The Psalms.

I'm not really sure what I have to say right now that is worth taking the time to express let alone share with another human being, not to mention that I don't even know what I feel like saying or what i have on my heart. Yet, the fact still stands that I have an odd urge to write something. so after that disclaimer I think I'm just gonna go for it.

Well I have been reading through the Psalms for a while not which was kinda on my heart today already and then Andrew got a word for me a while back that I should read through the Psalms and that God had much to show me there, which he certainly has. I think I'll hop on into Proverbs and Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes now.

It's hard to say for sure what exactly god has been showing me because i feel there are many things, but the main thing that has and continues to stand out to me is the wealth of doctrine and theology that are quite plain in the Psalms. I'm amazed by the things that David and the other Psalmists spoke out and claimed so boldly over their faith that I and many others are not so quick to speak out let alone rejoice in. A few phrases that come to mind are "Our God is in the Heavens he does whatever he pleases." or God speaking through David, "I own the cattle on a thousand hills....if I were hungry, would I ask you?"

I also noticed the Psalmists confession of their utter dependence upon God, and yet how they did not allow their knowledge of that dependence hinder them from fighting for holiness and obedience, and furthermore did not allow it to be an excuse for sin or lethargy, as I find is easy to do on some days. In particular Psalm 119 really demonstrated this to me as I see many places where the Psalmist would say things like "I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart ("set my heart free" in other translations)" or "Teach me You way and I will walk in it.", and many others.

However, I also noticed in the Psalms that often the writers would understand that although the things often commanded of them were impossible for them to do alone, they did not allow that to be an excuse from trying, or more importantly from asking God to produce it in them. Often even, I'd read David or another writer say things like "I WILL rejoice, for my delight is in your law." They would often preach to themselves and determine that they would act according to the word of God and that they would follow what was good rather straying into evil simply because they lacked that ability to walk in total holiness and freedom.

John Piper called this idea that I'm trying to express and articulate as "Willing God's willingness." or in another sermon "Acting the miracle." Saying "I don't wait for the miracle, I act the miracle." Meaning that as Paul wrote that "it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure" or that he "worked harder than them all, never the less, it was not I working but the grace of God that was with me." So I see in these scriptures that we are called to wait upon God and to rely on him, yet the waiting of faith seems to be active and not passive because we recognize that as we work God is working in us and with us. So as I battle sin I don't simply sit on my butt and ask God to change my heart, but rather as I beg him to change my heart I also go militant against my sin and crucify my flesh and demolish every argument that sets itself against the knowledge of God.

My favorite prayer that has come out of this is David's prayer in Psalm 27:5 where he says to God, "Say to my Heart, 'Seek My Face.' and my heart says of You, 'Your Face Lord I will seek.' " I pray and ask the Lord to declare and command to my heart to seek His face, and then I respond that I will seek his face and determine to do so. Because faith without action is dead, and so the asking and waiting or believing of faith responds recognizing that God is willing and that he is more zealous for our holiness than we are and so we ought to realize that he will act and move and that he is supplying and will continue to supply grace and the aid of the Spirit as we seek to kill sin and uproot it. the fact that I even care and want to kill sin is evidence that He is with me and that won't change. So I can actively ask for grace, and I can actively live and act from grace because he has supplied and has promised that it will always been mine and available to me. I feel like I'm going around in circles, but hopefully this will make sense to whomever reads this.

....I have to pee...very badly.



....The End.