UNDERSTANDING THE PSALMS AND THE OTHER POETIC BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

Do you find this verse troubling?

·       I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. (Psalm 37:25; ESV)

I find it troubling. It sets me up for disappointment and disbelief. How? I know the trials I have experienced and have seen the many trials of my brethren. There have been times when we all go begging for help. Certainly, those Christians facing death and forced conversions at the hands of ISIS, Boko Haran, and a multitude of other Islamic terrorist groups are begging for help.

It comes down to this – can we really trust God and His promises? King David, the writer of this Psalm, also “went begging” from the rich but miserly Nabal (1 Samuel 25:1-8).

Even worse, the chosen of God have often lived lives of destitution:

·       They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:37-38)

Where was God at these times? Where was He when His saints were experiencing martyrdom, which He Himself had ordained? How can we reconcile these painful hardships with His promises of deliverance and blessedness?

Interestingly, even in Psalm 37, we find both perspectives – the prosperity of the wicked and the poverty of the righteous:

·       Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. (Psalm 37:7-9)

But when shall we be delivered? When shall we “inherit the land?” When will his promises be fulfilled? As Hebrews teaches us, the martyrs were required to wait until His Kingdom comes. Meanwhile, He is holding our hand.

Even immediately before the troubling verse (25), David acknowledged that the righteous will fall:

·       The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand. (Psalm 37:23-24)

However, suffering is only temporary. Meanwhile, “the Lord upholds his hand.” "Where sin abounds, so does grace much more so abound” (Romans 5:20).

Also, even when we fall, we “shall not be cast headlong” in destruction, as Paul had taught:

·       But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

To truly know grace, we must also know the depths of our sin and condemnation. To truly know God’s deliverance, we must also know our helplessness and desperation.

How do we put all this together? How should we interpret the Psalms and the promises of God? We need to see the big picture and to understand the far-reaching plan of God.

The Psalmist had despaired of the promises of God:

·       Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. (Psalm 73:12-13)

However, he was later shown the big picture, how the promises of God would eventually be fulfilled, and that made all the difference. He therefore confessed:

·       I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:22-26)

Indeed, our flesh will fail us, but we have something far better.

THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT WE CANNOT SEE

It is Cain's lineage, not the good son Seth's lineage that is credited with the advancements in music and technology:

• He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron...(Genesis 4:21-22)

Initially, I had found this hard to accept, thinking instead that:

• "It should have been the righteous and not the unrighteous line blessed with these advancements. The Bible seems to be giving the wrong message."

However, I later found that this is a message that the Bible often gives (Psalm 37, 73), and we are perplexed by this. Shouldn't the righteous, instead, be blessed? 

We are indeed blessed, but there are several reasons why we may not see this. For one thing, those God loves, He disciplines (Hebrews 12:5-11):

·       Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (1 Peter 4:16-17)

Any building under construction is not going to seem appealing until the external work is finished. However, this takes time, because our Lord begins pruning us deep within to first humble us in order to exhalt us (Luke 18:14). Consequently, we are often seen grimacing, not smiling, humbled by our failures and blemishes, and not exalting in our triumphs.

Besides, we do not all start the race in the same place. Instead, the chosen start far behind, because God often chooses the outcasts of society:

• For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Consequently, we are not attractive to the natural eye.

Lastly, we might be looking through the wrong lens, one which will not detect real growth, the fruit that God sees. Our lens sees only the surface. We are unable to see the real person and the deep work of God.

God had sent the wise Prophet Samuel to the household of Jesse on a secret mission to anoint a new king of Israel. However, Samuel was relying on his own judgment to select one of Jesse's son:

• When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord 's anointed is before him." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:6-7)

It turned out that the Lord had His eye on Jesse's least impressive son, David.

Because we do not see as the Lord sees, we often regard as spiritual those who are not and overlook those who are. This is why Paul had stated:

• But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)

Let's face it, there is much that we cannot perceive - the Spirit world, our oneness in the Body of Christ, even our oneness with our wives.

