Praying Our Worldview from the Psalms (Part Two)

Praying our Worldview from the Psalms (Part Two)

Jay Wegter

INTRODUCTION: It is a glorious truth that the Psalms which are so pivotal to worship are filled with the truths which make up biblical worldview. Every major doctrine in biblical theism is represented in the Psalms. The following is a continuation of the worldview themes found in the Psalms.

Worldview themes in the Psalms (cont.):

9. What is redemption? It is the condescension of the Creator of the universe -- Salvation is due to the infinite condescension of the Creator in His incarnation (Ps 40) and His crucifixion (Ps 22; 69). It is the Son of God reversing the ruin of sin and mending what He has made. The Son of God is Mediatorial King. He is priest and King after the order of Melchizedek—He is installed by God (Ps 2:6)—He reigns over, and represents His people (Ps 110:1-4ff.). Our King is also our High Priest. The Redeemer is the only One who can mend the original perfection that was ruined by man’s transgression.

No greater condescension is imaginable than that of the King of the universe giving His life blood to make friends of former enemies. It is the Lawgiver bearing the guilt and punishment of the law-breaker—it is Messiah absorbing into His own being the death, wrath, separation, and misery that was due us. No one flees to God for the refuge of salvation unless they fear God (Ps 34). For the penitent knows to the depths of his being that God energizes the moral laws of cause and effect; of sin and punishment. The penitent regards it as utter folly to reject the lovingkindness of God and to face the vengeance of God in one’s own person. The Psalmist captures the irrational ‘heart talk’ of the impenitent in Psalm 10:13, “. . . he has said to himself, ‘Thou wilt not require it.” In other words, the unbeliever imagines that his soul is unconquerable—that God will back down in the end and not prove to be a God of retribution and vengeance. The sinner tells himself, “I have escaped judgment so far; I will escape in the end also.”

The man who fears God also loves God. Yes, there is paradox here that God saves us from God. The book of Psalms is the book of God our refuge. God is glorified when we take refuge in Him. It is only the saved man who does so. God favors those who fear Him and take refuge in Him (Ps 147:11). The Lord is a refuge from every potential enemy of our soul. He is a refuge from divine wrath because He Himself is our righteousness (Ps 145:7; 119:114, 142; Is 45:24, 46:13, 61:10; Jer 23:6).

10. God does all things for the His Name’s sake. God has annexed the honor of His Name to the veracity of His Word -- “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven” (Ps 119:89). “Thou hast magnified Thy Word according to all Thy Name” (Ps 138:2). His Word is so important—our very faculties were created to receive His self-revelation, His Word (Ps 119). God’s Word must be the constant occupation of our attention. The psalmist saw his need to be constantly animated by God’s Word lest he stray, displease, rebel, and distrust (Ps 119:11, 105, 118-119). The believer is eager to have his life constantly conformed to God’s will. Therefore, he studies God’s Word that he might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will (Col 1:9-12). Ongoing repentance means that our lives are always being ‘aligned’ to God’s Word so that we love His truth and have our affections continually conformed to His truth (Ps 101; 111; 115). Since God’s reputation (His ‘Name’) is joined to His Word, our response must be unconditional trust in Him (Ps 33-34). The true believer has a passion for God’s glory and thus, he desires that his life be conformed to the will of God found in His infallible Word (Ps 119).

God’s Word and Lucifer’s ‘Wager’: Unbelievers are hostile to the fact that God’s attributes, His character, His zeal for His Name stand behind His inviolate, immutable Word. God binds Himself to His Word—staking His reputation upon the infallibility of His Word. The unbeliever’s attitude toward the Word of God mirrors Satan’s attitude toward the Word of God—i.e. every unbeliever, like Satan, speculates that God is not as good as His Word—not as good as His threats and promises.

Every unbeliever treats God’s threats and warnings as ‘idle threats.’ Lucifer works tirelessly to make his own wager or bet (about God’s Word) to appeal to sinners—namely that Satan’s own definition of freedom can be theirs. That a ‘master-less’ freedom is possible and desirable (in which case Satan becomes the god of the unbeliever by default—2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2-3). It has been said that Satan has a terrible plan for a person’s life. The evil one initiates that plan by doing his level best to erode confidence in God’s Word. Sin does not liberate or allow the sinner to transcend his creaturehood. Sin does not create a new reality. What sin does create is a ‘death spiral’ for those made in the image of God—that death spiral being separation from God forever who is the source of all love, life, light, blessedness, meaning, well-being, and relationship. Our earth’s moon has a reflected glory—it does not produce its own light. The moon serves the earth in countless ways. It stabilizes earth’s axis, it mixes our oceans temperatures, flushes our bays and estuaries, and sets the reproductive clock of a multitude of earth’s species. In its present orbit the moon serves, and the moon reflects—that is its created glory—BUT if the moon left its orbit to wander into deep space it would lose all its glory. It would be useless, lost in the black vacuum of space, a wandering chunk of dust-covered matter without an orbit, a meaningless undignified pock-marked ball of rock.

