Count on God! (Psalm 89)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 21, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about keeping promises this past week and this led me to think about my childhood. Growing up I never really knew what my dad did for living. All I knew was that he worked for different companies and he also traveled a lot. That was good enough for me. But, there was something I felt very strongly about. Maybe it was being a youngest child thing; I thought that it would be really cool if my dad would bring home something special just for me. So, before he left for his work in the morning, or before he left for his business travels, I would stop him and ask him if he would get something for me; I can’t remember what I asked from him… perhaps toys like transformers kits, battle ships, microscope, things that boys would enjoy. But, most of the time, it didn’t have to be anything specific; I just wanted him to remember me and bring home something special for me. That’s what I really wanted, special gifts from dad.

Whenever I asked him to remember me and bring home something special, he never failed to promise to do so. But the problem was that my dad too easily forgot his promises to me. I kept asking him thinking that if I asked him enough, he would eventually remember me and get me something special. But, at some point, I stopped asking him because I stopped expecting, stopped hoping… because I stopped trusting his promises.

As I thought about my dad’s broken promises, I began thinking about my own promises to my kids. And, God highlighted a very specific promise I’ve made to Mikayla. I’ve always thought that it would be really cool if I could have daddy and daughter date, nothing special, but just a time alone with each of my girls. Few months back I took Abby out for a breakfast at Egg Factory and it was fabulous. Well, the next in line was Mikayla. But, things got busy and I keep postponing it. And, Mikayla kept on asking when I was going to taker her out for daddy and daughter date. I would say to her something like, “Soon, I will take you out soon.” But, I didn’t keep my promise. And, guess what? Just like how I stopped asking my dad for something special from him, Mikayla stopped asking me about our date. Man, the very thing that I didn’t like about my dad, here I was doing exactly the same thing. I asked her on Friday during dinner about how she used to ask about our daddy daughter date, but she stopped asking me about it. I asked her why she stopped asking me about it. Her response was, “Well, I didn’t think it was going to happen.” Man! It hurt! She gave up on me because I didn’t keep my promise to her, because I kept on forgetting.

Think of your relationship with your dads. Have you stopped asking him because you’ve stopped expecting from him, you’ve given up on him to keep his promises to you? Perhaps, you internalized it by saying to yourself that it is your fault. Or, you are really angry and bitter about it. How about your relationships with others? Have others stopped asking you because they’ve stopped expecting from you because your tendency to forget and not carry through your promises to them?

Now, when we make promises to others and others make promises to us, I would like to think that our intention is to keep our promises. But, what I realize is that all the good intention in the world does no good if it is not carried out. Intention with no action is nothing but an empty promise that does nothing but hurts people.

Now, think about your relationship with God. Have you stopped asking him earnestly? Have you stopped expecting from him? Do you think of God as a faulty bow who doesn’t deliver what he has promised? Perhaps, self-loathingly you ask yourself, “Why should he pay attention to me? Why should he care for me? Well, I am nobody.”

What is wrong with our generations? Why are we so jaded about anyone keeping their promises, not alone keep our own promises? What does our current historical economic meltdown say about our generations? It speaks to deeply cowardly, deceptive, and defective human hearts that cannot think and feel beyond themselves. It speaks to the lack of promise keepers, who take their own words very seriously because they take God seriously. Are you a promise keeper? Do you stand out as dependable, trustworthy, promise fulfilling person when everyone else falter around you? Are you a countercultural promise keeper no matter how hard it gets?

Psalm 89 speaks powerfully to the jaded generations who cannot fathom people who keep their promises. The psalm is going to show you how you can stand out as counterculturally dependable and trustworthy people when you count on God!

1. Count on God because he is loving, faithful, powerful as our King

When you read through Psalm 89 over and over again, you cannot fail to notice how deeply the psalmist known as Ethan the Ezrahite counts on God.

Right off the bat, I am blown away by the way the psalmist counts on God. Listen to his declaration from verse 1 and 2; to say, “I will,” speaks to Ethan’s determination. This is what he is going to do and nothing’s going to stop him. Verse 1, “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” Why sing of the Lord’s love? Why make his faithfulness known? Why should you count on God at all? Verse 2 tells why. It is because God’s love stands firm forever and he established his faithfulness in heaven itself.” God’s love is never fickle, but is constant and rock-solidly dependable. His faithfulness isn’t the stuff of earthly qualities, but of heavenly quality that you can always count on.