Therefore, we have been instructed to walk by faith and not by sight.

LIVING WITH BROKENNESS AND DYSFUNCTIONALITY

I like to boast in my weaknesses, faults, and failures, not simply because it is required but also because it is the truth (2 Cor. 12:7-10; Phil. 3:7-9). I had been entirely broken and dysfunctional. For decades, I had been imprisoned by a mental bondage that had exceeded any form of physical pain. I felt so bad about myself, so inferior, so inadequate, and so damaged that I felt so uncomfortable in the presence of others and couldn’t wait to escape. Sometimes, these feelings were so intense, I couldn’t even talk.

However, over time, my Savior set me free, as He had promised (John 8:31-32). Therefore, He gets all the credit. It has become my joy to give Him all the recognition and thanks. Why? Because He deserves it!

King David also understood this. Upon bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he danced before the Lord “with all his might” (2 Sam. 6:14). David even shed his kingly garments and danced like a common man. However, his wife, Michal, the daughter of King Saul, despised him when she saw this. However, David answered her:

·       “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken [with contempt], by them I shall be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:21-22; ESV)

Not everyone will understand the surpassing value and beauty of humility and self-abasement before our Savior. However, those who know Him will get it, those who are aware that they are nothing without Him. They understand that they have nothing to boast about apart from their Lord:

·       But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. (Philippians 3:7-9)

This is what I want to model before the world – that Christ is my hope and my righteousness. In fact, so that I do not forget this all-important lesson, my Savior has left me with enough selfish internal “rubbish” to remind me that it is all about Him.

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH GOD WHEN HE DOESN’T ANSWER OUR PRAYERS?

Here’s the problem – God claims that He will answer our prayers!

• Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14; ESV)

Despite our Lord’s assurance that He will answer our prayers, many of them seem to go unanswered. This can be very discouraging, even to the writers of Scripture. The Psalmist Ethan the Ezrahite, after reminding God of His promise that He would fulfill the covenant He had made with David to establish an everlasting Kingdom, charges God:

• But now you [God] have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed.  You have renounced the covenant with your servant [David]; you have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. (Psalm 89:38-42)

It seemed as if God had failed to keep His promise and to answer the prayers of Israel for deliverance. How do we understand this “failure” in light of God’s promises? We need to understand that Jesus’ promises to answer prayer carried along with them several conditions. One of them was “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” His answered prayers were intended to glorify the Father. It also had to be in “His [Jesus’] Name. This is not simply a matter of uttering the name “Jesus.” This requires that our prayer requests have to be according to His will.

We see this proviso echoed in many places in the Bible. The three Jewish young men had refused to worship the king, who even gave them another chance to worship him before they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. However, they bravely answered:

• “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is ABLE to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18.)

Notice that they hedged in saying, “Our God will save us.” Instead, they answered more humbly, “Our God… is able” to save us. Evidently, they understood that, ultimately, their rescue depended upon His will, saying, “But if not.” They understood that sometimes His will is for our martyrdom.

Jesus also understood that it depended upon the Father’s will and plan for His life. He therefore prayed:

• And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup [the Cross] pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

If Jesus was willing to submit to the will of the Father, so too must we. Although, it might seem that we have been given a prayer blank-check for whatever we want, Scripture is emphatic that this is not the case:

• You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:3)

Our Lord will answer our prayers, but they must be according to His will and plan for our lives. Well, what is His plan for us? I think that Jesus exhibited this plan in His model prayer:

• Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:9-11)

Notice that God’s will must precede our own will and desires. The Lord’s Prayer also adds another condition for our prayers to be answered:

• And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

This means that we have to be living for the Lord - confessing our sins and turning from them. Our Lord does guarantee to meet our needs, but this requires Him to be first in our lives:

• But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

God does guarantee to provide for us according to His will:

• And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

Consequently, when I pray according to His will, I know that I “have the requests that [I] have asked of him.” When I pray for wisdom to better serve Him, I know that He will give me wisdom. It might not be provided in the time slot I have designated, but I know that I have received.