Much of the church today has ‘domesticated’ god—paring off from the knowledge of God such themes as His wrath, burning holiness, ferocity, and vengeance. What men are willfully ignorant of is the fact that God is putting His own character and attributes on display in redemptive history. Every individual will ultimately prove to be an eternal object lesson on where they stood in relation to God’s Word. Those who imitate Satan’s wager will lose all their glory—1 Corinthians 1:19-20; 2:6-8—instead of honor and life and blessedness, they will have eternal shame, misery, and dishonor. Neutral ground in this matter is an illusion. Everyone led by the evil one is also a rebel who has ‘thrown down the gauntlet’ before God Almighty (Jer 44:28). Redemptive history makes it clear that there is no neutrality in regard to His Word.

The Psalms constantly repeat the fact that there is a total antithesis between those who are of the truth and those who are not. God will exhibit perfect discrimination between these two groups of individuals when He brings history to its consummation. The Genesis flood is a paradigm of this perfect discrimination between believer and unbeliever. The Genesis flood completely removed the illusion of neutrality—He takes away all imagined middle ground. On the last day it will be revealed that there are only two kinds of vessels: vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath (Rom 9:21-24)—only two destinies: eternal life and eternal death.

What you think of God’s Word is what you think of God Himself. God’s immutable character backs up every word of Scripture. God and His Word are one. God’s Word will be fulfilled—it cannot be broken. Whether in redemption of the believer, or damnation of the unrighteous—God will fulfill every threat and promise because He has joined the honor of His Great Name to the perfect fulfillment of His Word. God binds Himself to His Word. God has bound the greatness of His Name to the veracity and immutability of Scripture. God’s honor and glory are leveraged upon the comprehensive fulfillment of His Word. Therefore, for God to not fulfill any part of His Word would mean that He is no longer jealous for the sake of His Name—which is impossible.

The unbeliever pretends that God’s Word is not clear, not infallible, and not authoritative. But we must remember that when the unbeliever hears or reads God’s Word there is an instant work of recognition taking place—the unbeliever knows he is hearing the voice of his Creator. Sinners are willfully forgetful of what God is doing in human history. History is God confirming His Word—bringing to pass every word of it—staking His reputation on the veracity of His Word.

God’s universe is held together, ruled, ordered, and governed by God’s Word. No matter how sincere, zealous, pious, wounded, self-sacrificing, or religious a person is—God will not alter or set aside His Word for you. God loves people by giving them His Word and granting them faith in His Word and the power to be transformed by His Word. The reality of redemptive history exists so that God may confirm His Word in a public display or demonstration. Nothing is more absurd than to think that God is not as good as His Word. Sin is spiritual insanity. To know anything about God’s purposes for human history is to see the depth of the folly of thinking there may be a chance that God will not fulfill every jot and tittle of His Word.

Repentance is not merely turning in remorse from moral failure, repentance is a repudiation (hatred) of one’s imagined independence (autonomy) from God—and then falling at the feet of Him who is the Word—God incarnate—and from then on to be ruled by His Word. Diligent attention to God’s Word is attention to God’s will, and to God’s character—we cannot please and honor God unless our minds and hearts and consciences are captive to His Word (Ps 119). As we meditate on His Word and it fills our minds, conscience, and affections; our prayer lives ought to continually manifest a posture of repentance wherein we desist from our own ways and bow in trust and obedience.

11. God is our Sovereign King. He is to be feared, revered, and held in awe

• God favors those who fear Him (Ps 147:11). The Psalms convey a supreme vision of God clothed in majesty, reigning, splendor, awesome in holiness.ⁱ Countless churched individuals have but a ‘God concept’. They do not pant after God; nor do they hunger and thirst for righteousness. Says John Piper, “People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is the unknown cure. Show me thy glory!”ⁱⁱ God is constantly active in His involvement with the creation. He rules over the nations—He appoints their time in history as well as their destruction. No one can thwart His sovereign decree. He creates, controls, judges, wars, blesses. He subdues nations, He is to be feared (Ps 47:2-3, 7-9; 98:2-9).ⁱⁱⁱ God does whatever He pleases in the entire universe, “in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps 135:6). This is a cause of deep abiding reverence and awe.