V.5 -8, he asks a question repeatedly, “Who is like the Lord? Who is like you?” The heaves praise him (v. 5), the council of the holy ones (v. 7), the who’s who of the saints fear him, for he is incomparable (v. 6), he is most awesome (v. 7), he is mighty (v. 8).

Talking about power, he peppers v. 9-13 with image of his great power. Surging sea with waves mounting up which symbolizes crazy chaos beyond control like the economic meltdown domino has nothing on God; God rules and he calms it (v. 9). Rahab, the mythical monster of the deep is crushed and slayed by God (v. 10). As the Creator, he claims the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, the north and the south as his possession, his creation; even the inanimate mountains tall and short alike sing for you at his name (v. 11-12). His arm, his hand, his right hand, powerful, strong, and exalted (v. 13)! Righteousness and justice define his authority, his throne (v. 14). But, he dispenses righteousness and justice by carrying them out in love and faithfulness. Verse 18 tells us to count on God because he is our shield and our king!

2. Count on God because of his promise to David

Verse 19 through verse 37 speaks to God’s covenant with David, his promise to David. For the psalmist this was one of the greatest sources of his confidence in God.

God calls David his warrior with God given strength (V. 19), my servant and his anointed one (v. 20). God’s going to sustain him and strengthen him. And, for this reason, the anointed David will subject his enemy (v. 22). God’s going to crush and strike down David’s foes (v. 22). God’s faithful love will be with David and God’s going to give him strength… that is what the image of exalting horn means in v. 24. God affirms his eternal love and his unfailing covenant, his promise with David (v. 28). God’s everlasting promise to David is that he is going to establish David’s throne as long as the heavens endure (v. 29).

V. 30-37, God reaffirms his commitment to ensure, to establish David’s throne firmly, his line of posterity and kingship to continue forever even in the cases of David’s sons forsaking God and all that God stood for. God promised to decisively to deal with the sins of the bad kings after David. You read Kings and Chronicles and you realize the depth of apostasy and rebellion by the sons of David. Yet, God says in v. 33, “but I will not take my love from him nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.” There it is again, God’s enduring love and his everlasting faithfulness. If there was ever question about what God was going to do with the line of David, God says in v. 36-38, “his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”

To count on God meant trusting God’s intention, his promise to carry out his plan to continue the line of David.

3. Count on God through lament

To count on God’s intention to carry out his promise is all good except when things don’t look like God is doing what he said he would do. It’s like when the promises by us and by others taste like rotten fruits.

When your reality seems to betray the promises from God what do you do? V. 39 to 51 speak to the reality that doesn’t match with what God had promised in the past. The reality as the palmist perceived was dark and gloomy and destructive. Where did the confidence that Ethan count on God? How can you keep counting on God when the realty casts doubts on God’s promises?

The test of faith is in those crucible moments that shake the core of what you thought was your secure trust in God.

It is not possible to pinpoint the exact circumstance that the psalmist was in, but it was pretty bad. Perhaps, it was during the time of last two kings of Judah in the awake of Babylonian exile. Or, perhaps it was during the time of exile. Whatever was the circumstance that the psalmist was in it was bad enough to shake his faith in God.

All that was said about God’s eternal love, his faithfulness, his power, his covenant promise to continue the line of David, it all felt irrelevant to the psalmist because the current realty seemed to betray God’s promise. God promised for enduring line of David, but the kingdom of Judah collapsed and the king of Judah was no longer, but an exile among many. What was the psalmist to do?

Let me tell you what the psalmist did. Ethan chose to lament. To lament is to express grief, pain. It is about being honest. It is opposite of stuffing it in, pretending everything is fine when it is not, putting smiles on your face when your heart is stricken with disappointments and hurts. To lament is to admit your pain, your disappointment, your confusion to God. And, this is what Ethan chose to do.

God said he would establish the line of David forever but now it was as though God was rejecting, spurning, getting angry with David and his posterity (v. 38). It was as though God was renouncing his covenant with David when psalmist witnessed how David’s throne got defiled by the invasion, how the walls of Jerusalem and the strongholds crumbled to ruins in the hands of the enemies, how the kingdom of David was plundered away. No longer commanding any respect, the line of David was scorned by the neighbors. Ethan is grief; he is hurt! And, he is letting God know he is hurting! ‘God, it appears as though you are exalting the right hand of David’s foes and make them rejoice over the demise of David’s line. It is as though you render the sword of David powerless and you withdraw your support for him in battle. You promised to establish his throne forever, but now it appears as though you are putting an end to it. You set David upon his throne, now it looks like you cast it to the ground. I don’t get it! Why does it feel like you are hiding yourself forever? Why is that all I feel now is your wrath burning like fire?’

