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Chapter 8

 THE UNIVERSAL SIN ATTACK,
AND THE ONLY ANSWER, JESUS CHRIST

 "COME AND HEAR, ALL YOU WHO FEAR GOD,
AND I WILL DECLARE WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR MY SOUL."

Psalm 66

THE WONDERS, WISDOM AND WORKS OF GOD   66:1-7

Ahmadinejad has been exalting himself, his religion, his intentions, his power, his ruin prescribed for Israel, using his alleged God, this Allah (the 'one' but WHICH one!), as a ground for inane boasting, while others, such as the Taliban, that rigorist invader of women's liberties and a populace's individuality with no demonstrable ground^*1, have now made their point through a monthly online magazine. Australia, say they, must assimilate into a Moslem unity or be overpowered by Asian powers and numbers^*2. This sort of intimidatory tactic, seeking a soft tissue in the heart and head of foolish nations in order to cajole or captivate or just capture them by degrees, as if the shadow of a great ocean liner alone, with the actual boat were to inspire fear, is not uncommon.

Psalm 68 has a word for such grasping imperialism, cloaked in religion, or mastered by false prophecy, or both.

In this Psalm, we are exhorted to make exuberant, joyful praise to God, exposing the wonder of His gracious and noble Being. It is through "the greatness of Your power," that "Your enemies will submit themselves to You" (v. 3). The whole earth is going to worship the sent One, the Messiah (as in Psalms 2, 67), the sacrificial Saviour (as in Psalm 22), and not some substitute erected without works corresponding, and lacking the testing sieve of detailed prophecy, nor any body eminently fulfilling the word of Christ's own prediction of many false prophets to come. It is therefore necessary to make it clear to all who rebel against the God of truth and grace, the Saviour, that there is great peril if you exalt yourself. Indeed, Psalm 66:7 declares baldly: "Let not the rebellious exalt themselves."

Interestingly, Isaiah 31, just before the Messianic rule of the Lord as exposed in Isaiah 32, specifically notes the fate of Assyria, which covered much of current Iran, with Iraq, that "through the voice of the Lord, Assyria will be beaten down," and that the breath of the Lord will be like "a stream of brimstone" kindling flame. You get a parallel message in Micah 5, following the revelation of the Messiah in Micah 5:1-3, so famously, and it is this.

"They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria ...

Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land,
and when he treads within our borders.

“Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from the LORD."

It is the Lord who will act. People of God do not go about seeking to subjugate the world, but to emancipate it freely in the love of God, which is full of a peace which passes all understanding because it is true!

Micah shows how it is the Lord will deal with the assailants in a way spectacularly similar to the way He covered the Pharaoh of Egypt in the Exodus. These are things to come. It is only fitting to warn these inflamed tongues of what is to come, for God is not mocked, and though He has waited long, He has already shown the Islamic lust for land, something of the end of the matter, in World War I. The word of God is a warning, and it is conveyed here also, faithfully, to one and to all. It is wiser to play games for fun without radioactive equipment than to toy with the God of all truth and mercy, whose Son in the Saviour and who died as the appointed time (Daniel 9:24ff.).

At the same time, the people of the Lord should not fear the armies of this or that false prophet. The people on this earth are being tested, and tyrants from of old have had their day; and yet this is different, for it culminates in such a storm that man could no more live on earth unless the Lord Jesus Christ returned to it, to bring balance, and peace, and truth, and repentance to many, and to rule in the beauty of holiness before our little stage, like a home on a sheep-station, among the stars, is removed.

In Psalm 66:6, similarly, the Lord in warning those who exalt their powers, to remember what He did in the Exodus: "for He keeps our soul among the living," (v.9), and it is for us to bless Him and "make His praise to be heard." WE who believe are not reconditioned as robots, slaves of other men's visions and dreams, but called to be saints, living in truth and mercy with the Bible attesting truth that none ever can overturn, and love that does not die, and the centre of it in the Cross of Christ.

The horrid imaginations of mankind, in this dark luminary, that dissolving star, soon to stare death in the face and wilt, in this wilful tyrant, that vapid and rapt raper of reality, leading men like mice in a plague to their destruction will they mindlessly gobble the gobbledygook provided: these provide what one would hope to be merely an account of the defamation of the human race. Alas, however,  it is rather a report on the inflammation of this, our race. If biological rape is not uncommon, how much more is spiritual rape, as mindless materialists, intent of gaining logical coherence in what by their own definition lacks it, try to use their own spirits to direct masses to whom they deny the privilege of even having such faculties, facilities and abilities, spiritual life. If the delusion is not this racket, as in Nazism (though it has shadings of spiritual kind, not too open), or Communism, or in many forms of Socialism, that touting of society that kills it by making it an end in itself, when it is demonstrably a product not of itself at all, and so is blind, then it is in religious rackets which riot and seek power, as in Iran.