The Hebrew word for fear is YARAH. It means to hold in honor—to be afraid—to be in awe—to worship—even to be alarmed.ⁱᵛ The word ‘fear’ in the context of fearing God frequently refers to the reverence and awe and respect which God’s Person elicits (Deut 10:12-13). The fear of God is associated with obedience to His commands—obey, walk, do, listen, hear, fear, heed—thus fear of God is inseparable from appropriate moral conduct. Fear of God is also associated with an awe of God which is an essential part of true worship. The fear of God must be learned from His Word. “Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children’” (Deut 4:10).

Of Job’s fear of God, the Word says that he was blameless, upright, turning away from evil (Job 1:8). The fear of the Lord is wisdom. Proverbs is the main book of the Bible dealing with the fear of God. Fear of God, wisdom, and knowledge are closely associated in Scripture. The theme of Proverbs is the wise man versus the fool. The wise man fears the Lord; the fool is lacking fear of God. In Ecclesiastes, God’s absolute sovereignty is a just cause for fear of God. The fear of God underlies wise decision-making (Eccl 3:14). The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments—consider how ‘rational’ this is in view of the fact that God will bring every act to judgment; whether good or evil (Eccl 12:13-14).

A true understanding of who God is inspires worship, even trembling (Ps 55:5-6; 90:11). The fear of God inspires moral conduct (Gen 20:11; Neh 5:15). Such fear is imparted to God’s people in order that they might not sin (Ex 20:20; Jer 32:40). The hard hearted do not have the fear of God (Is 63:17). Jesus commands men to fear God (Lu 12:5). The fear of the Lord is the first principle of wisdom (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7). The fear of God is also associated with knowledge (Prov 2:5).

God is a Great King—we must develop an attitude of patient waiting upon Him in our prayer and meditation time. In our culture of immediacy, quickness in gaining answers is a measure of efficiency. Therefore the spiritual discipline of waiting on God is at an all-time low with the rising generation of believers. But the Psalms give us manifold benefits of waiting upon the Lord. Why is waiting upon Him so essential? For starters, what is required of us runs head long up against our lack of personal strength and adequacy, the result is stress. Waiting upon God is the answer to stress. When we wait upon God, we first of all long for God. We are slow to realize that our answer is God Himself (and not merely our anticipated change in circumstances). Out of longing for God comes listening to God. Out of listening to God comes living upon God. He is the answer to our lack of strength.

As waiting upon the Lord becomes a lifestyle, numerous positive changes in personal character take place. Consider the following changes: Waiting upon the Lord mortifies our demanding-ness. It assists in putting to death our entitlement attitude to have our way on our time schedule. Waiting on the Lord produces a greater trust in the Lord as Provider. Waiting makes us increasingly willing to practice positive resignation in the face of God’s providence. It is the true test of our doctrine of God’s sovereignty. Waiting protects us from the often disastrous consequences of impetuosity. It leaves room for God to work (remember, from our perspective, God is incredibly slow, waiting upon Him ‘adjusts us to His will’).

Waiting cultivates holy expectation (as we walk in obedience, we learn to expect His blessing, and patiently look for it; this deepens our confidence that God is the Source of every good gift – James 1:17). Waiting teaches us to receive from the Lord instead of taking for ourselves. Our tendency to ‘grab’ dishonors the Giver. God gives to His own in an all-wise way that will keep their love to Him greater than their love for His gifts. Waiting allows God to leave the mark of His hand upon the blessings He sends (this is the opposite of saying, “I made it happen”). Waiting teaches us to please the Lord as our highest ambition (2 Cor 5:9). Waiting liberates us from the fear of losing what is most precious to us (because waiting reinforces the fact that God is the ultimate Giver, and that He is for us, and knows best). Waiting orders our spiritual priorities by causing us to place delight in the Lord ahead of the desires of our hearts (Ps 37:4-6).

