Praying our Worldview from the Psalms

Jay Wegter

INTRODUCTION: Biblical worldview is not merely a Christian intellectual pursuit, it is a God-centered, worshipful, soul-rejoicing unification of Christian truth and life. It is intensely practical—it emboldens our witness and it deepens our confidence that God’s truth is total truth about all of life.

In our post-Christian era, it is vital that we recognize that the culture war between Christianity and pagan-secular worldview represents a ‘collision’ between competing cosmologies (cosmology: the study of the origin and nature of the cosmos). These two cosmologies are absolutely antithetical. There is no middle ground between them. Both claim to explain reality. That means there is an immense ‘train wreck’ occurring in our Western world—a deafening collision between these two worldviews. At the heart of biblical cosmology is the Creator-creature distinction. Central to biblical cosmology is that God is Creator and ‘Definer’ of what He has made. As Creator He gives designations, definitions, categories and relations of what He has made.

The absolute truth of biblical cosmology is essential in accurately interpreting the universe.ⁱ God’s relation to the creation is the ordering principle of the universe and of reality (Acts 17:22-31). Because God is the sustainer and definer of all that He has made, there is no such thing as a reality greater than God—or a reality in which God is but a component (note this error in deism and pantheism).

Thus, biblical cosmology is the sole vantage point ‘high enough’ to provide the foundation for a unified cohesive worldview. Biblical cosmology alone provides a wide angle lens broad enough to see man’s place in the universe as the image of God. Biblical cosmology is a totally unified ordering principle— without it, worldview has no foundation.

Consequently biblical cosmology is the foundation of the gospel—for the gospel only makes sense in a world in which our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God is Creator, Owner, Upholder, Lawmaker, Ruler, Redeemer, and Judge. The gospel has no point of contact in a world in which pantheistic/pagan cosmology has replaced biblical cosmology. This is why in our Christian outreach there is an increasingly desperate need to define categories as God does—that He is Ruler, Sustainer, Owner of what He has made—and that the designations and definitions He gives concerning His creation are absolutely essential for accurately interpreting reality.

THE PROBLEM: The ‘wrecking ball’ of naturalism has helped produce a post-Christian culture. It has left destruction in its wake. The ‘wrecking ball’ of naturalism has systematically broken down the boundaries set by God. Humanistic cosmologies seek to make man into a god by destroying the distinction between God and man, man and animal, man and woman, and right and wrong. Philosophic naturalism has so thoroughly permeated our culture—it has for all intents and purposes become our national worldview.

Students imbued with Darwinism find themselves ‘metaphysically lost’ in a materialistic/chance universe without a fixed point of reference. 75% of American college students are looking for the meaning of life. And no wonder—how to you find meaning and rationality in a meaningless and irrational universe?

Secular humanism’s “wrecking ball” has redefined creation as a mass of raw material awaiting our efforts to shape it. The secularists think of the creation as matter, motion, and impersonal forces with no rational purpose—as if we import all rationality and superimpose it on creation (consider the folly of assuming that mankind has no personal origin—but then demanding that life has purpose, and significance).

With the rise of modern science came a fascination with quantities—with measuring things. Accompanying philosophies suggested that all reality may be reduced to a kind of mathematical formula. Concreteness, empiricism, and precision became the most valued attributes of knowledge. In other words, people began to think that the scientific method was the only really valid way to understand the world around us—“real knowledge” was scientific knowledge.” “Real knowledge” was empirically verifiable, measurable, and quantifiable.ⁱⁱ Says Christian sociologist, Ken Myers, church leaders, in an effort to remain relevant, and worried about losing their market share, began to reframe traditional Christian teaching in terms that fit the times. The church pushed its message through the grid of science. In essence, “[t]he belief became common that only science could make the world intelligible. . .”ⁱⁱⁱ

What was the net effect, in the minds of most, of replacing biblical cosmology with philosophic naturalism (the worldview of Carl Sagan)? In the minds of most, God as personal, transcendent, involved with creation was eclipsed and demoted.ⁱᵛ God’s direct involvement in the lives of His creatures was increasingly ruled out. God was no longer linked to all the details of reality. God had been marginalized—retired to a private or sub-cultural role. God had been eradicated as a shared basis of thought and experience. The bulk of modern thought simply dispensed with God. In contemporary culture God has been marginalized as a figure doing nothing of real significance.