In this last country, we read, there is a vast increase of evidence of university educated people in particular being weary of being the objects of regimentation by some kind of religious politicians, who wield power with much the same incontinence as seen by the Party bosses of Communism, as also of efforts to end this tyranny. Because someone utters the vocable 'god', there is no noticeable change in the situation. You might as well say 'science' or 'culture'. And indeed, this is precisely what many do, without too much reference to what the word has to do with truth! If it IS based in truth, then truth must be available; but in that case, the absolute truth must exist, since otherwise the relativisation in the mind of man would make it subjective and so not the truth as such, merely a meander, version or adaptation or inflammation of the ego. Then the question arises, By what ground to you make your case that this, which you say is from God, the absolute truth, has been conveyed correctly, is indeed from Him and is not your own conception, reverentially exalted to the heavens by an incredible combination of arrogance and incompetence!

What Christ declared, concerning MANY false prophets and christs (Matthew 24:24) is indeed pertinent, for as He foretold, so do these abound on this earth, and many seem to have some kind of obsessive compulsion to follow them, even in many cases, by blighting the life before them as they depart, and leaving many in acute pain for life, while they for some idea or other, think that thus they will buy their way into the good graces of their Creator, whose children suffer the while on this earth by their means!

God Himself, who made man able to find the brilliant wonder of reason, is reasonable. Thus in Isaiah 1:18, He invites people to come and reason together, providing the only sensible solution to the sins of pretence, pretension, delusion, dictatorship and the like, in offering the remedy, costly though it is shown to be (Isaiah 49-55) to man's self-manacling and disorientation. Being reasonable is one of the attributes required in the people of God (cf. I Peter 3:15), and this site has specialised in this feature, which however in order to be there at all, MUST as it does, both investigate and verify what reason requires, and what a friend it is found to be to one who seeks truth. It ushers one

(as in SMR, TMR esp.  Ch. 5, Deity and Design, Designation and Destiny, Section 8 in particular, and references there to be found, with Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ).  

into the place of God, His word and His works, His salvation and how to gain it freely.

This it is able to do not only because reason helps identify what is to be found from God, but of course, because God in His actual grace and mercy put it there expressly so that it MIGHT be found! One does not create a treasure when one shows how it is to be found, far less when the maps are part of the treasure and are freely available.

As to Him who rules man, He is by no means infatuated with fatuity, but spreads in the Bible, the whole testimony of truth for rational investigation and verification, validation and application. There is in fact nothing else even remotely like this, and it works. All that God does works. That is just ONE reason for praising Him as does the Psalmist here in the 66th Psalm, to which we now turn as it unfolds further.

THE REFINEMENT AND PURGING OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD      66:10-15

Being a child of God is not some opportunity for blather and self-esteem! Animals can bray and fray for supremacy, but to man is given a heart that needs reconstitution as divine wisdom enables, not as an object for the rich and powerful to have as a plaything for their national and international aspirations, contemptible as these normally are, have been, and continue to be.

Thus we read in Psalm 66:10-12, that "You have tested us!"

Indeed: “You have refined us as silver is refined," so that at times we were smitten for our sins, and we "went through fire and through water". Yet with the object of the purging clear, the due use of discipline, cleansing and a liberated spirit that loves and fears nothing but God, "You brought us out to rich fulfilment."

Thus proven in life, the Psalmist overflows with joy and seeks to bring to the Lord the testimony of his love, which in our time, now that the Messianic predictions are fulfilled in salvation,  translates to this,

¨   "God forbid that I should glory
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified to Me and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).

At times a slovenly spirit, a sleepy one, a clammy one can afflict the not-so-chaste heart of man; but with the purging of God's own discipline (and HIS discipline is an art form at times!), there comes the acute and keen awareness of His presence, power and the beauty of His holiness in which the saints are to live. It in some ways resembles awakening from concussion and finding not only clarity, but what is clear as a magnificence in magnitude, beauty and holiness that give both energy to life and meaning, and with these, capacity to pursue it though death yawns.

Paul was tested, a special spur to unease troubling him in his body, and again and again he sought the Lord (II Corinthians 12), that He would remove it; but the answer was a clear no! God is not a fool who indulges His children, and while He gives ground for the most exuberance of praise, He also withholds or afflicts at times, and so we learn the error to be profound, far more than we at first realised, or the self-will to be present though it seemed to be absent, or that we were becoming insensitive, when it seemed ‘just normal living’, when in fact it was no more bathed in the dew of heaven than is the sand in the mid-day sun in the desert.

Complacency is a dreadful disease, and worry is another. Sometimes people move to this South Pole of worry and then move to the North of complacency, like migrating birds, and so have two poles, or in some ways become spiritually bipolar: nor is this simply a disease, for it can become an attitude.