As those appointed by God to subdue the earth, we like to make things happen. Our secret motto tends to be: if it’s going to be, it’s up to me. There is much “unsanctified ambition” in our flesh. Learning to wait upon the Lord is a spiritual discipline that must be cultivated and learned. For the world around us is preoccupied with what shall we eat, what shall we wear, where shall we dwell (Matt 6:31-32). Waiting upon God is not the same as letting go and doing nothing. We must therefore distinguish between passivity and waiting upon God. First of all, waiting on the Lord is not antithetical to initiative. It is a posture of heart that says in effect God is the Giver; He does not need my striving to make things happen and fulfill His promise; I will trust in God and depend on Him more than upon my plans. By His Word, and His Spirit, and by wise counselors He is perfectly capable of making it clear what action I should take.

The Psalms speak continually of the posture of the godly man’s heart before the Lord, waiting upon God is one of the most common postures of heart described in the Psalms. As one traces the theme of waiting upon God through the Psalms, it becomes clear that waiting is indispensable to godliness. Waiting upon the Lord is nothing less than the godly man letting God be God. The following Psalms give ample demonstration that waiting upon the Lord honors God and places the believer in the best possible position to know God, to do God’s will, and to glorify Him by trust.

Professor Emeritus of Christian Education, Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary offers the following insightful quote related to waiting on God. “After 40 years in ministry, I can say without equivocation that every major problem I brought on myself was due to getting ahead of God’s Spirit and not waiting upon the Lord.”

The following Psalms give us valuable insight into the necessity of waiting upon the Lord: Ps 4:4-5 – “Tremble and do not sin; meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord.” Waiting settles our spirit—it keeps us from rash and passionate reactions. It reminds us that God is in charge and that life goes around Him and not me. What a powerful defense against anger, impatience and irritability! Ps 27:13-14 – “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.” Fear and despair are conquered by waiting upon the Lord. Expectation from God is a function of personal holiness. Isn’t that interesting; those committed to personal holiness expect God to keep His promises. Waiting deepens our personal expectation that God’s goodness will be poured out upon us. When we wait upon God, we become strong because our object of trust shifts from self to Almighty God. Fears evaporate because our confidence in God is tied to the following: He loves us too much to give us now what we are not yet ready to receive. His timing is perfect.

Ps 33:18-22 – “Behold the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy Name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee.” Here the Psalmist places his trust solely in God and not in his own personal plans. The more we trust in God, the more it takes us off of self and allows us to rejoice in God. God requires holy expectation from us. The Psalmist even equates the ongoing experience of God’s lovingkindness to be a proportional function of how much he has hoped in God. What a contrast this is to the man who hurriedly rushes off a prayer, God bless my plan.

Ps 37:34 – “Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.” When our focus is waiting upon the Lord as our true source of every good gift, it will help keep us from unsanctified ambition. While waiting upon the Lord we must keep ourselves in a position to be blessed—that is by “keeping His way” (that is committing ourselves to obedience). Ps 52:9 – “I will give Thee thanks forever, because Thou has done it, and I will wait on Thy Name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy godly ones.” A lifestyle of waiting on God is joined to the power of our testimony. Those believers around us will see that we conduct our life by waiting upon God instead of impatiently prosecuting our own plans.

Ps 62:1-2; 7-8 – “My soul waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” In verses one and two there is solitude and stability in waiting. In verses seven and eight there is hope, safety, and intimacy with God in waiting.

Ps 130:5-6 – “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His Word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; indeed more than the watchmen for the morning.” Waiting deepens our practical reliance upon the Word of God. Waiting proves that we regard God as trustworthy. Waiting makes us alert and sensitive as to when God is speaking to us and directing us.

Ps 147:10-11 – “He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His lovingkindness. God desires that we keep our hearts in a posture of waiting and utter dependence upon Him. He makes His favor known to the man who waits expectantly upon Him. God delights in the man who waits and trusts.

12. The Genesis Flood changed the geosphere, the biosphere, and atmosphere. Noah’s flood was the single greatest event to shape earth since creation -- The deluge was a judgment for man’s sin. Because man is the ‘crown of creation’ and the steward of creation (Ps 8); in the flood the creation itself also suffered for man’s rebellion. Because man is God’s appointed steward over the works of God’s hands; as mankind goes morally—so goes creation (Is 24).

Noah’s flood radically altered the surface features of planet earth—mountains and oceans rose and sunk according to Psalm 104:5-9. God sat as “King” at the flood (Ps 29:10). The earth’s sediments speak of a global cataclysm; not of the origin of life. In the epistle of Second Peter, the Apostle speaks of the willful ignorance of the Genesis flood. In the last days scoffers will abound—denying that God has already judged the planet and its entire population once already in Noah’s flood. The first global judgment was by water the second will be by fire says the Apostle Peter. The first global judgment by water (the Genesis flood) is the precursor and paradigm of the final judgment by fire (2 Pet 3).