Do you know what it is like to be honest with God like this? Why is that do we put on a smile on our face when pain is deep? Is it because we think that God cannot take the heat from us, that somehow we might hurt God? Is it because somehow we got this idea that being brutally honest with God is not what Christians do?

It is so important to you know that God can take your lament, he can handle your grief, pain, anger. He says bring it on whatever is that you have in you that has been eating inside of you. Don’t play nice Christian! God isn’t impressed when you put up fake smiles when it is time to express your hurts! Don’t stuff it in, but express to God! God wants you to know that he wants to hear you.

If you don’t choose to lament, whatever is inside of you will get rotten and it is going to poison your thinking, your relationship with people, but most importantly it is going to position your relationship with God. Instead of drawing near to God, you are going to stray away from him if you don’t choose to express your feeling honestly to him.

4. Count on God through lament that acts on truth

Now, to think lament as simply dumping your bad feelings on God and nothing more is not accurate. If lament was simply unloading your toxic feelings to God and nothing more, it won’t help you to deal with the real issues that have caused such feelings in the first place.

Ethan began and carried his psalm with his heartfelt trust, his deep confidence in God’s love, faithfulness, his power, righteousness and justice. But, v. 38, the tone changes completely from joyful confidence to the tone of doubts, pain, confusion… But, the thing about this psalm is there is no relief to the miserable circumstances. Ethan’s lament created this incredible tension between God’s promises and apparent reality of God’s unfulfilled promises. And, there is no resolution. There is no easy answer to the crisis of faith! The tension continues on.

So, from circumstantial point of view, nothing has changed. The line of David appears to have ended; the throne of David no more. No more kings in Judah, no more nation of Israel. Exile continues. Jerusalem remains in ruin. Nothing changed in the course of this psalm when you look at from circumstantial point of view.

But, look how Ethan ends his psalm in v. 52, “Praise be to the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.” Tension remains between God’s promises and his unfulfilled promises, problems remain. But, what Ethan chose to do is to praise God.

Again, I remind you that Ethan did not skip the lament part. He honestly expressed how he felt about the situation. And, God heard him. Nothing changed circumstantially, but radical adjustment took place in his heart when he took his heart to God and wrestle with him. God renewed his faith in him.

What I see is here how lamenting empowered Ethan to trust God again. He moved from being overwhelmed by feelings ungrounded in truth to now being centered, being grounded in the truth of who God is. It happened because he became honest with
God. It happened because he recounted God’s promises.

When you put together the truth about God and being honest before God what you get is faith that is purified through fire.

Conclusion

It has past months since I promised to Mikayla to have a daddy and daughter breakfast with her. This week God’s has convicted me about this. I don’t want to follow the footsteps of my dad who was terrible at keeping his end up. When my children grow old and when it is time for me to say goodbye, I want them to remember me as a father who loved them, who was faithful, who kept his word. It is not good enough to have mere good intention. All the good intention in the world would do no good if it is not back up by action. All my good intention to spend time with my girls as their daddy will not mean anything if I don’t follow through. I can blame it on forgetfulness. But, forgetfulness only shows that I don’t care enough. Caring enough is remembering!

So, I remembered and Saturday morning I took Mikayla to Panera. We had a fabulous time. Lyn was gracious to make it possible for me to keep my promise to Mikayla. If I as a mere human dad can remember my promise to my child and get my acts together to keep my promise to my girl, how much better would our heavenly Father be at keeping his promises?

Although Psalm 89 gives no resolution to the tension between God’s promise and delay in his fulfillment, we as a reading who lives now knows that God has fulfilled his promise to David. The throne of David, the line of David didn’t end in exile. Just in four days, we will celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a descendant of David, who carries the line of David now as the exalted King, Savior.

Find rest in God alone by preaching to your soul the truth about God and pouring your heart to God. (Psalm 62)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon August 10, 2008

This past week, I saw Wall-E with my girls. It carries a strong green message on taking care of earth. But, what really moved my heart was the way the characters were transformed by the new ‘directive’ to go back home to earth. This new directive shattered the life as people knew out in the space, not as the best life they could have but utterly substandard, nothing more than just a survival. 

