In Christ Jesus (2014 Remix)

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Pete

I’d almost defy any blood-bought believer to sit down with Romans 8, read it in one thoughtful sitting, and not be in a different place when they finish the chapter from where they were when they began it.

It is a chapter about the wonder of life in the Spirit and the way of the Spirit’s help in our weakness. How could anyone filled by the Spirit not be moved as their indwelling Comforter says, “Behold! That’s Me! In you!”

It’s a chapter about adoption and the implications. If we are children of God, then we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. It is a chapter about an unimaginable future, about the glory that will be revealed to us and the reminder that, not only are we longing for it, but all creation as well. And it is a chapter about a God, who for His own glory and purposes, is for us, loving us with a love that will never fail.

This chapter begins with NO CONDEMNATION and concludes with NO SEPARATION. Such are the promises of God for “those who are in Christ Jesus.”

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. . . .

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:1, 38-39 ESV)

In Christ Jesus. Often heard, often repeated. As such, in danger of becoming commonplace. But pause, just for a moment, and consider again the basis for, and the benefits of being in Christ Jesus, and a compelling desire to bless God starts to flow forth.

What cost was paid that we might be in Christ? What mercy was shown to sinners at war with God that they might be in Christ? What grace was extended to lost, wayward sheep, that they would be sought and wooed to the Great Shepherd? So that they might be in Christ Jesus.

And that, in Christ, there is no condemnation — for the Lamb of God has paid, once for all, the debt of sin that was ours. That, in Christ, there is no longer any obligation nor subjugation to the old man and the flesh — for now we live in the power of the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead. That, in Christ, there is no longer any hesitation to approaching a holy, holy, holy God — His majestic, awesome throne having become a throne of grace providing help in time of need. That, in Christ, there is no longer any separation — for our great High Priest lives to ever make intercession at the right hand of the Father. That, in Christ, the work He has begun in us through regeneration, He will complete on that day of consummation when, as the Bride, we, the church, are received unto the Bridegroom.

And you could go on . . . and on . . . and on.

In Christ Jesus. What glorious words! What a mind-bending thought! What a praise invoking reality!

Oh, such grace, in Christ Jesus. To God be the glory, in Christ Jesus.

Amen?

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Released in Order to Serve

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Pete

Released from the law (Romans 6:6a). Catches my attention. Commence chewing.

Freed from what once held us captive. Delivered from that which once held dominion. Its force forfeited. Its power put away. Its condemnation conquered. We have been released from the law. Good news? I’m thinking.

But how does that release come into play? By death. And not just Christ’s, but ours through Christ. Does dying sound like good news?

And what does that release mean? Not that we’re freed to be “the master of my fate” or the “captain of my soul”, but free to belong to Another and do as He pleases. Still good news?

This morning I’m noodling on the truth that we’ve been released from the bondage of sin — made known through the law — in order to serve.

Likewise, my brothers [and my sisters], you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to Another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

(Romans 7:4-6 ESV)

We get that the gospel tells us Christ died so that we could live. But we may not want to get as much that in order to live we need to die?

It’s good news that Christ’s redemption brings freedom. But sometimes we act as if we’re not sure it’s such great news that we’ve been freed from bondage in order to belong to Another.

We thank God for grace that saves. But often ignore that we were saved to serve in that grace. And maybe that’s because we think about serving in the old way.

You know, the old way where we thought that how much we were loved of God depended on how much we did for God. The old way that led us to believe that our holiness was a result of our best efforts rather than His finished work. The old way that said your hope lies in how good you are rather than in what good news the gospel is. But, says Paul, we died to the old way through the body of Christ.

Yet, while we may have died to the old way, we were born again to a new way, a way in which we end up bearing fruit for God. And that happens as see ourselves not as our own but as belonging to Him who has been raised from the dead.

The new way that says we no longer have to serve in order to try and be holy but that because we are set apart as holy, in Christ, we can’t help but want to serve. The new way which depends not on our individual effort, but which flows from our union with Christ.