13. The Psalms speak of the glory of eternal life. The Psalms open the subjects of resurrection and the Kingdom of God -- Regarding the resurrection, Psalm 16 stresses that bodily resurrection is the future hope of the redeemed all because of Messiah’s resurrection. Says Henry Morris, we are justified in using Psalm 16 to support the resurrection. The apostles used this Psalm as the keystone of their preaching that the Scriptures foretold Christ’s resurrection (Acts 4:33; 13:27-37).ᵛ

At the consummation of history the victory of God in Christ will be celebrated by the entire creation. A day is coming when all of creation will be unified in the praise of God—including the inanimate creation. “Praise Him sun, moon, all stars of light, praise the Lord from the earth sea monsters and all deeps” (Ps 147:3, 7; 148). Celebration of God’s victory will be to the ends of the galaxies. Rivers will ‘clap their hands’ (Ps 98). Trees will ‘sing’ (Ps 96:12-13). God’s coming Kingdom will be involve a celebration of eternal victory and a restored creation that worships God from one end of the galaxies to the other (Ps 150). Do you pray ‘Kingdom’ prayers? “Kingdom consciousness” must be part of our life or prayer and meditation. For as His redeemed sons, God has invited us His Kingdom plot. Our heavenly treasure is bound up in the reality of God’s coming Kingdom. The Lord’s Prayer is a ‘Kingdom consciousness’ prayer.

14. The Psalms are ‘real to life’. They speak to every joy and trial -- Says Steve Lawson, in the Psalms we find the godly man dealing with the heart-rending crunch of life. He is chased by enemies, he faces death, and he struggles with depression. Psalms speaks to every season of life—they are utterly realistic about suffering.ᵛⁱ As Calvin said in his commentary on the Psalms, “[It is] an anatomy of all parts of the soul.” Psalms takes the attributes of God out of the realm of abstraction and into a glorious interface with the believer (Ps 146). The believer in covenant with God discovers that God has “harnessed” His own attributes for the welfare of His redeemed child. God’s dealings with His people are seen in concrete ways such as forgiveness, protection, guidance, provision, refuge, and hope (Ps 78; 103; 147). The Psalms provide a model for transparency in prayer.

Prayer is not primarily about the believer trying to get God to do something. Prayer is about the saint being adjusted to God’s Person, promises, purposes, precepts and providence. In this sense, prayer is a rectifying activity. It ‘resets’ our faculties to key off of God instead of off of our carnal desires and circumstances. Transparency in prayer is vital to our spiritual health. Each day has enough trouble of its own Jesus said (Mt 6:34). In other words, if you heap tomorrow’s cares onto today’s plate, you are going to be anxious. Transparency in prayer allows every aspect of our being to come into contact with the sufficiency of the Lord. Our mind, affections, conscience, and will must be yielded to God’s will found in His Word. But, there are countless intrusions in life that we permit to generate emotional negativity in our thought life. These negatives must be deliberately brought into contact with God in prayer.

Think of the emotional ‘places’ at which the psalmist meets God: personal disillusionment, despair, treachery, personal sin, cynicism, depression, sickness, grief, and spiritual stagnancy. We think of the Psalms primarily as a book of praises, and it is—but the Psalms are also a pattern for us to pray transparently. One of my mentors refers to this kind of prayer as ‘processing’. We have troublesome emotions that need to be ‘processed’.

These emotions can be sinful, or merely the agitations of life. But in order for us to have peace and joy restored, these emotions must be allowed to have an interface with God in prayer. Here are some of the negatives that we must learn to ‘process’ in prayer to God: things in life too big for you to carry, scores and injustices you cannot settle, personal weaknesses you cannot reverse, baffling injustices, dishonor, envies and coveting, discontentment, compelling ambitions, broken dreams, unfaithful friends, etc. When the psalmist lays his burdens before God (‘processing’ his negativity), pouring out his heart before the Lord, joyful integration follows—he no longer is split and divided (Ps 62:5-8).

Endnotes:

i Steven Lawson, “Expository Preaching of the Psalms” (2004 Winterim, The Master’s Seminary) Lesson
one, pp. 1, 7
ii John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990) 9, in Lawson, 7.
iii Lawson, lesson one, p.17; lesson. two, p. 62.
iv NIDOT, 2:527
v Morris, p. 119.
vi Lawson, lesson one, p. 22.