Out in the space far from earth in time and space is the world of Axiom, a giant spaceship or more like a space station. In Axiom a super-intelligent automated luxurious cruise spaceship are people living with one directive, “Live to please yourself while having to work as little as possible.”  In the world of Axiom fully equipped with technological advancements, no one needs to walk or even lift an arm to do anything. Everything is done for you. All you have to do is sit on your automated floating recliner, open your eyes, stare at the virtual screen in front of your face and simply chat with others around you who are doing exactly the same thing. You don’t even have to turn your head or sit up to talk to a person next to you or in front of you. You don’t even need to chew food since it is provided in slush cups with straw. And, when you see an ad for a new clothing line, at a push of button, just like that your wardrobe instantaneously changes into the new line. Anything you want is instantly given to you. Axiom is a technological nirvana with nanosecond instant gratification with complete order and control. No need to sweat or feel any pain, no need to work at anything, or work out. Just chill out and enjoy; everything is done for you. In this fully automated world of instant gratification, after seven hundred years of leaving earth no one has any faintest idea what life on earth was like or even wants to go back to it. They all look like inflated balloon figures, blobs that can’t even walk now.

In the world of Axiom is the directive that promises, “You can have it all when you want it without having to work.” But, when Eva the probe brings a tiny shoot of green plant from earth back to Axiom things cannot be the same anymore. Now, the new directive is it is time to work; it is time to go back to earth and work hard to restore it.

In the movie there is a scene that involves the captain of Axiom and the chief-machine of the command center called Auto. The captain is convinced that people of Axiom must return to earth. But, Auto the artificial intelligent machine refuses to accept the new directive to go back to earth.  Auto fights to keep human in Axiom out in the space.

To this Auto, the captain passionately makes his case to return to earth, “Out there is our home, home Auto. And, it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I ever done. That’s what anyone in this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!”

Auto replies, “In the Axiom, you will survive.”

The Captain, frustrated, screams, “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

At this point of the movie, I knew I was on to something good. “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” The captain describes the life in Axiom, a fully automated robotic environment designed to grant instant gratification with minimal effort and work as merely surviving and doing nothing. The captain is convinced that forsaking this lifestyle is gain if it means going back home to earth to help it restored again. A drastic change to say the least, don’t you think? To label the life of ease once thought as that which couldn’t get any better as mere survival while going back home to the work of restoration as really living, you can say that the captain is converted.

The story of Wall-E illustrates how the gospel is the new spiritual directive from our Lord Jesus Christ that confronts the life as we know as mere survival, substandard reality. What we think of as rest is not truly rest. The new spiritual directive, the gospel points us to not just the surviving but true rest. So, we must ask. Can it be that life as we know is really just surviving, just making it through and that there is more to life than what we have now, the true rest? The new directive from Jesus Christ tells us, yes, there is more to life than what we have. True rest in God alone! This is what the gospel wants us to have.

In the Wall-E fashion, if someone were to ask, “What is your directive?” how would you answer? My prayer is that you would be convinced and griped by the new directive to make changes. “Find rest in God alone” is your new directive.

Find your rest in God alone by preaching to yourself the truth about God and by pouring your heart to him.  This is your new directive you must pay attention to.  

• Find rest in God alone

David begins his Psalm 62 with the statement that his soul finds rest in God alone. What does it mean to find rest in God alone? In Hebrew, it literally reads, “My soul waits in silence for God” (ESV).

Here is a picture of David tuning out the drowning noises of the world, silencing his restless mind, and waiting for God. This is a picture of David putting his confidence in God, a picture of David realizing truly God is his confidence, salvation, rock, fortress, confidence that will never be shaken. If someone were to ask David, “What is your directive?” in Wall-E fashion, this would be his reply, finding rest in God alone, finding confidence in God alone.

Can you and I make that statement? Can your directive be finding rest in God alone, being confident in God alone?

What gives you the sense of confidence in your life? Is it education, is it money in your name, or is it other people around you? What are the things that give you the sense of confidence in your life? And, whatever you think you could feel confident about, is it really enough to make you feel securely confident? Do you feel confident with what money, education, people relationships you have now? Or, do you think if you have little more of that you would feel more confident? When will money, education, people relationship or anything else make you feel confident enough in life? I have strong suspicion that none of these will ever make me feel completely confident, feel completely rested and secured. I have strong suspicion if we are really honest these may give us growing confidence, but never to the point of alleviating insecurity of our souls.