We are released from the law. Which means we are freed to serve in the new way of Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Released in order to serve. That’s the new way.

Lord, continue to teach me this way.

By Your grace. For Your glory.

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Obedient from the Heart

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Pete

It’s almost 46 years later and I still remember a conversation in an old pickup truck as I was being driven to a beach party where we were gathering with other “college and career” folks from our small church. I was still a “pretty fresh” born again-er — recently saved by faith but with a very limited understanding of what I believed. While we were driving, the brother behind the wheel felt led to inform me that now that I was a Christian there were certain behaviors which would no longer be appropriate for me to engage in. He was pretty straight. I was a little shocked. And yet, who was I to disagree? So, being new to the faith I received his counsel on how I should function. You could say that I “obeyed from the head.”

You could say that because of something Paul writes in Romans 6 which speaks to another way to speak of obedience.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

(Romans 6:16-18 ESV)

While that pep talk in that pickup truck so long ago was useful in helping me to get off on the right foot in my Christian walk, I’m reminded this morning that I was not redeemed just to obey from my head. Instead, as a new creation through the gospel of Jesus Christ (2Cor. 5:17) I was redeemed so that I might become obedient from the heart.

Obedient from the heart. Chew on that for a bit. My Christian walk not meant to be just some new game with a new set of rules. Instead, meant to be a new journey propelled by a new set of desires. Not about being forced to bow the knee in order to legally comply to some ancient law, but of freely bowing the knee — of wanting to give myself to the One who gave Himself for me — as a loving confession of embracing a new life.

Obedient from the heart. Not according to what seems right in my own eyes, or convenient within the context of how I want to live my life, but according to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Heart obedience through hearing the word. Obedience being the fruit of a response catalyzed by the Scripture we read. Obedience as an expression of love fashioned according to what we’ve learned. If we’re not in the Word, if we’re not under the authoritative teaching of God’s Divine-Breathed counsel, then whatever obedience we might exhibit will be, at best, head-based obedience.

We were saved for more than a by rote, mechanical obedience. We were saved for a flourishing obedience — a heart-fueled obedience manifesting a new man, a new woman, in Christ even as we are being conformed into the likeness of Christ (Rom. 8:29). And that happens when, by the Scripture-illuminating, life-transforming work of the Spirit, we become obedient from the heart.

Have Your way, Lord. Do the heart work that needs to be done so that I might desire to live in the way You desire.

By Your grace. For Your glory.

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And Water Came Out Abundantly

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Pete

Late to the devo table this morning because kids at home were early out of bed (WAY TOO EARLY). But hey, if they’re done before noon, they can still count as morning devos. Yes? I think so.

This morning a familiar passage from Numbers brings to mind a saying from my distant past; something like “You’ve got to do God’s work God’s way.” And while I believe that, I am so grateful that God’s work is not dependent on us doing it God’s way. Case in point? Water from a rock.

Context . . . The people have started wandering in the wilderness after refusing to enter the promised land — because of unbelief, they’ve concluded that successfully taking the land to be highly improbable (Numbers 13 and 14). And just as they were back in Numbers 14, this morning they’re still grumbling in Numbers 20.

This time, they rise up against Moses and against Aaron and quarrel with them about water — or rather, the lack thereof. And as Moses and Aaron have become accustomed to, in response to the people rising up against them, they find themselves facedown before God. And the glory of God appears. And the goodness of God is again demonstrated.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”

(Numbers 20:7-8 ESV)

Tell the rock to yield its water. That’s God’s direction to Moses. It would again be a powerful display of God’s patience and provision for the people He has claimed as His own through deliverance.

Sounds simple enough. But Moses is frustrated. And so, he improvises, trying to make a point before the people which God didn’t think needed to be made.

Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

(Numbers 20:10-11 ESV)

Tell the rock, says the LORD. That’s God’s way. Water out of the rock. That’s God’s work. But Moses didn’t do God’s work in God’s way. Instead, Moses decides to sing a well-known song, “I did it my way” — Moses struck the rock. A big deal? Yeah, a big deal. How big? Pretty big (see Numbers 20:12, 22-24).

