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