Thoughts from Psalms - Day 9

Psalm 42 & 43

For the director of music.  Maskils of the Sons of Korah.

¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

⁸ By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

Vindicate me, my God,
    and plead my cause
    against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
    deceitful and wicked.
² You are God my stronghold.
    Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?
³ Send me your light and your faithful care,
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
    to the place where you dwell.
⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

 

           What is salvation. Most of us growing up in the church or even sharing the gospel focus on the fact that we are sinners on our way to Hell but God sent His sinless Son to pay the debt for our sins by dying on the cross so if we, by faith, receive this payment for our sins as a free gift, we can go to Heaven some day and enter into God's family. All that is true but it somehow misses the point that it seems we have to stumble upon some day and usually when we read passages like this one. Look at verses 1 and 2. You see the psalmist panting for God. You see Him thirsting after God. Or look at Psalm 63

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.
³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

      These are words of a person in love with God. You see salvation at its core is a restoration of a relationship with God that was started in the garden, destroyed by sin, and restored by the atonement of Christ for our sins. Now we can boldly enter His presence thru the rent veil and communicate with Him and Him to us through His Word and the Holy Spirit living in us. This is the crux of the difference between Christianity and every other religion. Religion is do this and don't do that and if your do's outweigh your don'ts maybe you can get to "Heaven". Christianity is not religion but a relationship where a personal God enters into a personal relationship with mankind. He says "come to me and I will wash away your sins." Unlike religion where we have to do everything, in Christianity, God does everything. The disciples understood this in John 6. Jesus had just talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood and the followers who were looking for things to do to get to Heaven couldn't put this on their checklist so they left. Previously in this chapter they had asked

 “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

    They didn't understand the answer but Peter did. Jesus asked those remaining,
 

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

        He understood that we aren't coming to a teaching, though there is that, we aren't coming to do works, though we do - we are coming to a person. We are coming back to God through the person of Jesus Christ. That is Christianity. That is salvation. And the Psalmist in Psalm 42 and 63 expresses this so well in that he is craving for a nearness, a closeness, the presence of God and he is miserable until he gets that.

       This leads us to the questions, Do you pant for God? Do you know God? Do you meet with God? Do you have a personal relationship with God?

        I growing up in church didn't even realize that this was in play even until the age of 30. I thought Christianity was, once you were saved, doing stuff. If you would have asked me "what makes a "good Christian", I would have answered, "going to church, reading the Bible, witnessing, praying, avoiding sin" and a bunch of other lists. What I didn't realize was that praying, for example, was not to get stuff but the privilege of talking to God and entering His presence. Reading the Bible wasn't a spiritual exercise that made God happy but rather Him speaking to me through His living word. Witnessing was more than offering salvation but it was the opportunity to tell people about the one I love and complete my joy.

       So panting or thirsting or craving a deeper relationship with God is what makes a "good Christian". Do you have that or are you following a checklist of do's and don'ts. If you are tracking with me and agree with me, you probably are saying, "To be perfectly honest, I don't have that." Do you desire it? That means you are on the right path because the first step in getting a heart that pants for God is knowing you need it and as G.I.Joe said, "Knowing is half the battle." Like I said, this isn't generally what we are taught in Church. So cry out to God and tell Him you want this more than life itself because as the Psalmist says, "His love is better than life." If you have ever experienced this closeness, you know that suddenly everything in life pales compared to this.