Faithless

I have played the part of the faithless bride,
But you stood by me,
I have tried to find another paradise,
But you stood by me,
Played the fool by believing in lies,
But you opened up my eyes, 
Crawled in the darkness and through the slime,
But you showed me the light.

Faithful, Oh so Faithful,
A love like yours I will never understand,
Savior, my blessed redeemer,
You truly are my hope, my joy and my crown.

Notes from Psalm 42

Psalm 42

Opening thoughts:  A casual read through this Psalm gives one the sense of a man who is out in a boat on the ocean  and how it shifts from a day of calm seas to the movie a Perfect Storm.  Another way to look at would be that of the roller coasters of life.  Throughout the Psalm David goes in and out of the storms of his life back into the peaceful waters of a God who is in control. (This Psalm may have been written during the time of Absalom’s rebellion.) We will look at the Psalm today in a different way and go through His trials and then go through what gave him peace.

The trials of life

Psalms 42:3 ( ESV )

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³    My tears have been my food    day and night,    while they say to me continually,    “Where is your God?”

Psalms 42:10 ( ESV )

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¹⁰    As with a deadly wound in my bones,    my adversaries taunt me,    while they say to me continually,    “Where is your God?”

·         Why were his tears his food day and night? Like his food it was the only thing that seemed to nourish him and keep him going. Note also the pain that he felt was like a deadly wound in his bone. (A physical aching within his body.) He was emotionally and physically drained through this time of suffering.

·         Note he had adversaries who taunted him asking him, “Where was his God?” In context, I don’t

believe these men were atheist as much as they were like Job’s comforters. They saw David in his suffering and assumed that God was not on his side.  God was against him.

·         It is also of importance that we see how often David viewed this taunting from them as being. In both verses once again it was CONTINUALLY. This is how Bad times feel when they come into our lives.

Psalms 42:5 ( ESV )

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⁵    Why are you cast down, O my soul,    and why are you in turmoil within me?    Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,    my salvation^£ 

·         Here are some key words to keep in mind on how we feel when we go through trials. Note how verse 11 almost says the same thing. 

·         Why are you cast down-To sink down, to depress or to stoop with pain. He also states this again in verse 6.

·         Why are you in turmoil within me-This has the idea of a pain that causes mourning within us as we are in a painful emotional uproar.

Psalms 42:9 ( ESV )

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⁹    I say to God, my rock:    “Why have you forgotten me?    Why do I go mourning    because of the oppression of the enemy?”

·         His pain and suffering is so great that he feels as though God has become oblivious to not only to his needs but to him. David would use very similar words again in Psalms 22:1 and would be used of Christ Himself at the cross. Matt. 27:46 (We may feel this way but we must also realize that we are never alone.)

·         When we face persecution and the pressure placed upon us by others we can even enter into a state of mourning. (Word used here for mourning is like when one is putting upon himself sackcloth and ashes.)

Psalms 42:7 ( ESV )

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⁷    Deep calls to deep    at the roar of your waterfalls;    all your breakers and your waves    have gone over me.

·         How bad can it all get? It is like waves upon waves of sorrow being poured over us, like the noise of waterfalls, like breakers and waves that are drowning us over and over again.

·         The heavier issue though as you look at these verses is the word your is used 3 times in this verse alone. Not only does David feel like he is forsaken but he feels as though God is now against Him.

Does all of that sound familiar to you? How many of us have “FELT” these types of emotions in our lives? Yet, David constantly throughout this roller coaster of life gives us hope over the feelings that can sometimes control us when going through rough times. Here are some things that may help you.

Hope

1.       Remember our pursuit.

Psalms 42:1-2 ( ESV )

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¹    As a deer pants for flowing streams,    so pants my soul for you, O God.

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²    My soul thirsts for God,    for the living God.    When shall I come and appear before God?^£

·         Like a deer in a time of drought let us not forget that He is there to give us hope.

·         Pants-To long for. (Prodigal son with the husk in Luke 15) To desire so greatly it is our one focus.

·         Flowing streams-Not a stagnant pool but living waters. This is what Jesus promised in John 4:10 to the Samaritan woman. Water in not just something we can use but it is a necessity in our lives, without it we will die!

·         I am reminded of Paul’s statements in Phil. 3:7-14. He alone is our greatest pursuit. (I think of King Arthur’s pursuit of the Holy Grail.) All is but refuse, without the knowledge of the Holy one.

·         When we can’t see Him he has not forsaken us or departed or died but rather He is the Living God who desires to be with us. Our greatest desire should be like David, I cannot wait to stand before Him when my faith becomes sight.

2.       Remember the good days that we have had with Him.

Psalms 42:4 ( ESV )

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⁴    These things I remember,    as I pour out my soul:    how I would go with the throng    and lead them in procession to the house of God    with glad shouts and songs of praise,    a multitude keeping festival.

·         Always keep in our hearts and minds through our bad times of the days of his visible kindness shown towards us. David never forgot those days of Joy that God had given him in the past. I think here in this passage he remembered the day of joy of when he brought back the tabernacle. He would dance before the Lord then and before Him whenever He led in their worship.

