he didn’t have “the right stuff,” regardless of the true cause of the crash. Even when a mechanical failure occurred, a pilot with that magical “right stuff” would be able to fly his way out of trouble. David was facing this same type of judgmental attitude and it was becoming oppressive to him.

THE PROTECTION:

Although those around him had their doubts, the Psalmist knew where he could acquire the help he needed. It was from God, and from God alone! Only God could shield him from his adversaries. Only God could lift him up and allow him to hold his head high.  Nothing else that David could turn to could do that, but God could.

David’s God was also Paul’s God. It could well be that Paul was thinking of the 3rd Psalm when he wrote to the church at Ephesus about the full armor of God:

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:11-17

Of course, knowing that God can protect us does us no good if we can’t get His attention. Remember how the prophets of Baal danced and shouted and cut themselves on Mount Carmel? Remember also how Baal never said a mumbling word back to them? David knew that Yahweh God heard him, and when He did, He responded! Of course, our God still hears and responds to His people today!

THE PEACE: 

Because Yahweh God is faithful, we can trust Him. Because we can trust Him, we can rest. Ship’s captains cannot rest if they don’t have faith in the other mates in a ship. A young mother out on a date night with her husband can’t enjoy herself if she doesn’t have faith in their babysitter. People about to have surgery can’t rest if they don’t trust their doctor or hospital. David could have peace, because he knew his God, and our God, is faithful.

Since we know that God has our back, we can not only have peace, but we can also be fearless. We admire the sacrifice of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but David said that ten thousand could not hurt him if God was his protection! That’s why he could stand up against Goliath with only a sling shot and why Samson could fight and kill 1,000 with the jawbone of a donkey. Even should our human fate be to die opposing evil, we can still say with the writer of Hebrews, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

THE POWER:

When he was in trouble, when he needed help, when he saw that he was lost without God, the Psalmist uttered a simple plea: “Arise, O Lord, and save me!” It has been said that the most common and most urgent prayer of all is the simple, “God help me!” David cried out in just that manner in his time of need. We should not be ashamed or too proud to call out in the same way when we need God’s intervention. We know God hears the prayers of His people, however simple or complex they might be, and He acts to bless us.

It is equally important for us to know, as did David, that God has the power to protect us. As Isaiah 59:1 tells us, “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” 

In fact, not only does He hear our cries and defend us from our enemies, but God also does it with style. He slaps their face, and He breaks their teeth, and He publicly embarrasses the enemies of God’s people. We saw this in the contest on Mount Carmel and David also saw it in his personal life.

THE PARDON:

If we can trust God to save us from our earthly foes, should we not trust God even more to save us from our spiritual foes? Paul knew that our spiritual battles with unseen foes was as real as and even more consequential than our battles with our visible enemies. This is what he told the church at Ephesus: 

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

Of course, our biggest enemy, our greatest threat, is not external to us, but internal. We are our own worst enemy. We are all lost in our sins, and we know that, as Paul wrote to the Roman church, 

There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 3:10-12

Clearly understanding his own sin, Paul went on to cry out to God like David did in the 3rd Psalm, asking,

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:24-25

Like David, not only did Paul see the problem, but he also knew the answer which he shared with the Ephesians, saying, 

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:8-10

This is another way of saying what Peter taught in Acts 4:10-12, 

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

CONCLUSION:

So, who are you going to call upon in your time of need?

• Your family and friends?

• Your lawyer or your doctor?

• The police or the fire department?

Yes, do! But also remember to call upon the Lord who can save us from the things that these others cannot! This includes ourselves and our own self-defeating tendencies!

Who ya gonna call? Like David, call on God! He will answer, He will respond, and He will save!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Blessed People

 

Today I want to share a word about blessed people, as I comment on Psalm 1.This passage reads:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

This Psalm vividly describes the distinctive way that blessed people live. To really get a feel for the significance of this Psalm, let’s flash forward to James 4:1-4 in which James, in an equally vivid way, rebukes some members of the early church for their carnality:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

How are blessed people different from the people that James was correcting?