What God wants to do is to convince us that he truly alone can be our confidence without failing instead of what we can achieve or what we can have, things or people.

In Exodus 3:13-15 God revealed his name as “I AM WHO I AM.” This is the statement of confidence. The great I AM wanted to the Israelites to get this. So, you read in Exodus 6:6-8, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”

God works in our lives to convince us that he alone is our confidence in the insecure world of ourselves  and in the insecure world we live in.

For David, the sense of insecurity came from the people. If you are familiar with his story, you know that he was tested by the people who sought to kill him, especially by Saul. In vv. 3-4, David sees himself as leaning wall, tottering fence that is being assaulted by people around him to topple him by means of lies and hypocrisy of curse disguised in blessing. Talk about disappointment. If there was ever time when he felt he could place his confidence in people, if there was ever time when he could feel secured about himself by people around him, this was not one of them. God tested him by stripping off relationships with people as his confidence. God did this so he can pause and learn that truly God alone is his confidence, his security, his rest.

• Find rest in God alone by preaching to yourself the truth about God

So, in verse 5-6 you see him repeating what he already said in verse 1-2. But, the difference is in verse 5, he is preaching to himself. When noises are loud, when the feelings of insecurity drown you, it is not enough to know in the back of your mind that God is your confidence. You need to say it aloud, to preach it passionately, and to declare it at loud and clear to drown out the noises of your own insecurities.

Here are some truths about God that can preach to your restless insecure souls.

God is strong.

All the words that describe God as fortress, rock, salvation, refuge speak to unmovable powerful reality of who God is. God is strong. His strength, his resolve means he can be trusted in the world of disappointments.

God is loving

God seeking to be your confidence, your rest, and your strong center speaks to himself as God who is love. Only one who loves seeks the well being of others. God who seeks to bless you with his protection and his help is God who loves you very much. And, to preach to your soul God who loves you, there is nothing better than to preach the cross. Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast expect in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Look at the fruit of Paul's life, many people heard the gospel for the first time through him, many churches were planted; God used him to speak the truth to us. He was fruitful because he knew was proud only in the cross. To boast in the cross is to declare that what really matters in life is remaining in God’s love expressed in sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

God is the great rewarder.

Psalm 62:12, “Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.”

Galatians  6:8, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

• Find rest in God alone by pouring your hearts to God

For David, finding rest in God alone was not a private matter. He wanted to his people to know God as their confidence. So, we see him calling people in verse 8 to “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” To pour your hearts to him is an expression for earnest prayers amid tears and discouragement.[1]

2 Timothy 4:7-8, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Here is a picture of Paul fighting the good fight, running the race to win, nurturing his faith, aiming for the prize, all because he has this intense yearning to see Christ face to face. This is really the picture of Christian life. We got to begin earnestly pray out of desperation and in tears, we got to cry out, “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

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[1] NIDOTTE, (H9161) Ëpv;

In the desert, “find rest in God alone.” (Psalm 62:1)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon August 3, 2008

Upon returning from a week of family trip to Maranatha conference, I learned that some of you engaged in an honest discussion on the spiritual condition of our church. What began as a discussion on how we are doing with prayer as a church, it turned into deep sharing of each of your personal dry spiritual condition. Although I wasn’t there with you guys who were engaged in this discussion, I would tell you that I too have been going through a dry spiritual season for the last few months.

So, today, taking a little break from the study of book of Acts, I would like to talk to you about the spiritual rhythm, specifically the phase that can be characterized as desert experience. When I thought of spiritual dryness, the image that popped in my mind was that of “desert.” In desert, I imagine feeling restless caused by thirst, heat, blistering feet, growling stomach in hunger. Desert is an unpleasant place where you don’t want to end up in it. So, in desert, I imagine myself seeking for relief. I want water to quench my thirst. I want to come under shade to escape scorching sun. I want to stand on cool rock instead of blisteringly hot and sinking sand. In desert, I imagine wanting nothing more than to rest!

While I imagine this intense yearning for rest from the harsh reality of desert, I also imagine feeling like quitting! I imagine a curtain of confusion, inability to focus, will or desire strongly and clearly draping over my eyes, feeling trapped and helpless to get out of it. Once you drift into this spiritual desert, even though you really hate being caught in it, you struggle to get out, feeling trapped. And, you begin to wonder if there is any redeeming purpose behind desert experience and if there will be any way out.