David was tested, for after his outrageous affair with Bath-Sheba (not a custom, but ONE particular fall in his life), he had to suffer not once or twice, pain and pangs in his own family circle, bringing home to him in a humbling and instructive fashion, the very enormity of having so rashly disregarded the sacred ties of godly marriage, when interfering as if a bull and not a man. Psalm 51 shows the depth of his horror at himself in repentance, without excuse; but the rest of his life shows an increasing voiding of self-will and resilience not only physically, for he was strong in heart, but spiritually; for being poor in spirit is a sublime result, and a lovable one.

His men evidently did love him as you see strongly indicated in the case when his wish, in battle mode, for water from the old supply of Bethlehem led a man to risk his life to get it for him: but he, David, he would not drink it, as if he thought himself worthy of such courage and risk for his mere personal pleasure, on the part of another. He poured it on the ground, refusing to have pleasure in what could have killed the man who gained it.

So does the Lord polish us, and praise the Lord that He does; for if the choice is between pain and humiliation, with increasing godliness, likeness to the Lord, on the one hand, and ease and pleasure without it, on the other, then pain is the preference, for the beauty of His holiness is the very stuff of heaven. Of course pain is not enjoyable, but the fruits of discipline in faith are desirable, being profound and holy, just and true, reaching to infinity, but designated in personality, indeed in the very Persons of the Trinity, ever blessed, always in the end, refreshing to those who know Him (cf. Acts 3:19ff.). Where truth is involved, and God is He, nothing else even ever begins to have so much as a bearing by comparison.

TESTIMONY 66:16-20

"Come and hear," he says, "all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul."

There is a time to testify, as I do here, of all the wonder and depth of the Lord's dealings, His mercy in awesome depth, His vision in overpowering glory, His truth in cleansing onrush, His word in fascinating delight, His deliverances like those of houses just prevented from scorching in the flames, which threatened, His intimacies of wisdom and His enablements of self-control, His determination that His will be done His way, which beggars the thoughts and instructs the soul: for HE is the conductor, and who are we, who play in His orchestra with His inspiration, to contest what is our "reasonable service" for Him, which He appoints (cf. Romans 12:1-2).

Indeed, the Lord has led and constrained me to move for the end of my divinity studies to the USA, when persecuted in Melbourne, to preach in Canada where there was a charming response, in New Zealand where there was boiling hostility because I INSISTED on the bodily resurrection and WOULD NOT treat it as something beneath fellowship level, but a very clear and indispensable ground for it. He has done much more. It is all good, and great is He who has borne with me that I might bear for Him His message in these four nations in the earth, and through the Web, in scores more. To continue is my desire, wherever, however, so long as His word meets the ear and His truth the heart of many, to inspire them afresh, or to gain their souls for the good Lord who made them, in Christ died for them, so that He being once dead, is now alive for ever, meeting every need for His children (Revelation 1:18, Hebrews 7:25).

But what of us ?

Being a "living sacrifice" as in Romans 12, Paul exhorts us to become, is not in any way similar to making of God a carrier van for ever bigger bonuses to income, to prosperity, to influence and gain, popularity and self-importance. You do NOT sacrifice yourself by seeking your own fulfilment, and if you DO seek to save your life, let alone try to make God an accomplice in your nice little equations for self, you will assuredly lose it (Matthew 16:26ff.); and good riddance too for such a thing is detestable, like a form of prostitution, but this one, it is spiritual. Alas for the mindlessly dissident from deity! How much then must one do now to enhance the scope of the Gospel: not that God will fail in anything, but love must attempt anything that His grace enables.

"I cried to Him with my mouth," says the Psalmist in retrospect, and He was "extolled with my tongue." This is no parade of praise, like a salute to your C.O. (whatever you may really think of him), for

¨   "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear," but
"certainly God has heard me! He has attended to the voice of my prayer."

There is the challenge: if you want to take God for a ride in your self-moved, wind-surf thrust and play, you are merely absurd, and your prayer will be discountenanced, as with counterfeit money. Despite the caveat, and the need to clear the motives, seek the face of the Lord (Psalm 27:7-10), when He calls, and let your ardour know no bounds.

Such appears the case with the Psalmist, and hence the prayer is heard. That is one of the beautiful things about God, you do not have the misrepresentation, slander, gandering and graceless acts of distortion in which man excels; for as to Him, He KNOWS. Facts are immovable, undistortable and grace reigns. Nor should one be weighed down with guilt: if you fall, repent at once, and arising, like a child who fell in the street, put on the bandages of righteousness, the gift of God and being purged (Titus 3:5ff., Romans 5:17, I John 1:7ff.), and bless God "who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!"

NOTES

*1

See More Marvels ... Ch. 4, SMR pp. 1080ff.,  and Index.

*2

The Islamic presentation was recorded in The Australian, November 6th. 2009.