FIRST, WE SEE THEIR PURITY:

In the first verse, the Psalmist notes that blessed people are distinguished by their purity, which is found in three things that they don’t do. They don't live their lives like the world does. They don't think the same way the world does. They don't talk the way the world does.

Yes, blessed people might fall into the ways of the world at times because they are human, frail, and fallible.  People do make mistakes. The difference is that blessed people don’t make this a way of life. In Hebrew the word seat means dwelling place, the place where one resides. This is like the difference between falling into the mud and wallowing in it.

In short, there is a qualitative difference in the lifestyle of blessed people. It’s not about how much money people have, but what they do with it. It’s not how much people produce, but how good it is. It isn’t how often people do something, but how well they do it that makes all the difference.

SECOND WE SEE THEIR PIETY:

In the second verse, the Psalmist tells us that blessed people have two spiritual emphases: They love to know God's Word and they live it out the best they can!

God's Word is the desire of blessed people. They find pleasure in their pursuit of it, and they want more and more of it. God's Law that the Psalmist refers to here is all God's Revelation and blessed people love studying it, and they never stop being life-long learners about God’s Word.  But, blessed people do more than study the Word, they also meditate on it. 

The word meditate here means literally to mutter, to mumble.  It connotes pondering aloud as one makes decisions. Pilots talk with their copilots and to themselves as they complete checklists and make decisions about takeoffs, landings, and other maneuvers as they fly aircraft. They do this so that they don’t miss something important. In the same way, blessed people remind themselves and their family and friends about what the Word says as they make the Word part of their everyday life.

James 1:22, says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves . . .”  Blessed people study God's Word so that they can live it out.

NEXT, WE SEE THEIR PROSPERITY: 

The third verse tells us that the prosperity of blessed people stems from their way of life. They are pure in their hearts because they follow God's Word. This causes them to be like a tree planted by a river, being refreshed and nurtured by the flow of abundant water.

When I served in Iraq as a chaplain, I had never been in such a dry place before. I traveled all around Baghdad and the surrounding areas and everywhere you looked was a shade of brown or tan. One day, however, we travelled to visit some troops at a camp located on the banks of the Tigris River south of the city. The contrast was amazing. Along the river we saw lush green grass where cows could graze, and where tall sturdy trees grew. Although the rest of our area of operations was barren desert, the Tigris valley was a long, beautiful oasis. Blessed people are like that; they are an oasis of beauty in the barren landscape of the empty and futile way of the world.

We have to understand two important words in this verse. First, season means that prosperity comes in due time, in proper time, which implies in God’s timing. Next, the word does can imply many things (twenty-three synonyms in fact) including: work, labor, toil, create, build, accomplish, earn, acquire, fulfill, happen.

So like King Midas, everything blessed people touch will turn to gold, but in God’s timing.

The prosperity that blessed people will realize comes in two different time frames. We know that in John 10:10, Jesus said that He came to give abundant life to us, and we know that Romans 8:28 tells us that all things are used by God to bless His people. So, from this we can know that blessed people will enjoy both temporal, or earthly abundant life, which is the main emphasis of the Psalmist, and eternal abundant life, which was Paul’s main emphasis in Romans.

In essence, blessed people have the best of both worlds, in the here and now and in the hereafter as well, and so this leads to the Psalmist’s final point.

LAST, WE SEE THEIR PROSPECTS:

The last three verses of this Psalm tell us that the prospects of blessed people are different than those without a relationship with God. 

The Psalmist says that the ungodly are blown away like chaff. When wheat is being threshed, even a light breeze will suffice to separate the grain from the chaff; such is implied here by the term wind which meaning is really more akin to a breath. Those without God can't stand a proper, righteous judgment and their way shall perish. It will face destruction and desolation. They will be like a nation which is utterly defeated.