In desert, deepest yearning is to rest. In Psalm 62, David speaks about finding rest. He says in verse 1, “My soul find rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” And, similarly repeats this thought in verse 5, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” In the context of the psalm, he sought rest because he was restless when he realized he couldn’t place his confidence in people. In the desert, he was disappointed by people around him.

In the desert, God’s ultimate purpose is for us to find rest in him alone. When human relationships disappoints you, fails you or you fail them, when your expectations don’t fan out the way you wanted, when you are struggling with overcoming sins, when you feel oppressed and tired, in the desert, you can find true rest in God alone! This is the answer I get from the scripture. When you are in the desert, find rest in God is your answer.

During my study, I came across a lengthy article on “desert” from New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, a dictionary with a long name, written by A. R. Pete Diamond. It filled the detail for me as to how God is really the answer for us. It opened my eyes to see that while we may be tempted to dismiss desert as unnecessary, unwanted, wasted phase in spiritual journey, it is not without meaning and purpose because in the desert, you find rest in God alone.

In the desert, God wants us to experience rest, not the kind of rest of drinking ice cold coke in an oasis comfortably reclined in a lounge chair. No, rest he wants us to experience involves being made into worshipers, being tested to be pure, being trained to be warriors.

• In the desert, God seeks to make worshipers out of us.

One of the predominant images of desert experience you see in the Old Testament comes from the story of Exodus when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt into wilderness. God brought them out of Egypt, the vest fertile riverbed of Nile into the wilderness, dry, weary and desolate land. There in the desert, God tested the Israelites.

In Egypt, the Israelites lived by the riverbed of Nile River, fertile land with abundant supply of grains, fish and animals. But, this supply of abundant food was overshadowed by the slavery; they were enslaved by the Egyptian headmasters who were harsh and ruthless. This reality of life in Egypt for the Israelites speaks to the reality of our world. The world we live in is like the riverbed of Nile where there supposed to be unlimited potential of opportunities for success if you work hard at. But, in the world the headmaster is the devil, the most selfish, egocentric, deceptive, destructive, bent on taking as many people with him into hell.

Now, Exodus into desert where God was to be the Israelites’ the only God, the only ruler, unlike in so many ways from the headmasters of Egypt, points to God’s great salvation. God brought the Israelites out of the fertile riverbed of Nile and led them into desert where their survival, their existence was intertwined by their trust in God alone. In Egypt, the promise of abundance was really an illusion because of they were in bondage. But, in the desert, although the promise of abundance wasn’t apparent in what they could see and feel from the desert, it was to be reality in God as they put their faith in him.

Christian journey is very much like this. The world promises abundance, wealth, simply great life of rest, but it comes at a cost of being enslaved to the American dream stocked in selfish individualism, often at the great cost of relational brokenness. But, Christian journey is that of the desert where life is where you get your abundance not from the worldly pursuit of happiness, but from God alone. But, what’s most important in the desert is not so much about what you can get from God, but learning to appreciate and fully trust God as the Giver of all good things.

Another word, God seeks to raise worshipers in the desert. When God first commissioned Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, he said to him in Exodus 3:12, “… When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” He was to tell the king of Egypt (v. 19), “Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.” Exodus 5:1, 3, Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh of what God said, “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.”

There in the desert, at the Mount Sinai, they were to encounter God of revelation. In the desert, they received instructions on how to relate to each other and relate to him. There in the desert, they were given instructions on how to build the tabernacle, a sanctuary where God would come down and dwell with them. From there, the desert, the Mount Sinai, there were to journey with God in the midst of them to the Promised Land.

This image of the tabernacle is so strikingly similar to John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This Word who became flesh speaks to incarnation of Jesus, God Son, coming to dwell with us by taking on human form. The word “dwelling” speaks to pitching a tent and relates back to putting up the tabernacle in the Old Testament.

It is Jesus who restores worship for Christians. For the Israelites, it was through the sacrifices of goats and lambs, but for us it is through the sacrifice of God-Man Jesus’ death that restores us to right relationship with God, where we are not the center, but where God sits in the center throne of our hearts. From the command center of our hearts, God is to permeate our lives with the way he wants us to live, which in fact affects all aspect of our human relationships. Another word, worship restores human relationships.

• In the desert, God tests us to purge evil and to purify us.