Though evangelicals stressed personal faith and piety, evangelicals also began to divide (bifurcate) God’s role—they saw Him as active in redemption, but allowed science to define the creation. This is accepted as benign as long as we have Jesus in our hearts. But the fallout is deadly serious as we will see.ᵛ

When one allows the Bible to describe salvation and science to comprehensively describe the creation, it produces a tear, or rend, in our thinking. The reason why is the salvation-science dichotomy pictures God as having two radically different faces—the side of God that dealt with creation was far less personal than the side of God that dealt with salvation. As a consequence, the Jesus of salvation became very other worldly and sentimental.

“Believing students on university campuses are able offer Jesus as ‘friend’ but have no clue how to proclaim Him as Lord of the cosmos.”ᵛⁱ This prevalent dualism welcomes Jesus as ‘mascot’ but cannot conceive of Him, or proclaim Him, as majestic Lord of the universe. This is the dilemma our Christian students face today on the secular university campus. The loss of biblical cosmology forces them to live with an immense ‘disconnect’ between faith and life.

Modern culture has encouraged and deepened this dualism. The yawning chasm which has divided creation from redemption has separated the physical from the spiritual in the minds of many believers. Through popular culture our youth are bombarded with this dualism. The wonder of creation as the revelation of God’s majesty has been erased, and with it God’s active rule and reign. Reality is nothing more than what you make it. The creation is but raw material by which one may construct the self.

The electronic media is dead set on having us forget our Christian worldview. Nearly every television program operates with an agenda of displacing Christian worldview.ᵛⁱⁱ The net effect is a palpable separation of our everyday life from our spiritual life.ᵛⁱⁱⁱ Spiritual truths are regarded as only abstract expressions of our inner life. They are divorced from the objective reality of everyday life.

How does this dualism manifest itself in evangelicalism? Redemption tends to be viewed as a private, subjective, personal, preference without an objective basis. As a consequence, it is easy to think that Christ is only concerned about my soul and spirit. Redemption goes inward, and the entire theme of God’s vast plan to restore His creation gets buried. Salvation is viewed as existing in the mind and the heart—as if concrete reality is the physical universe and salvation belongs to the private and the subjective (salvation is less real than the physical elements of the universe). Evangelicalism’s accommodation to the modern, or dualistic view, has pushed redemption further into the ‘upper story.’ Christians are living in a state of détente with the open ‘gash’ of dualism. Consequently the majority of professing Christians have lost the cosmological foundation for redemption. The resultant attitude in much of evangelicalism could be stated as follows: “Facts in the created realm shouldn’t get in the way of bringing people to Jesus.”

Christian students often live with an immense ‘disconnect’ between their professed beliefs and their life experiences. “At one Christian high school, a theology teacher . . . drew a heart on one side of the blackboard and a brain on the other. The two are as divided as the two sides of the blackboard, he told the class: the heart is what we use for religion, while the brain is what we use for science.”ⁱˣ

This dualism leaves knowledge utterly fragmented—spirituality is partitioned off from the remainder of life. The secular/sacred dichotomy tends to restrict Christianity to the realm of religious truth—this creates double minds and fragmented lives.ˣ Consequently, a huge disconnect exists between their ethical life and their professed belief—truth and everyday life are ripped apart. The ‘gash’ is deepened through the message of popular culture.

This is a deadly symptom of a worldview that separates the physical creation from redemption. A ‘divided Christ’ is Friend, but not Creator and Ruler, Lawgiver and Judge. A pastor friend, from San Diego recently shared with me that in counseling a church member, it took nearly a month of counseling before the person would admit that pornography is a ‘worldview’ about the body and sexuality. This is of course symptomatic of the bleeding disconnect between faith and life—between truth and practice, faith and life.

THE ANSWER: The book of Psalms is a very powerful corrective to dualistic thinking. It overturns the two level view of truth. There is no dualism between creation and redemption in the Psalms. Christians need not allow themselves to be intimidated by the agenda of the secularists—as if Christian truth is an inward matter severed from objective fact. We will not be able to prepare the next generation to define the faith and defend the faith if they have no response to the secularist argument that the creation is nothing more than matter and motion, and natural laws and processes.