In contrast the way of blessed people is known by God.  He has a plan for them and a way for them to follow. He has a life for them to enjoy. The children of God are like those of a king whose lives are planned and who have every advantage life brings them.

CONCLUSION:

So, what lessons can we take from this passage? 

• First, to be like the blessed people described by the Psalmist, we must avoid the pitfalls of following the world.  
• Next, we should desire God’s Word and embed it in our beings so that we live it out.  
• Finally, we must trust God and allow Him to bless us instead of struggling to make our own way in the world using the world’s methods and mores.

If we do these things, we will be blessed, both in this world and in the next.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Frog in the Kettle

Today I want to share a word about the frog in the kettle, as I comment on Judges 16:18-20.  This passage reads:

And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 

It is a common saying that, “Ignorance is bliss.” Another familiar sentiment is, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Both of these old saws are often false, as we find in our Scripture passage for today. What Samson did not know came back to bite him, hard.

WHAT HAPPENED TO SAMSON?

He was a Nazarite and God had been with him. He had been set apart from the time of his birth, and he had judged Israel for 20 years. God had done some mighty works through him to protect His people:

• He had killed a Lion with his bare hands.

• He had killed 30 men of Ashkelon.

• He had killed another 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.

• He broke the strongest ropes the Philistines had.

Yet, at the time he needed it most, his strength left him, and he was taken by the Philistines. To understand what happened, we must understand what Samson had become.

SAMSON WAS THE FROG IN THE KETTLE:

Christian researcher George Barna once wrote a book entitled, The Frog in the Kettle. This title comes from the idea that if a frog is placed into a kettle when the water is cool, it will not notice how the water grows ever hotter when the heat is turned up under it. Eventually the frog will be boiled to death without ever knowing what was happening to it. Whether or not this is actually true or only a fable, it is a great parable to illustrate how our consciences can become hardened by small and gradual compromises over time. 

Josh McDowell, another noted author, has commented on this tendency in the lives of Christians, and he calls it the “law of diminishing returns.” A little indiscretion (sin) is thrilling for a time, but then it begins to pale and become boring. That prompts us to go a little more over the line to get a thrill or satisfaction, and then even more. 

Even secular writers have observed this phenomenon. In his book, Delinquency and Drift, David Matza promoted the thesis that most felons simply drift, little-by-little, into a life of crime. If the chain of seemingly random and often minor events could be broken, then such an outcome could be averted.

A look at Judges 16 will reveal Samson’s step-by-step into the abyss of failure.

• He associated with a harlot.

• He foolishly misused his great strength.

• He loved an untrustworthy woman.

• Three times he teased Delilah, like a moth dancing over the flames of a candle.

• He had fallen so far that he did not even know it when a man cut his hair.

When he awoke, he didn’t realize that God had removed His power from him. He discovered, to his dismay, that there is a difference between a fire-fighter and a firebug and there is a difference between a trash man and a trashy man.

CAN THIS HAPPEN TO US?

The New Testament says it can, as in 1 Timothy 4:1-2:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron . . .

Also, 2 Timothy 3:1-9 says,

 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;  but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

Blessedly, the Scriptures also tell how us to avoid this type of gradual fail-ure as in 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 which says:

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.  But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Also, in Ephesians 4:17-23 Paul taught us this: 

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,  having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Finally, the writer of Hebrews in chapter 3:12-15 urged:  

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;  but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:   "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

CONCLUSION:

One of the most painful memories of parenthood for me was the time my son went on day trip to the beach with the youth group from our church. He spent all day shirt-less in the broiling sun, without realizing how badly sun-burnt he was becoming. When he got home that evening, he had to lie shirt-less on his stomach in bed for a couple of days until the pain became more bearable. When we play with sin, we get burned!

Too often, our young Christian leaders grow in talent, skill, and acclaim faster than they grow in maturity, integrity, and discretion. In the end, the result is disaster, as we saw in the life of Samson. In the words of Jesus, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Every blessing!

Dr. Otis Corbitt