Catching hold of a rock

My pastor has been going through Revelations on Sunday evenings for the past few months. We are just now going through some of the judgement scenes (Rev. 14, 15, 16). Some of the imagery is quite striking and the book, as a whole, is very humbling. The justice and mercy of God is held in such tension. And to read, especially, of some of the judgements is very sobering.

It kind of ties in a bit with this quote of Samuel Rutherford's that I came across recently:

"There cannot be a more humble soul than a believer. It is no pride in a drowning man to catch hold of a rock."

Indeed! Yet if only more would reach out for that Rock, which is Christ!

A little less 'me'

The book of Psalms is often such a refuge in struggling times. Whether they be moments of weariness, weak faith, frustration, confusion, suffering, struggling with sin, etc., it is the book to which Christians most often go to when they don't quite know what to read in the Word. That has been my testimony over many years and the testimony of many others. It must be something about the very heartfelt way in which David and the other psalmists express themselves in poetic verse. It has been the refuge of many hurting souls, the encouragement to praise of many joy-filled others and, indeed, even the source of Jesus' own meditation as he brought rebuttal to Satan in Luke 4.

This week, as I've struggled with my own health, it is the book to which I once again turned. As I turned the pages and read portions here and there, I felt like I was looking for something and just not really finding it. And yet, how true to the mark are God's arrows in our life! Sometimes we are going through something, we think we'll know just the comfort we need when we hear it, we almost know what we want that comfort to be... and then God uses his Word in a very different way.

And so as I looked for words about suffering and comfort today, I did find those -- many of them -- but I was also struck by just how, in so many different 'life' circumstances, the psalmists were drawn to praise and declare the greatness of their God. Just for who he is, for how he displays his glory, for how he loves, cares, protects and helps his people. For his mercies in the past, his present deliverances, his promises for the future. There is just so much about God's character that luminates from these texts. And, at the end of the day, no matter what we are going through, sometimes what we most need to do is to get our focus right on God.

It is easy in painful times to just think about ourselves, to wallow in worry, fear or self-pity, but I found my time in the Psalms to be something that helped to put my thoughts back into better order. And I'm glad. Looking at life with a more God-ward focus is hugely comforting. He is on his throne; he does what is good; he is unfailingly kind to his people. So, a little lesson 're'-learned(!). A little less 'me' and a lot more 'God' in my thoughts is a mighty encouragement and a much brighter focus than I've had for a few days.

There is a Name…

Just a few verses from a hymn I've been meditating on today. Seems like God has brought me a little low physically this week and through some painful days, I'm just particularly trying to focus on his goodness.

Oh, how I love Jesus, by Frederick Whitfield, 1855

There is a Name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest Name on earth.
…
It tells of One whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest woe;
Who in each sorrow bears
A part that none can bear below.

It bids my trembling heart rejoice.
It dries each rising tear.
It tells me, in a “still small voice,”
To trust and never fear.

Jesus, the Name I love so well,
The Name I love to hear:
No saint on earth its worth can tell,
No heart conceive how dear.

This Name shall shed its fragrance still
Along this thorny road,
Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill
That leads me up to God.

And there with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I’ll sing the new eternal song
Of Jesus’ love for me.

A good note on a familiar verse

David Robinson has a good read of Philippians 4:19 which is well worth a read. Interesting to see that often our 'needs' can be the wisdom, strength and resources to meet the needs of others!

Live By The Truth: Caring For Others

The simple in the difficult

Desiring a firmer affiance in God under afflictions

Why is my heart with grief opprest?
Can all the pains I feel or fear,
Make thee, my soul, forget thy rest,
Forget that God, thy God is near?

Hast thou not often call'd the Lord
Thy refuge, thy almighty friend?
And canst thou fear to trust that word
On which thy hopes of heaven depend?

Mortality's unnumber'd ills
Are all beneath his sovereign hand;
Each pain which this frail body feels
Attends, obedient, his command.

Lord, form my temper to thy will!
If thou my faith and patience prove,
May every painful stroke fulfil
Thy purposes of faithful love.