The book of Psalms overturns the irrationalism of the secularists, for it is filled with worldview “building blocks.” The book of Psalms fortifies our prayer lives so that they rise above our own heart issues and are able to focus upon God’s majesty. This is only possible if we are committed to knowing His wondrous works, His ways, and His will. The Psalms provide for us a myriad of portraits of our God that we might become conversant with His majesty, splendor, wisdom, power and holiness. How we need big thoughts of God in order to worship aright and order our lives before Him in trust and love.

Worldview themes in the Psalms:

1. The Creator-creature distinction

• In secular humanist, postmodern, and pagan circles, this foundational doctrine is under attack today. God’s ownership of us and claims upon us flow from the Creator-creature distinction and from our identity as His image and likeness. Biblical theism is anchored in the Creator-creature distinction—God’s absolute right and ownership of us. “He has made us, and not we ourselves” (Ps 39; 50; 92; 100:3; 146). First graders in Sunday school understand what college students today don’t understand—the Creator/creature distinction. Sadly, the college lectern in our public universities has become a ‘pulpit’ for pantheism (erasing distinctions the Creator has made).

2. The fiat creation of the universe

• “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Ps 33:6). God spoke the universe into existence. Henry Morris states that these verses in Psalm 33 are the strongest affirmation of fiat creation in the Bible. It was not just by the Lord, but by the word of the Lord that the heavens were made.ˣⁱ The universe burst into existence not by scientific laws, not by the ‘big bang’ but by the infinite power of God’s Word. By His Word God has called into existence that which had no previous existence. God made all things out of nothing—God and matter are not ‘co-eternal.’

3. The conflict of the ages—between truth and error, sin and righteousness, godly and ungodly, chosen nation and heathen, God and Satan

• This present world is filled with groaning, temptations, oppression, conflict, and suffering. The righteous are ever aware that God is their only refuge and that God will assuredly bring to pass His final victory and purposes (Ps 17; 31; 150).ˣⁱⁱ By contrast, the unbeliever looks at the cruelty, death, disease, suffering, and injustice in the world—and because he is a ‘truth suppressor’ he tends to gravitate to the ‘absurdity perspective’ (namely that life is a cruel joke without ultimate meaning and purpose—and that ideas don’t have consequences). The Psalms overturn the folly of this sentiment stating that “there is a reward for the righteous” (Ps 58:11).

In Jonathan Edwards’ ‘magnum opus’ sermon, “The End for which all Creation exists” he states that the activity of the kingdom of darkness will not thwart God’s plan to glorify Himself. Sin is not equivalent to a new reality. Sin is lawlessness and rebellion—and it will reap eternal retribution. Proverbs 21:30, “There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel against the Lord.” God shall have the last word, for even “The wrath of man shall praise thee” (Ps 76:10).

Concerning our prayer lives, there are numerous Psalms which contain petitions for grace and strength to keep fighting sin and pressing on in personal holiness. One author, P. B. Power, titled his book on the Psalms, “The ‘I Wills’ of the Psalms.” His premise is that the Christian cannot be passive—the true response to divine promises is determination and resolution. The Psalms show us the heart devotion of the faithful believer—we receive strength from the Lord that we might act in obedience. The faith that receives enablement from the Lord is proactive—it takes action: I will trust; I will speak; I will call upon God; I will go in the strength of the Lord; I will praise the Lord. “From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Ps 61:2).ˣⁱⁱⁱ

4. The linear nature of human history

• Increasingly the philosophies of this age are embracing a philosophy of history that is cyclical, “the circle of life” as the song goes in the movie Lion King. But God’s Word is clear—all history is moving toward (hurtling toward) a predetermined end in which God will judge the world in righteousness (Ps 37; 40; 58; 98). History then will prove to be the record of the honoring and the dishonoring of God and the consequence of each in time and eternity. Every person cannot escape the fact that he or she will be an object lesson for ever (Ps 50:16-22; 119:119; 149:4).

APPLICATION: The biblical linear view of history put reverential fear into the hearts of our nation’s founding fathers. The lives of believers are to be controlled by the pervading awareness of the Great Assize to come—the courtroom of God, when the Judge of all the earth shall bring every deed into account. Character counts—all history is moving toward an inescapable public judgment in which the secrets of men’s hearts will be revealed (Rom 2:16). God’s righteous Kingdom will fill the earth because unrighteousness will be vanquished from God’s creation. Our prayer lives ought to be filled with the consciousness that God is working from and for the perspective of eternity. God has but one plan to make you eternally happy: it is to make you holy (Rom 8:28-29).