The Psalmist Ethan couldn’t see a way of escape out of what he saw as a massive failure of God – that God had promised to provide, but it seemed as if He had reneged. Yet he concluded his Psalm on higher ground:

• Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen. (Psalm 89:52)

Ethan failed to grasp how he could still trust in the Lord after this profound disappointment. Nevertheless, he trusted that his God would yet show Himself faithful. Often, this same step of faith is required of us.

Prayers that Please God

Which prayers does God hear and answer? Which please Him? The Bible has a consistent answer. Solomon consecrated the Temple he had built with a wonderfully God-centered prayer. Here is a representative segment:

• "When they [Israel] sin against you [God]—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly'; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you” (2 Chronicles 6:36-39). 

Solomon touched on all of the key areas of prayer—sin, righteousness, justice, confession, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. What did God think of Solomon’s prayer? Evidently, He was pleased. Fire came down from heaven to consume Solomon’s offering (2 Chron. 7:1) indicating that God had received his prayer. Also:

• The LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:12-14).

What did it mean for Israel to “humble themselves”? Jesus told a parable about two people who entered the Temple to pray. The Pharisee was self-righteous and looked down on everyone else. The tax-collector was despised and held in contempt by all. The Pharisee’s prayer was “about himself”—his worthiness before God. The tax-collector could only cry out, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, it was the tax-collector who humbled himself and confessed his unworthiness who received forgiveness. Jesus explained:

• "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

However, according to the faith or prosperity preachers—some call them the “name-it-claim-it preachers”—humility has nothing to do with receiving from God. Instead, it’s about demanding our rights. Pat Robertson once stated:

• “Most people ask God for a miracle but many omit a key requirement—the spoken word. God has given us authority over disease, over demons, over sickness, over storms, over finances. We are to declare that authority in Jesus’ name…We are to command the money to come to us” (Michael Horton, The Agony of Deceit, 128).

Actually, the Bible clearly teaches us that everything God gives us is by His unmerited favor. God will never be in a position to owe us anything!

• Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! (Romans 11:35-36) 

Since all good things come from God (James 1:17), we are always beholden to Him. Jesus instructed that even if we do everything that we are supposed to do, we must consider ourselves unworthy servants (Luke 17:10). Instead, the prosperity preachers claim that we are so worthy that we have the right to “command the money to come to us.”

Commanding God is something that we never find in Scripture. Perhaps the closest thing to this was the hubris of Simon the magician, who wanted to pay God for a supernatural gift. The Apostle Peter was horrified by such an arrogant suggestion:

• "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin" (Acts 8:20-23). 

To think that we can merit something from God with either our money or good deeds shows that our minds are “captive to sin” and still tainted with darkness. In contrast, Solomon’s prayer reflected a mature understanding that everything comes to us through the mercy of God.

Prior to this, Solomon had prayed for wisdom:

• "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this (1 Kings 3:7-10). 

The Lord was pleased that Solomon hadn’t asked for wealth and power. Instead, he asked for the wisdom to govern His beloved people. Nor did Solomon command the wisdom to come to him. In fact, no one in the Bible had such an expectation.

Solomon had learned well from his father, King David. David also knew how to pray humbly to God. He, confessing that he deserved nothing from God but punishment, found blessedness through confession:

• Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:1-5). 

David understood that blessedness was a matter of receiving the grace of God through a humble confession of his sins and not from claiming things that he didn’t deserve.

Prosperity preachers claim that we can establish heavenly merit through good deeds and then demand payment. Joyce Meyers claimed:

• “It says in Romans 4:17 that…we have a God who gives life to the dead and He calls things that be not as though they already existed…If there’s something in your way, speak it…When I talked with Dr. Roberts today and we talked about this seed-faith thing, he said…when you give you get a receipt in heaven that when you have a need you can then go with your receipt and say ‘You see, God, I have got my receipt from my sowing and now I have a need and I’m cashing in my receipt’” (Christian Research Journal, Joel Hunter). 

