Whatcha Eatin'

I'm sorry for being late this week, but the timing for this Psalm couldn't have been more appropriate. You see, on Monday night when I went to write this Psalm I had to turn into bed because I was feeling absolutely terrible. That night, I woke up, took a shower, passed out, hit my head, threw up all over my bathroom floor, and was left thinking, "what in the world did I eat." In life, the things you choose to eat drastically effect your well-being. I was told yesterday that 80% of the times that a person throws up is due wholly to food poisoning ... hmmm interesting. Similarly, in your walk with Christ, what you "eat" will determine your spiritual health. Matthew 4:4 tells us clearly - "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." For anything else, ask yourself - what will this do to my spiritual health? Psalm 38



Verses 1-14 Read this part of the Psalm. It should be obvious that something is wrong and that David has been a naughty boy. What has he done? I have no clue. The only indicator of his sin comes from verse 3 where he says - "there is no health in my bones because of my sin." Basically, David ate something that he wasn't supposed to eat (spiritually of course). We've talked a lot about sin recently on Wednesday nights, and we've come to the conclusion that sin is taboo because God knows it's dangerous. God knows that sin has consequences (even apart from his judgement), and that it shouldn't be a part of our diet. If you read these verses, it almost sounds like David has the flu - he stinks (v5), he cries (v6), he has some sort of fever (v7), he is weak (v8), his strength is completely gone (v10), and his family and friends don't want to be anywhere near him (v11). Obviously David isn't physically sick, but he feels just as terrible as if he were. The sin he has dabbled in has brought about nothing good in his life. He says the reason he feels so terrible is because his soul is weighed down by sin. Just like in the real world, when you eat something you aren't supposed to spiritually, your soul cannot be healthy. Just think in your life - how do you feel. Do you feel tired, worn out, broken, sick? What have you been taking in. The spiritual diet consists of the word of God - have you been digging in or eating garbage instead?

Verses 14-22 This Psalm is much different from most - it's a cry of repentance and a plea for forgiveness. In this section, David comes to the realization that the reason his soul is weary is because he's apart from "the bread of life" and the source of "living water" (John 4:14 & 6:35). You can taste of all the things of the world, and I can promise you that they will not satisfy - sin will eat at you and make you vulnerable and self-conscious. On the other hand, we can jump back to Psalm 34:8 and taste of what the Lord has to offer to find that it is truly fulfilling and truly refreshing. David had strayed from God. He had temporarily chosen a path of rebellion during which his soul was thirsting for the living God. He was sorry for his sin and open to confess it at God's feet. Why? He knew that God would forgive. He knew that God would fill him anew. Rather than being self-conscious, he became God-conscious. Rather than focusing on his problems and pains, he was focusing on God's love and salvation.


The Psalm this week is short, and the question in simple. What are you eating? Are you digging into the word of God, or are you trying to find satisfaction elsewhere? Do you feel whole and satisfied, or are you like David - in pain, suffering, and spiritual sickness? I'd encourage you this week to examine your spiritual diet - take a look at what you're eatin' in order to see whether you are taking full advantage of God's provisions for you. If you think maybe that you have strayed from a proper "spiritual diet", follow David's example of repentance and taste and see that the Lord is good.



dig into some word this week!
-Chris

trust and do ...

When people try to demonstrate faith, they often resort to the "chair example." The idea is that even right now, you are sitting in a chair that you didn't inspect or check in anyway ... you just sat down and had faith in the fact that the chair would do it's job and hold you up. On the more unconventional side, I would like to present you with the "stage dive" example. Often times when it comes to a stage dive, the "diver" doesn't ask the audience if they are going to catch him ... the result looks just like this:



Sometimes when it comes to the Christian life, it's difficult to understand what God is doing on a personal level - even more so, it's often forgotten that God IS good when day-to-day things are going so terribly (Nahum 1:7). Today, we get into a Psalm that has a simple solution - "trust and do." The idea is that if you described your life in terms of a stage dive (where God was your audience), He'd never make you look like the guy in the video. This Psalm gives a few simple instructions that aren't necessarily the easiest things to do; however, these are the solutions to getting out of an anxious and unsettling lifestyle - "trust and do." Psalm 37

Verses 1-7 There are some books of the Bible that are completely dedicated to man's need to trust in the Lord. The two that immediately pop in my mind are Habakkuk and Psalms. It's very easy to read the Bible and blow off any suggestions that make us seem vulnerable or helpless - we're prideful people. When I was a young boy, I insisted to my parents that I was a "big boy." On the other hand, the minute I was sick or I wet the bed, mom and dad had to come to the rescue. In the same way, as unrealistic/prideful Christians, we sometimes are too confident in our ability to "resist evil." On the other hand, when we strip away pride, often times it can be frightening the amount of evil we face on a day to day basis. As young Americans, the typical standards we are presented with are often completely contradictory to what the Bible commands. No matter the temptation, there are two things that we are definitely not supposed to do - 1. Think we can handle it on our own 2. Worry about the evil that surrounds your every day life. Why? Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us. When David wrote Psalm 23:4, he admits that the reason he will not fear the valley of the shadow of death is because he has trust in the Lord. We come back to the same idea in this Psalm. Basically, the suggestion is this - "don't worry about evil, focus on the goodness of God.". Rather than pouting because of the evil that rampages through the world, celebrate in the victory that you have in the cross. Verses 4-5 tell us that we are to delight in the Lord so that he will give us the desires of our hearts - very interesting that David put trust and delight in the same section of the Psalm. When we trust in God our anxiety about evil turns into a delight in God's promise to fight our battles.

Verses 8-26 In the first section, the Psalm focuses on the effect the world may have on you - the fact of prevalent evils in the world are cause for concern. On the other hand, these verses focus on sin against you. I'm sure that you can think of a time that somebody wronged you - and the first thought you had was about how you were going to get them back even better. Boys are weird. When we get in fights - one guys throws a punch, the other throws a punch back, and then the two are friends again. Obviously, this isn't normally the case when somebody wrongs you. David says to stray from anger and rage. Romans 12:19 tells us that God will avenge us - Galatians 6:7-9 continues on and explains that God is not mocked because man will be judged for the evil he does. This is an even further reason to have a calmness about spiritual oppression - God is on your side. If we jump back up to verse 7, we see that David talks about being patient - you may not live to the day where all evil is wiped away, but it will happen. In this section, we can say - "God has victory, we don't need to 'get revenge'." The section continues far beyond the topic we chose to cover here, but basically, if you read it, you will find that God is not turning a blind eye to sin. God is watching, God is involved, and God cares. He will punish those who wrong you, while you [see verses 18-26] will find peace, joy, love, and safety in the arms of the almighty God. Maybe it sounds harsh, but the reality of life is that everyone gets to choose sides - are they going to be for or against God? Romans 8:31 is crystal clear. If you are on God's side, no one can stand against you.

Verses 27-40 This last section is so cool. As we read the first 26 verses, it is easy to be confident in your spiritual walk, but David chooses to wake us up with this - "depart from evil and do good." Back to the beginning - there are two things that we should definitely be conscious about - 1. Our ability to be prideful 2. Our tendency to underestimate God's power in light of the world's sin. Obviously, we already talked about the second one, but it's important for us to remember to be reliant on our mighty God. As the Psalm says, God will not be reluctant to reward those who seek him. In short, trust in the Lord wholeheartedly. Have hope in the fact that he will avenge the saints, wait patiently to allow Him to work in your life, and finally, stray from wrong-doing. trust and do ...

Hope you are all having a blessed week!
-Chris