5. Man made in the image of God was created for God. Man was created to be a worshipper. God is our only true home

• Man is always looking for that which is worthy of his praise—the reason why is because God created man to be an enthusiastic spectator of excellence. We cannot stop worshipping—it will either be God Almighty or idols that we worship (Ps 135:14-18). O.T. believers frequently meditated upon the brevity of life (Ps 90:12)—upon the fact that in light of the eternal kingdom of God, the saints are pilgrims, aliens, transient, and sojourners—essentially without a true home until glory. Regarding God as our home, author Tom Wells notes, “A pilgrim feels strange in a foreign land . . . he finds his mind repeatedly returning to home.” Many of the Psalms emphasize the theme that God alone is our true home. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps 90:1). “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God” (Ps 42:1-2)?ˣⁱᵛ The ‘beauty of God’ is the only ultimate satisfaction there is—an eternal increasing satisfaction. We will never tire of looking upon the glory of God in the face of Christ. The psalmist alludes to this pleasure in God when he says in Psalm 27:4, “. . . [My desire is] that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord . . .” APPLICATION: What a litmus test for true Christianity— we must test ourselves by how vigorous our hope of glory really is—Romans 8:18-25. In our prayer lives it behooves us to pray so as to have our desires adjusted back to God as our supreme love. How true it is that our Lord is a jealous God—no wonder He is so interested in what we love most.

6. What is the creation? The creation is a theatre for the glory of God (Ps 19), the ‘stage’ for God’s wondrous works

• In Thy light we see light (Ps 36:9). God’s Word: our authoritative interpretive grid for all reality. God’s Word (His revelation; His ‘light’) is our authoritative interpretive grid—our ‘universal,’ our hermeneutic by which we interpret human experience. God’s Word interprets us—exegetes us! It is a deception to think that we may sit in judgment on God’s Word. His revelation, the Word of Christ, is the ‘grid’ by which we interpret reality. Without the biblical ‘grid’ of creation, fall, flood, redemption, consummation is the ‘lens’ God has given us to make sense of the world. When sinful man sets aside God’s revelation, all he is left with is his own autonomous reason. When fallen man observes nature red in tooth and claw, injustice, victimization, war, disease, suffering, he may assume that the ‘law of the jungle’ applies to mankind as well. But in his heart and conscience, he knows that God is his Creator and Ruler. The struggle in nature is not self-interpreting; we need God’s interpretive grid.

God’s awesome works in creation, redemption, and providence reveal the excellence of the Creator and move the redeemed to spontaneous praise (Ps 33; 95; 96; 98). Throughout the psalms the believer is depicted as preoccupied with the works of God—the redeemed individual is always extolling, studying, and praising the works of God. God’s works are diligently studied by believers because the works allow us to ‘see’ and tell of God’s perfections (Ps 66; 67; 105; 145). It is a sin to forget God’s works (Ps 106:13ff.). We study God’s works to know God, to worship God, to be wise, and to fear God (Ps 111:1-10).

The believer has a stewardship in this matter for the study of God’s works equip us to ‘pass on our faith’ to the next generation (Ps 78:6-8). God’s works in Creation, God’s ‘general revelation,’ is joined to the written Word, God’s special revelation (Ps 19). His general and special revelation constitutes sermons without words and sermons with words. How a person treats general revelation (God’s works in creation and providence) are sermons without words (19:1-6) determines how they will treat special revelation (God’s sermons with words (19:7-14). In our prayer lives we must be extremely attentive to God’s works in creation and providence. The more aware we are of His works, the more opportunities we will have to praise Him.

7. A perfect co-mingling of the physical created order and the moral order in the universe (Ps 19) -- The Psalms are given to us to sink our foundations deep into the truth of God’s relation to the world. These truths are meant to control our understanding of reality. God is active in our lives. He is active in nature. He is active in history. He is sovereign providential Caretaker of His creation.

Throughout the Psalms are the twin themes of creation and moral order. The creation has order to it that is maintained by God (Ps 96). God is the ruler over what He has made. The Psalms assert that the fixity of creation is simultaneously physical and moral. The Psalms describes the whole creation as ‘the worshipping chorus of God’—praising all of His attributes—not only His power in ordering the cosmos, but also His character revealed in His holy and righteous government.