Meyers is right about one thing. God will answer us according to our deeds or righteousness. However, this doesn’t mean that God owes us anything (Romans 11:35) or that we have a heavenly bank account in the black from which we have the right draw. Rather, if we want to draw from God what we rightfully deserve, it is nothing but condemnation! Instead, it is by the mercy of God alone that we receive anything good from Him.

Jesus taught that we don’t even deserve a “thank you” from God. Instead, we are to consider ourselves as unworthy servants (Luke 17:6-10), not deserving anything from Him.

Well, how is it that He blesses us according to our obedience? Because it is the fruit that He produces through our obedience (Philippians 2:12-13)! Paul confessed he couldn’t take credit for any of his labors, let alone make demands on God, because of his heavenly account:

• But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me (1 Corinthians 15:10).

God even gets the credit for our labors. Sound confusing? Well, it is! God produces the fruit, and yet, we must still take full responsibility. Can we understand this fully? No, but we shouldn’t expect to!

If we deserve anything from God, it is death:

• For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

While our heavenly account will always be in the red, our Savior has given us life.

Meyers is mistaken about Romans 4:17 in another way. Yes, God has the power to call things into existence from nothing. However, there is nothing in this verse to suggest that we have such a power. Claiming that we do places us on the same level as God. This represents a denial of God’s revelation.

Instead, the prayers that move God are characterized by a humble brokenness—the acknowledgement that it is all about the mercy of God. King Hezekiah had been a good king. However, because of his success and wealth, he became proud and distanced himself from God. However, God struck him down with a fatal disease. Hezekiah did not pray as some of the faith preachers recommend: “I am healthy and will live to be 100!” Instead, he “wept bitterly” (Isaiah 38:3) and God answered his prayer for life. As a result Hezekiah thanked God:

• “Like a lion he [God] broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me. I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid! But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:13-17).

Hezekiah’s illness restored his humility.  He acknowledged that God’s ways are just and that He, in His mercy, had struck His servant down.

In contrast to this display of appropriate humility, TV megachurch pastor, Joel Osteen, claims that our words have “enormous creative power”:

• “Our words are vital in bringing our dreams to pass. It’s not enough to simply see it by faith or in your imagination. You have to begin speaking words of faith over your life. Your words have enormous creative power. The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it…Just look in the mirror and say ‘I am strong, I am healthy. I’m rising to new levels, I’m excited about my future.’ When you say that, it may not be true. You may not be very healthy today, or maybe you don’t have a lot of things to look forward to, but Scripture tells us in Romans [4:17] we have to call the things that are not as if they already were” (Christian Research Journal, Joel Hunter).

Scripture gives us no indication that we have such power. Rather, God wants truth in our inmost being (Psalm 51:6). We have no right or authorization to play fast and loose with the truth. All truth is God’s truth. Consequently, we are not free to manipulate it.

James chastens those who speak arrogantly, who say that they will make a financial killing:

• Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil (James 4:15-16).

Our words have to conform to God’s reality and not to our imaginations and dreams. Claiming that we can shape reality with our words is boasting. Instead, we have to acknowledge that it’s all about “the Lord’s will.” James claims that we need to realize that we are no more than a “…mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14b).  We are incapable of succeeding at anything apart from God.

King Manasseh of Judah was the worst of the worst. He reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem and bathed the city with the blood of the righteous. Scripture informs us that he was worse than the Canaanites. However, Manasseh was captured by the Assyrians and thrown into jail. There he humbled himself in prayer before the God he had hated:

• In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God (2 Chronicles 33:12-13).

Amazingly, God restored Manasseh to the throne! Had Joel Osteen counseled Manasseh in prison, he would have instructed him:

• “The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it… Just look in the mirror and say ‘I am strong, I am healthy. I’m rising to new levels, I’m excited about my future.’”

However, such an assertion cannot be found in Scripture; nor would God have responded to such a prayer!