July 10, 2024
It’s easy to make much of myself. To think of myself—what I want or think I need, what I feel others think about me, my aches and pains and discomforts, how it’s going with me, and how it could be better—I could go on for hours. Without hardly any effort, I can spend my day consumed with thoughts of little else.
But the turn to a Presence-centered life comes when we adjust our gaze upward. When we are so consumed with God—His beauty, His desires and will, His agenda, His character—that we think less of our small concerns in light of His large glory. It is the “freedom of self-forgetfulness” that Timothy Keller wrote about.
THE PSALMS
… are so incredibly helpful because they carry the right balance of this inward but also upward gaze. The writer, David, is transparently honest about his sin and needs and his honesty connects us at the heart. But he always looks up, and his heavenly gaze draws our eyes there. He constantly walked into the Lord’s presence and told us what he saw. To read the Psalms is to focus your eyes on the Father, which is why they are so valuable. Not only does the Psalmist go there, but he takes us by the hand and walks us in also.
I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, You know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation. You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me. (Psalm 40:8-11)
This Psalm, which is also a description of the coming Messiah, ushers us to God. David had become, in part, as Christ would be in whole, a man who delighted to do God’s bidding. His desires surrendered, his hands relaxed, he was willing to do whatever God directed (even dancing naked in abandonment before the Lord). His mouth was open to tell everyone about what he saw of God … His righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness, and truth.
And this is why God used David as his scribe. His “tongue was the pen of a ready writer.”
THREE LIFELONG QUESTIONS
David’s life challenges us, calling us up to more of God with three questions:
The man or woman who answers these questions rightly will live the best life and be the one most useful in the hands of our Mighty King.
February 25, 2025
Realize you are surrounded by Him. He is beneath you, beside you, above you. Where can you go from His care? What are stronger than His arms? More sufficient than His supply? What enemy is stronger or threat more powerful than He who sits eternally on the throne?
February 20, 2025
If you have questions about how real, how present, how personal and intimate the Lord is, then just read six words of travelogue in Luke’s journal as he traveled with Paul.
February 18, 2025
I have known many people who have had great joy and power in the midst of great suffering. It is humbling that the slightest inconveniences deter many of us from following God. We have not gotten to the bottom—settled the issue. Most often, we live for our comfort, reputation, or gain. When any of those goals are touched, we are troubled and discontent.