Often in the desert experience of the Israelites, you come across the image of God testing the Israelites. I don’t think God tested them because he didn’t know what they were really like for our God is all-knowing God. God tested them to reveal what they were really made out of, not for his benefit, but for the benefit of the Israelites, to wake them up. When pressure is exerted, when metal is tested in fire, what will that reveal about us?

I can be so full of myself that I can fool myself to think that I am all right with God and all right with people. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” It takes God to engineer circumstances of desert to reveal what I am made of.

Now that the Israelites witnessed the awesome demonstration by God his power over Egypt’s trust in their gods by striking them with ten plagues and parting of the red sea, you would think that the Israelites would be all about God.

But, this wasn’t the case. When God brought them to a placed called Marah where they couldn’t not drink water because it was bitter, their response was that of grumbly complaining. It says in Exodus 15:24, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” And, it says in v. 25, “there he tested them.” When God tested them with bitter water, what was revealed was their ungrateful complaining spirit.

Exodus 16:2-3 says, “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

And, God responded to them in Exodus 16:4-5, “Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

When the pressure is on, when things that we hold are stripped away, when things aren’t going the way we want, when relationships disappoint us, when God tests us in the desert, what he allows us to see is the ugliness of our hearts. Jesus often said that it is not what goes into our mouth that defiles us, but what comes out of our hearts.

The book of Numbers is filled with the examples of God testing them, to reveal to them what they were made of in the desert.

In the desert, God is asking, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? (Numbers 14:11)

Numbers 14:22-23, you see God’s pronouncement over the people’s predicament for having rejected God, having refused to trust in him. For those, “who saw God’s glory and his miraculous signs performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them would ever see the land God promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated God with contempt would ever see it.”

When they camped at a placed called Rephidim in Exodus 17:2, where there was no water for the people to drink, they quarreled with Moses. And, v. 3, “the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up put of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?””

The very reason God brought them out of Egypt into desert was so that they would learn to trust in him for all things, even for the very basic necessity of water and to worship God as their Provider. And, you would think for the people who saw God part the Red Sea to easily get this. But, instead of choosing to depend on God, they grumbled and demanded critically. To this attitude, Moses asked, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

Numbers 20:4-5, at the Desert of Zin, at Kedesh, the people opposed and quarreled with Moses and Aaron saying, “Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

Again in Numbers 21:5, you see the Israelites complaining, but now even worse that it before. It says, “they grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses by saying, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Do you hear that? The manna that God provided day after day, the daily substance from God through the desert journey is the very thing they called “miserable food.” By scorning the provision, they were scorning and rejecting the Giver, their God.

In each of these cases, God held those who complained, grumbled, mistrusted and opposed him responsible as well as providing relief. In the last case of people showing their utter contempt for their Provider by rejecting manna, God sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. To give them relief, God instructed to Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” (Numbers 21:8-9)

We see this in John 3:14, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” To be “lifted up” here refers to Jesus being crucified on the cross. Jesus crucified, lifted up on the cross, suffered and died for us… before this Jesus, in the desert our sins tested as impure, adulterous, rebellious, indifferent, apathetic wickedness can be cleansed, purified and purged, and replaced with his holiness, his righteousness.

• In the desert, God trains us into warriors.

When God seeks to make us worshipers, when God seeks to purge and purify us from impurities, and when God seeks to make us holy, righteous, he does it so that he can make warriors out of us.

If God’s testing is one sense of God revealing what we are made of, his testing is also in another sense God training us who are untrained and feeble to become disciplined warriors who can be used mightily to expand God’s kingdom.

Exodus 13:17-18 speaks to this part of God’s testing. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt there was a much shorter route than the desert road through which God could have led Israel. It was “the road through the Philistine country” much easier route. It says, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So, God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.”

God knew that fresh out of Egypt, the Israelites were in no shape to battle against the Philistines. So, he took them to the training journey, the desert journey.

It’s like the old classic martial art movies where the hero of a story is pulled back early on in a movie to work on the skills, to be battled ready. So, the hero become a disciple of a grand master and goes through rigorous training of carrying buckets of water on a tick on their shoulder, punching and kicking the bamboo sticks until their weapons are hardened, learning to wield their swords until they can slice flies in halves, or catch flies with chopsticks, perfecting their forms and mental edge.