3.       Remember His steadfast love.

    By day the Lord commands his steadfast love-Verse 8. His love for us will not fade away but remain with us.

4.       He sings over us with His love.

  and at night his song is with me-Verse 8. I am reminded of Zephaniah 3:17. The emotion of a Father or a Mother who sings over their little ones when they become fearful. (Favorite Disney movie Dumbo, esp. the scene when Dumbo’s mother cradles him and the song Baby Mine is played.) Christ walking upon the troubled seas to get to his disciples as he says, “Fear not.”

5.       He is the God of our life.

  a prayer to the God of my life-Verse 8. He is the one who is in control of all things and He is in control of my life.

6.       He is my Rock.

                   I say to God, my rock-Verse 9. As a believer Jesus is our very foundation. He will not be moved  though my whole world may crumble. He will remain.

Psalms 42:11 ( ESV )

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¹¹    Why are you cast down, O my soul,    and why are you in turmoil within me?    Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,    my salvation and my God.

7.       He is our Hope and Salvation-We can rely upon Him and trust in Him for He is trustworthy and will never, never fail us. He will deliver us and He will bring us home to Him. This will all pass away but Jesus never will.

Whatever happened to sin? The issue of Holiness.

This will be the first in a short series dealing with the subject of Sin. One of the biggest reasons why we do not talk about sin as much as we once did is that we have ceased to talk much about God's holiness.

Traps Spiritual Leadership should avoid

     Here are a few things that I have noticed that for those of us who are in spiritual leadership positions that we should be careful about in our walks. I believe that these are some of the big traps that we can fall into if we are not careful.

·         The sin of Pride.

·         We must know EVERYTHING about our people. We should be careful to observe the flock and know of its need. Sometimes though I believe as leaders we need to be careful that we do not become a part of the rumor mill. We are to observe, care, rebuke and challenge but we are never to rely on rumors without confronting the individuals. This can lead to an almost paranoia in our thinking about those whom God has called us to minister to.

·         We are to be teachable. As leaders we must remember that we are still learning and growing as well. We are under shepherds to the Great Shepherd of all. We also need to have a watchful eye that we do not begin to look down upon other leaders who might have more or less education then we do.

·         Anger.

·         We must be in control of everything and every detail of the church.

·         Following the newest trend rather than simply preaching the Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work in the hearts of men.

·         We do not want to OFFEND. Scripture makes it clear that we should be careful with what we say, yet it also is just as clear about the fact that the Gospel will OFFEND some but we are still to share it boldly and with compassion.

·         Immorality. As we come closer to his appearing we know that this will even increase more for as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when the Son of Man appears.

·         Lastly, we must be careful with the sins of our own hearts. Jesus’ harshest confrontations with the Pharisees were when He brought up to them that what they thought and dwelt upon could be just as sinful as that which they physically would do.

The Dress

When Julie and I first got married we observed some couples in our lives who were great examples of marriage. We saw their love and devotion for one another and we wanted to apply some of their principles to our marriage.

One of those couples, the Hodges were older but their devotion for one another was truly amazing. Often when we would go back to Gravette, Clyde and his wife would have us over for coffee. Their laughter, respect and concern for one another always encouraged us to be better. They were the truest of friends, towards us and such a godly example.

Then when Clyde's wife died we saw what it was to go through the valley. He loved his Jesus so very much through it all but we knew how he missed her so.  He had given up many of her things but he still had kept a few clothes to remind him of the love of his life. It was upon thinking of them both today why I wrote the following poem.

The Dress

The dress still hangs on the rod in a room where he has not slept in for almost two years,

He wakes up on the couch as the morning sun warms his face,

He knows that time keeps moving and that he must keep going on,

Gets inside the car, begins to weep as the radio plays their song.

I know there’s a heaven,

And one day I will meet her there,

But I still see her dancing in the dress,

And miss how the sunshine played in her hair.

Cup of coffee in the evening he forgets as he makes her a cup once again,

The kids are coming over and try to get him out of the house for a while,

They smile at him, holding his hand they go out the door,

But the sparkle in their eyes reminds him so much of her.

I know there’s a heaven,

And one day I will meet her there,

But I still see her dancing in the dress,

And miss how the sunshine played in her hair.

They are gathered around him in the bed He and her had once laid in,

Their tears fall like rain as the three look down upon his face,

They look upon their father the very last time,

Then they see their mother’s dress and know that he will be fine.

And now he is breathing in Heaven,

And on this day he will meet her there,

He can see now see her dancing in the dress,

As he sees how the sunshine plays in her hair,

 Yes, he can now see her dancing in the dress,

 And he sees how the sunshine plays in her hair.

The Servant King

This video deals with Mark 1:1 on the subject of the theme of the book of Mark the Servant King. This is also our 200th blog on blogger. Excited.

Missionary video dealing with our ministry.

This is our video dealing with our vision and what we will be doing with the ministry with Rock Haven Ministries. Feel free to make comments or if you would like to be a prayer partner or a financial supporter please contact us.