This is easily forgotten in our dualistic culture, not only does the creation praise God for His power, wisdom, goodness, and handiwork, the creation also praises God for His justice. The Psalms proclaim God as establisher of an unbreakable continuity between the physical world and moral order—the world is pictured as delighting in His righteousness. “. . . and the heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge (Ps 50:6; 72:3).ˣᵛ

This is Yahweh’s world. He created it, He owns it, and He rules it by His goodness and for His own good pleasure. The world operates in a particular way because it is God’s world and He rules it and guides it. The unbeliever has created an illusory/fantasy world in his mind, but he keeps “bumping up” against reality—against God’s creation structures—beauty, conscience, hunger for love and meaning, the fact of crime and punishment. Therefore the ridiculous advertisement that one may take a ‘moral holiday’ in Las Vegas is patently absurd. Even the “heavens declare His righteousness” (Ps 97:6).ˣᵛⁱ

In my witnessing experience at Western Michigan University, unsaved students were asked if there is a transcendent moral code outside of us to which all humans are accountable. Their dogmatic answers usually went as follows, “Morals are evolving, they are not fixed; they are not universal because there is no standard outside of us.” “Virginia Poly Tech murders were not objective evil.” The students’ perspective is a worldview about the universe. It’s held in blind faith which suppresses the truth; not in rationality!

Regarding our moral universe which God governs: God’s precepts keep us from self-destruction. To fear and reverence God is to hate sin and turn from it. The proportion of our fear of God is revealed in our level of our hatred of sin (Ps 119:9-16; 53, 38, 45). The Psalms tell us that the Word of God is that which produces fear of God. Wise is the man who immerses himself in Holy Scripture. Because this universe is Yahweh’s creation, there is a common ethical system for all humans. Moral and physical order permeates every part of the universe. God delights in the exhibition of His glory—this is the chief end for which all things exist, including knowledge (human and angelic sin do not thwart God’s plan that all things exist for His glory). The aim of all creation is that God’s glory and excellent perfections should be known, esteemed, loved, and delighted in by His creatures (Jonathan Edwards).ˣᵛⁱⁱ

In our prayer lives we ought to frequently meditate upon of God’s governance of physical and moral order. God’s justice is inescapable. By faith we ‘see’ Him enthroned (Ps 89:14). This a great comfort to us, the redeemed, who live in a world fraught with tribulations. We rest upon the confidence that God will in finality invade human history and ‘tie up all loose ends’ (Ps 96:13).

8. There is but one, supreme wisdom—a life wholly dedicated to living unto God -- To live wisely in Yahweh’s world is to live according to His justice, and not by fleshly desires, and amoral pragmatism (situation ethics). A life of wisdom is a life of conformity to God’s norm of righteousness— His law. “Blessed is the man whom Thou dost chastise, O Lord, and dost teach out of Thy Law” (Ps 94:12).ˣᵛⁱⁱⁱ Obedience is to be universal—a whole life response to Yahweh. We are to please Him in all areas of life by respecting the divine order He has constructed in the world. Without this there will be moral failure and failure to please God. “Teach me Thy way O Lord, I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy Name. I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God with all my heart and will glorify Thy Name forever” (Ps 86:11-12).ˣⁱˣ

God’s Word was given to us to allow us to recall during times of temptation the boundaries God has set. To be conversant with these boundaries helps the man who fears God to do what is right and what pleases God in times of temptation. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; it shall not fasten its grip on me” (Ps 25:12-15; 101:3).ˣˣ When we embrace God’s blueprint and standard it is not simply an attempt to master a moral code—it is submission to God’s holiness—to His loving purposes for us. It is submission to God Himself who is our Source of life. For God’s commandments constitute His character in code. Knowledge of God’s holiness and obedience to His precepts are bound up together. “Establish Thy Word to Thy servant as that which produces reverence for Thee” (Ps 119:18, 38, 66).