But here’s what strikes me (pun intended), although Moses didn’t do God’s work in God’s way the water still flowed. In fact, and water came out abundantly.

God purposed to quench the thirst of a grumbling people with water from an unlikely source. He had done it before (Ex. 17:6), he determined to do it again. All Moses had to do was obey His God and speak to the rock. But Moses didn’t. Yet the people still drank freely and fully. Water came out abundantly.

Moses sinned, yet water surged. Moses did not believe and uphold the LORD as holy (Num. 20:12), but the people still drank and had their thirst wholly met. While God had entrusted His work to His servant, God wasn’t dependent on His servant’s submission to doing it God’s way. Moses came up short, but the water came out abundantly.

Thank God that He is faithful even when we are not. Thank God that His work gets done even when we falter in following His ways. Not that we would presume on such unmerited favor, but that we would always rest in it.

And water came out abundantly.

By God’s grace. For God’s glory.

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Footsteps of Faith

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Pete

Okay, I’m five days into my readings in Romans and, as it does at some point every year, it hits me this morning — that overwhelmed feeling that I’m drinking from a theological fire hose. Man, oh man, this is deep and detailed! Clearly impossible, in just a devotional reading, to pick up everything Paul’s laying down. This morning’s drowning experience? Romans 4.

How many ways can you say “faith is counted as righteousness”? A lot, apparently. How many angles? Many. So how important is it to get this? Pretty!

But amidst all the faith facts this morning, it’s a five-word phrase that particularly grabs my attention.

[Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

(Romans 4:11-12 ESV)

The footsteps of the faith . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

I’m guessing that many of us often think of faith as more mental assent than material action. But Paul reminds me this morning that faith has footsteps. While we might default to faith being about believing, it seems that the authors of Roman (the Spirit of God through the pen of Paul) want me to know that, like Abraham, faith is equally about behaving.

What Abraham was convinced was true was evident by how Abraham ordered his trek — he left his homeland for a promised land, “going not knowing” (Heb. 11:8). Though he and his wife were, naturally speaking, past their prime for child-bearing, they kept trying — trying to make life from dead bodies “fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised (Rom. 4:18-21). That’s why, writes Paul, “his faith was ‘counted to him as righteous'” (Rom. 4:22).

Footsteps of faith . . . it’s a thing. James would agree.

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

(James 2:18b)

James is not saying that we should fake a walk in order to try and back up our talk, but that saving faith is saving faith because it manifests itself in set-apart footsteps.

John says it’s a thing, too. And a good thing, because the footsteps we’ve left are the frame of reference for drawing encouragement in those times when we falter.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him.

(1John 3:18 ESV)

Faith is more than belief; it is behavior. It is more than words; it is a way. It is more than just a creed; it directs our conduct.

Footsteps of faith . . .

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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A Willing Spirit

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Pete

I think I’ve noted this before, but if those who put together my reading plan intended to have Romans 3 and Psalm 51 on the same day, it was a masterful move. To align “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) and “I have sinned” (Ps. 51:4) makes David’s song of repentance that much more poignant. To consider afresh God as “the just and justifier” (Rom. 3:26) alongside David’s plea that God would “blot out”, “wash thoroughly”, and “cleanse me” from “my transgressions”, “my iniquity”, and “my sin” (Ps. 51:1-2), captures something of not only the dynamic but the magnitude of grace.

But the dots which particularly connect this morning remind me that while I have been redeemed by grace I have also been redeemed for obedience. That while saved apart from the law, I am saved to walk according to the law. And that obedience too, in a sense, is a gift of God.

Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence,
and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

(Psalm 51:9-12 ESV)

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. . . Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

(Romans 3:28, 31 ESV)

Uphold me with a willing spirit . . . That’s the ask I’m chewing on this morning.