God takes unto the desert road to train us, to have us be battle ready. In our stories, we don’t get this training by lifting weights, running miles after miles.  The spiritual training involves taking us into the desert out of the Nile riverbed, so that we can learn to depend on God for his provision, where we must meet God and know him as our Giver, Provider, Protector, and Trainer.

So, remember that as you go through the spiritual desert, although you may feel that the time is wasted, you are not growing at all or God doesn’t seem to be working in you, the truth is that God is working in your desert. God is after you to make you a worshiper, to make you pure and to train you to be effective warriors to expand his kingdom. The desert is the perfect place and time for God to work in you.

Cold season?

Miki's been telling us for few days that her left ear's been hurting. Lyn took her to see her doctor and found out her ear is infected. She is just getting over her cold and now an ear infection... Well, this doesn't seem to slow her down at all. Audrey? She too has been under the weather; lots of post-nasal drips, runny nose, coughing, fever. This does slow her down quite of bit! She is getting used to her daddy and mommy racing to get to her nose before she gets to it first. Don't know what we will do without Puff Plus with the touch of moisturizers for our precious little noses. Well, the signs of winter approaching are hard to miss in our household.

Yesterday morning, looking out the window, I saw the tall trees around our house shedding their leaves; for a moment, they gave an illusion of winter snow flakes, just bigger with the colors of brown and pale green; a gentle reminder of God's creative touch. Although this season change brings colder days to come, I hope and pray that my heart will be ignited with deeper delight in God's way. "Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statues and not toward selfish gain... I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statues before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your commands which I love, and I meditate on your decrees." (Psalm 119:35, 36, 45-48)

Psalm 46:1, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

Yesterday, I had it! As I was putting one of my daughters into her car seat, she began yelling really loud. What was she yelling about? Well, I don't remember. What I remember was this unsettled feeling in me, "I don't like the way she is talking to me." Her yelling began with, "I WANT THIS...", "I NEED THIS..." After I got her to calm down, I had a little talk with her. I told her that when she yelled and demanded me to meet her need and want, I didn't feel like listening to her! I told her that the right way, the better way to talk to me would be to simply ask for what she wanted or needed. Why? I told her that I wanted to bless her, do what was good for her, and to help her if I can. I was asking her to trust me that I wanted to genuinely help her. I wanted her to know that she didn't need to yell, demand, grumble to get what she wanted or needed from me. All she had to do was to simply trust me and ask me.

When I read Psalm 46 this morning, I began to think about how I am a lot like my little child. I don't yell at God much, but in little troubles that I face, I sure do grumble a lot and carry this attitude that I deserve better. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." I easily forget that God's heart is to help, genuinely be my aid, my protection, my provider, my strength, not just yesterday, but right now in ever-present moments. I don't need to fuss, yell, grumble, manipulate God to help me when I am in trouble. Verse 7 says, "The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Ever-present, God Immanuel, God with us... to help us to live the best life he has for us.

It is a humbling experience trying to train my children in God's way. So often, what I try to teach them are the very things God wants me to learn... Lord, train me to trust you deeper that you are God, ever-present help in trouble!

Psalm 45:11, "The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord."

This morning's scriptural reflection led me to Psalm 45. I was drawn to the verse 11, "The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord."

C. S. Lewis said about this psalm in Reflections on the Psalms,

"The birth of Christ is the arrival of the great warrior and the great king. Also of the Lover, the Bridegroom, whose beauty surpasses that of man. But not only the Bridegroom as the lover, the desired; the Bridegroom also who makes fruitful, the Father of children still to be begotten and born" (Reflections on the Psalms, p. 130).

Last Saturday, I attended Sam's wedding. He and his bride Youngshin both radiated the glow of happiness and joy. You should have seen them on the dancing floor for their first dance as a married couple. They danced as though there was nobody around them. They were in the moment. Their eyes never left each other. Youngshin, the bride's radiating smile gave it away; Sam's devotion gave it away... they were in love. The bride knew she was beautiful. Sam was enthralled by her beauty. My wife and I looked at each other and smiled remembering our moments!

I am constantly surrounded by my beautiful wife and our three beautiful daughters. I too am enthralled by their beauty, not just when they are adorned with pretty clothes, or anything else. But, like now seeing my wife and my children with their messy hair just woken up from sleep. They are beautiful. My appreciation of their beauty is driven by my deep love for them.

To think that Jesus loves his church, us in this way is beyond me...

Well, my reflection needs to stop for now... my beloved and beautiful wife and children are up.. it is time to make some pancakes.