Wisdom is moral maturity. Wisdom is living life in Yahweh’s world as He intends that it be lived. Wisdom results in stability without fear of harm or misfortune (Ps 4:4-8).ˣˣⁱ The highest goal of wisdom is the knowledge of God (Prov 3:32). To fear Yahweh is to receive and live by His knowledge and wisdom. God’s purpose, His design in the world is to make us like Him in holiness.ˣˣⁱⁱ

It is impossible to make a fool out of God. God cannot be mocked. “When the wicked sprouted up like grass, and all who did iniquity flourished; it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore” (Ps 92:6, 7-9; Gal 6:7). The sowing and reaping principle is built into the very fabric of the universe. Moral cause and effect is ineffable. The wheels of God’s justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small. God’s justice is more comprehensive than a sinner can possibly imagine; it extends to the thoughts, intents, and secrets of the heart (Ps 73:18-20; 91:8; Heb 4:12; Rom 2:16).

In a moral universe sin is irrational—it is lawlessness. This is Yahweh’s world, that’s why secret sin is ‘a lie lived out’—there are no compartments in our lives that are not in Yahweh’s world (Ps 26:2; 90:8;139:7-23). “He who fashions their hearts knows all their works” (Ps 33:13-15). Our secret sins are an ‘open book’ in the sight of heaven. “Our secret sins are in the light of Thy presence” (Ps 90:8). In contrast to the hypocrite who denies, hides, and justifies his sin, the Psalmist wants to be examined by God (Ps 139). Our prayers ought to demonstrate that we are never apathetic about our sin, but assiduous to be rid of it. Our diligence in repenting and showing heart contrition is the proper posture toward Him who is thrice holy.

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.). Bless the Lord; 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. 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 (as refuge from self and divine wrath) 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 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. 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 is joined to His Word, our response must be unconditional trust in Him (Ps 33-34). The true believer has a passion to have His life 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—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).

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 (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 matter without an orbit, a meaningless undignified pock-marked ball of rock and dust.

Much of the church today has ‘domesticated’ God—paring off from the knowledge of God such themes as the wrath; burning holiness; ferocity; and vengeance of God. 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—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. Redemptive history makes it clear that there is no neutrality.

The Psalms constantly repeat 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—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—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.ˣˣⁱⁱⁱ 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!”ˣˣⁱᵛ 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).ˣˣᵛ 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.

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 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. (Holy expectation in God is part of holy living. What a contrast this is to the man who hurriedly rushes off a prayer, God bless my plan. It’s as if the man is trying to recruit God to join his plans.)

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. How clear this passage is. 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 is 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 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; 113:5-37).ˣˣᵛⁱ

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.ˣˣᵛⁱⁱ 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 Dave Doveton.
ii Ibld.
iii James C. Turner, Without God, Without Creed: The Origins of Unbelief in America (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins
University Press, 1985) in Ken Myers, “The Problem of Contextualization in a Decadent Culture.”
iv Myers.
v Ibid.
vi Peter Jones, “Framing the Issues; Finding our Voices” (Escondido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet,
think-tank, 2007).
vii Peter Jones, “Who Stole our Sacred Canopy?” Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, (www.cwipp.org, newscwipp

42, ).

viii Myers.
ix Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004) 19.
x Ibid, p. 25.
xi Henry Morris, Sampling the Psalms (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1978) 49-50.
xii Ibid, pp. 11-12.
xiii P. B. Powers, The ‘I wills’ of the Psalms (Banner of Truth Trust: Carlisle, PA 1985, first pub. 1858), back flyleaf.
xiv Tom Wells, Come Home Forever (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1992) 57.
xv Ken Myers, “The Problem of Contextualization in a Decadent Culture,” Gheen’s Lectures, Southern
Baptist Seminary.
xvi Daniel J. Estes, Hear My Son, Teaching and Learning in Proverbs 1-9, (Eerdmans, 1997), pp. 22-26
xvii Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, (Banner of Truth, 1974) 1:104.
xviii Ibid., p. 36, 38
xix Ibid., pp. 38
xx Steve Gallagher, At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, (Pure Life Ministries, 1986), pp. 257, 258
xxi Ibid., pp. 69, 75, 83
xxii Ibid., pp. 84, 98
xxiii Steven Lawson, “Expository Preaching of the Psalms” (2004 Winterim, The Master’s Seminary) Lesson
one, pp. 1, 7
xxiv John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990) 9, in Lawson, 7.
xxv Lawson, lesson one, p.17; lesson. two, p. 62.
xxvi Morris, p. 119.
xxvii Ibid, lesson one, p. 22.