For me at least, it’s the ask within David’s greater ask which can easily get overshadowed. After pleading with God for a clean heart, a renewed and right spirit, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and a return of the joy of salvation, I think I kind of skip over the part about being upheld, or sustained, or supported by a willing spirit. A spirit willing to do what? To obey. To not sin. To walk in a manner worthy of grace and forgiveness. To, as Paul says, uphold the law.

I need God to uphold me with a willing spirit so that I can uphold the law.

Noodle on that for a bit.

I need a clean heart, a right spirit, an ever-present Spirit, and the joy of my salvation in order to behave as I claim to believe. While not saved by works of obedience, I am saved for works of obedience. While justified apart from the law, I am justified to uphold the law. And that’s only possible as the grace which saved me from the penalty of sin includes gifting me the desire in the inner man to walk in a manner which demonstrates that I’m also being saved from the power of sin.

Uphold me with a willing spirit. Because, as the southern gospel songwriter puts it, “I can’t even walk, without You holding my hand.”

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

More evidence of His all-sufficient, sustaining grace.

The only power I have to live for His all-deserving glory.

Amen?

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Breaking Faith

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Pete

It was a word specifically for the people of God, those who had been delivered from bondage, set apart as holy, and were on their way to the promised land. Guess then, I could take it as a word for me.

A word about sinning against their brothers and sisters. A word about realizing their guilt. A word about making restitution. But what grabs me this morning is that it’s also a word about, as the ESV puts it, breaking faith with God.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.”

(Numbers 5:6-7 ESV)

Breaking faith, that’s the term I’m chewing on this morning.

Unfaithfulness. Treacherousness. Trespassing. Transgressing. Though the sin was a sin against another person, when all was said and done, it was breaking faith with the LORD.

Breaking faith. Specifically, the scenario in mind may have entailed sin against a brother or a sister where an oath had been made in the Lord’s name but where the promise was never delivered upon. To not make good on their pledge to another was to be unfaithful to the God whose name they invoked as the guarantor of their pledge.

But generally, isn’t breaking faith with God what’s at the core of any sin? Isn’t sin fundamentally behaving in a manner towards others which is at odds with what we say we believe about God? Isn’t it doing to others that which, at least implicitly if not explicitly, we pledged not to do when we said we’d follow Jesus? I’m thinking. Thus, isn’t all sin against men ultimately a sin against the LORD? David saw it that way.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.

(Psalm 51:3-4 ESV)

Breaking faith, at its core, is what all sin is — acting contrary to the truth we say we’ve appropriated. Thus, to experience guilt is fitting. But, praise God, where guilt abounded, grace did more abound (or something like that). Praise God (again) that confession is possible because atonement is available. There’s a place to go with our unfaithfulness. There’s a remedy for our treachery.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1John 1:9 ESV)

We need to own up to breaking faith with the LORD — again. We need to fess up, again. But praise God (one more time) we can then again go up, boldly approaching His throne of grace, through the blood shed when, at Calvary, He was lifted up.

What grace. To God be the glory.

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Eternal Economics (2019 Rerun)

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Pete

As I chew on Psalm 49 this morning, I think you could make the argument that it presents an example of the classic Critical Theory scenario. In this corner, the oppressor — “those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches” (Ps. 49:6). In the other corner, the oppressed — the lowly temple-serving sons of Korah, surrounded by the wealthy who cheat them (49:5). They are prevented from owning any land of their own, prevented from participating in the free-market dynamic of growing, reaping, selling and just working hard to make all you can while you can. Instead of being free to participate in a free-market economy where they could accumulate wealth by working, working, and working some more, they were ransomed by God at birth (read about that in Numbers 3 this morning), conscripted into a heavenly economy where they were set apart for worshiping, worshiping, and worshiping some more.

But unlike modern Critical Theories which look for answers here and now, the songwriter says the just resolution of this oppressor/oppressed dynamic is ultimately reserved for a time and place which is there and then. Here’s how I processed it 5 years ago.