O may this weak, this fainting mind,
A father's hand adoring see;
Confess thee just, and wise and kind,
And trust thy word and cleave to thee.
—Anne Steele

Sometimes it is grasping on to simple truths that sees us through troubling times. I know there are times these past few years when I've just reminded myself that God is good and He is kind. Simple... but in the flurry to trouble, sometimes it is the foundational things that speak peace to our souls. Here, as Anne reflect on the need to rest in God during her afflictions, the one on which her hopes of heaven depend, she finds comfort in remembering that God is just, and wise and kind. She is able to trust his word and cleave to him. What a refuge and comfort that is in trying times: God will be near and he will be true to his character, fulfilling his purposes of faithful love in our lives.

Take comfort, friend, in that almighty friend and don't forget that God, thy God is near. How much I need to remind myself of these things... and indeed, what courage it gives when the battle is fierce, when our faith is dim, when our minds don't seem to be able to take in deeper things... rest in God, the God you know is good and kind, and whose mercies are new every morning.

More Steele on Ps. 139

I’ll pick up Anne Steele’s poetical version of Psalm 139, continuing from last blog entry (… interesting how this kind of poetry reminds one of reading the Amplified Version of the Bible!)

…
If I look back, thy awful steps I see;
Before me, thou art there; thy potent hand
Restrains and guards, upholds and guides my feet.
Infinite knowledge; my astonish’d mind
Sinks down with awe, and wonders, and adores.
Imagination droops her trembling wing,
Nor vainly tempts the height and depth stupendous.
To shun thy spirit whither shall I fly?
Where shall I hide me from a present God?
Could I ascend to heaven, thy throne is there,
And thy full rays would meet my dazzled sight.
Or if to hell I force my desperate way,
Thy dreadful presence there for ever frowns.
If mounted on the morning’s lightsome wings,
Swift to creation’s utmost bounds I fly,
Thy hand alone sustains and guides my flight.
Shall I, to shun the terrors of thine eye,
In midnight’s sable mantle wrap me round?
Vain thought! At one tremendous glance of thine,
The midnight shade shall blaze with sudden day.
From thee no darkness hides; at thy command
Night’s deepest gloom shall spread meridian beams
And light and darkness are alike to thee.
—Anne Steele (from Psalm CXXXIX)


The psalmist provides such a visual experience and Anne just follows through on that with her paraphrase. It’s interesting how the heights and depths of our senses are touched by these lines. From touch (’thy potent hand Restrains and guards, upholds and guides my feet’) to sight ( ‘thy full rays would meet my dazzled sight’ and ‘At one tremendous glance of thine, The midnight shade shall blaze with sudden day’) and then to sound (‘at thy command Night’s deepest gloom shall spread meridian beams…’)

And perhaps, most of all, besides touching our senses, our understanding of God is blown away: ‘Infinite knowledge; my astonish’d mind Sinks down with awe, and wonders, and adores’

Are we, like the psalmist, as we contemplate this inescapeable, all-knowing God, humbled with awe and wonder and adoration? Or are we just afraid and fearful...

Steele on Ps. 139

Psalm 139 is one of those psalms that seemingly no matter how many times you read it you are again struck by its poignancy. It just seems to take you down at the knees, as it were! Very humbling and searching verses.

We read it Sunday evening and it has been on my mind off-and-on ever since. I read Anne Steele’s paraphrase of this psalm tonight — and when I did, I found it also had the same effect. Anyhow, here are the first ten lines (perhaps some more tomorrow) —


O Lord, thy awful searching eye hast trac’d
My heart through every secret winding fold,
And all its inmost powers to thee are known.
Thou see’st my rising and my resting hours,
And every latent thought within my breast
Is bared to thee; my path by thee surrounded,
My bed encircled; God is ever near.
My steps are all before thee, not a word
Can steal in softest whisper from my tongue,
But thou canst hear and mark its whole intent.
—Anne Steele (Psalm CXXXIX)