Hovering over Psalm 49 this morning. A song, it seems to me, about economics. Eternal economics. The songwriter solving a riddle with lyrics and melody (v.4) as he considers the ultimate advantage of wealth. (Spoiler alert . . . none).

The conundrum he contemplates? “Why should I fear in times of trouble?”

Apparently his time of trouble involved being cheated by the hands of “those who trust their wealth” and “boast of the abundance of their riches” (v.5-6). Those with the means to make his life miserable. Those with the money to mess things up. Those who espoused their own version of the golden rule–we have the gold, we’ll make the rules. Those who, from a natural perspective, had a lot of leverage because they possessed a lot of the loot.

But the songwriter considers further the natural and reminds himself that it is temporal. That even the wealthiest man eventually dies. That when all is said and done, nothing ultimately distinguishes the rich from the poor. That both the wise and the foolish end up in the grave. That boasting is ultimately buried. That whatever one possesses, and whatever power that might seem to allow him to wield, “his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish” (v.12).

And consideration of the temporal leads the psalmist to consider the eternal and the economics that dictate life after the grave.

Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. . . . But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me. Selah

(Psalm 49:7-9, 15 ESV)

No man can redeem another from the power of the grave. No amount of earthly riches can reverse the stranglehold of death. But God is able to ransom the soul. He is able to bear the cost to pay forever the price of mortality. He alone has the power to break the bondage of Sheol. His heavenly riches able to secure earthly resurrection. And in that, “He will receive me.” Death’s chains broken so that we might live bodily in His presence.

And while the ancient songwriter was led by the Spirit of God to be assured of such a ransom, today we know the One in whom those riches are found.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

(Ephesians 1:7, 2:4-7 ESV)

God ransoms the soul from the power of Sheol with the riches of His grace — the immeasurable riches of His grace — manifest in the finished work of His Son. Though once dead in sin, though once with no hope of a future beyond the certainty of the grave, He has made us alive. He has raised us up with the resurrected Christ, and reserved for us a heavenly seat which is ours by faith today and will, one day, be ours to possess for eternity.

That’s eternal economics.

And so, the songwriter answers his own riddle.

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.

(Psalm 49:16-17 ESV)

But when the beloved of God die, those who by faith have believed in His ransom and received of His pardon, we will be carried away. It is then that true glory will be ours. The glory of the redeemed. The glory of the resurrected. The glory of our imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance in Christ.

The glory purchased according to the immeasurable riches of His grace.

The glory which will be for His glory alone.

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Called to Belong

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Pete

This morning I’m hovering over a phrase from Paul’s introduction to his letter to the Romans. In just a few short verses (Rom. 1:1-6) Paul unpacks the essentials of a great, great gospel. It’s the gospel of God. It was promised through His prophets in the holy Scriptures. It concerns His Son who, according to the flesh, descended from David, and who, through the power of the Spirit, was resurrected from the dead. And, for those who believe, it brings about the obedience of faith. This being true for all nations . . .

. . . including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

(Romans 1:6 ESV)

Called to belong. Those are the words I’m chewing on this morning.

Not all the translations render the phrase that way. In the NKJV and NASB it includes those who are “the called of Jesus Christ.” Noodle on it a bit, and that’s seems to be a significant difference. Being called of Jesus is far more open-ended than being called to belong to Jesus. The former leaves a fair amount of wiggle room to debate what the call means. Called to be blessed? Called to prosper? Called to fit following Jesus into however I think my life should be lived? Those are all options with a call of. But if I’m called to belong, then it seems to be less about what’s in it for me and more about why I’m in it for Him.

So, which is it? If the original word is just the word for called, then why did some translators render it called of and others called to belong to? A note from one of my online commentaries was helpful.

‘called to be Jesus Christ’s’; not ‘called by Jesus Christ,’ for the call is always ascribed to God the Father. (Lightfoot)

God the Father does the calling. The call of salvation is the Father’s call. True statement, I think. Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 would indicate that salvation’s dynamic is that those who come to Christ are those given to Christ by the Father (Jn. 17:11-12, 24). Jesus emphatically stated that the will of Him, the Father, who sent Him, the Son, was that the Son “should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day” (Jn. 6:49).

So yeah, I’m good with those translations which seek to make clear that being called of Christ is to be understood as being called to belong to Christ.

Okay, with that settled in my mind, time to camp on the implications of being called to belong.

That Paul understood this is clear from his opening words to the Romans. He begins his letter referring to himself as “a servant of Christ Jesus” first, then as one “called to be an apostle.” To own Christ as Savior was to be owned by Christ to be a servant. To receive Jesus was to be recruited by Jesus. To believe in Jesus was to belong to Jesus. To have faith would mean to be ready to follow.

Paul also makes that really clear in another letter of his.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

(1Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)

Called to belong. Bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. That’s the good news. It’s not about what I get, but about what He gets — me!

Under new management. Called to flourish through the obedience of faith.

Oh, to really believe that I am called to belong. And then to behave like I’m called to belong.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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My Exceeding Joy

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Pete

Chewing on Psalm 43 this morning. That it’s a continuation of Psalm 42 seems evident because of the common chorus in these two songs of David — still turmoil within . . . still a soul cast down . . . still the echoing question of “why” (Ps. 42:5, 11; 43:5).

But the “why” asked of a soul cast down is not the only “why” being asked in these songs crying for vindication and relief from oppression.

I say to God, my rock:
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”

(Psalm 42:9 ESV)

For You are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have You rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?

(Psalm 43:2 ESV)

Why have You forgotten me? Why have you rejected me? Those questions would seem to make David’s query to his cast down soul seem kind of rhetorical, don’t they? He knows why His soul is cast down. Because, in his current situation, he feels forgotten by God. In his current reality, it’s like God has rejected him. That’s why his soul is cast down.

Every day his oppressors keep him from entering “the house of God”, he longs to again praise God with the people (42:4). As long as the ungodly, deceitful, and unjust keep him from “the holy hill” he yearns again to be in the place of God’s dwelling. But why? Why would the psalmist want to praise the God who has seemingly forgotten him. Why long to be in the presence of the One who, being Sovereign and all-powerful, has left him to his oppressors, apparently rejecting him? Those are the “whys” I’m chewing on.

Here’s a clue . . .

Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise You with the lyre,
O God, my God.

(Psalm 43:4 ESV)

In yesterday’s song, He was the God of my life (Ps. 42:8). This morning, He’s God my exceeding joy. How can that be? How can the seemingly forgetting God and rejecting God also be God my exceeding joy? And yet, He is.

God my exceeding joy. Literally, God the gladness of my joy, the joy of my joy, the very essence, the beginning of my joy. As Spurgeon puts it: “He is not his joy alone, but his exceeding joy; not the fountain of joy, the giver of joy, or the maintainer of joy, but that joy itself.”

Before David had known the turmoil of oppression, before encountering the depressing need for vindication, he had known the joy of the LORD. He had tasted and seen that the LORD is good (Ps. 34:8). He had experienced God’s presence, He had known God’s goodness, He had soared with divine rapture as he had worshiped facedown before God’s majesty. He had known God not as just the giver of joy, the supplier of gladness, but had found in God Himself joy itself.

Thus, He longed again to be in the presence of the One who currently seemed to have forgotten Him. He cried out for vindication so that he might access again the altar of sacrifice to make offerings to the One who seemed to have rejected Him. David wanted to be in the place where he could praise God, even in seasons of suffering and confusion, because he knew God . . . he believed God . . . he was bound to God — to God my exceeding joy.

Oh, to know God as not only the source and giver of joy, but to know Him as my exceeding joy itself. And, in knowing Him as my joy, to be able to trust Him in all seasons and situations — through those times when I feel forgotten, in those circumstances where I wonder where He is and sense divine rejection.

God my exceeding joy. Thus, my Rock, and my Refuge.

By His grace. For His glory.

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