Psalm 27

This is a Psalm of confidence.  The godly can face any trial confidently because the Lord is “my light and my salvation … the strength of my life.”  But this is not confidence without good reason.  It is not only about who God is (v1); it is about the patient faith of the godly (v4-6).  It is not only because of the memory of God’s previous help (v2); it is about the continuing faithfulness of the man of God (v11-14).

Consider this carefully.  The promise of God in v1 that we often quote is conditioned upon the singleness of heart on the part of God’s man, to seek God and God alone.  When we use the word “conditioned” is it not in the sense of some bargaining ploy by God, as if He were saying “give me what I want and I’ll give you what you want.”  It is a logical condition, if you will.  We are in the secure place when we are dwelling in His house and inquiring at His temple (v4).  It is then that we are hidden in His pavilion, in the secret place of His tabernacle (v5).

It is a simple thought.  If the king tells the citizenry that he can and will protect them from the enemy if they take refuge in his castle, then that is the place to be.  The king has all the means to do this; the citizens have nothing.  But if a citizen determines to take matters into his own hands and run from the approaching enemy or hole up in his house then he forfeits what the king has promised.  The king is not considered to be unreasonable or cruel because he does not send soldiers out to defend the citizen.  Rather the citizen is considered foolish.

In this sense grace is conditional.  Now don’t reject this thought.  Scripture is clear that grace, unmerited favor, is not based on our works or our measuring up to some standard whereby we make ourselves worthy.  But grace saves us through faith (Eph. 2:8).  Apart from faith grace is offered but not experienced.  Consider these promises to Christians and their “context.”

·        Matthew 6:33: Jesus promises to care for us in terms of basic, daily needs; but only as we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

·        Matthew 28:19-20: Jesus promises to actively be with believers, but only as they are making disciples of all nations.

·        Philippians 4:10-13: The confidence of “I can do all things” is only “through Christ who strengthens me.”  I must be in a relationship with Him that draws upon His strength, a relationship whereby we have learned contentment.

·        Philippians 4:14-20: Again, the great and oft-quoted promise of God’s supply of every need (v19) is given to people whose relationship with God has produced generosity.  In other words, as noted above, they are joined with the Apostle in making disciples and thus Paul can promise God’s provision.

In every situation our confidence in God is both the means of receiving His grace as well as the result of receiving His grace.  And this is seen in Psalm 27.  David was in the place to receive God’s grace and that place was in God’s presence.  Thus David desired one thing from the LORD: to be in His presence!  Is this not the lesson of Mary and Martha?  One thing was needed and Mary had chosen that when she sought to be in the presence of our Lord (Luke 10:41-42).  Is this not what our Lord taught?  “Do not labor for food which perishes, but for food which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27).

Do not miss the idea of “faith” and “faithfulness”.  When David prays “teach me Your way, O LORD” (v11) he is saying that he is not only in God’s presence today but that he intends to stay there.  He is in a place of waiting for God’s deliverance (v14) and realizes that he cannot lose heart and go out of the “castle” of God’s safety and try to make it on his own.  

So you see that in all ages God’s people have found His grace/goodness by faith.  David says, “unless I had believed” (v13).  No one who waits on the LORD will be ashamed (Ps. 25:3).  So may our faith (The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear) be faithfulness (Wait, I say, on the LORD).  May our hearts desire be to seek the LORD, and our ongoing prayer be “Teach me Your way.”

Romans 1:24-32

Man’s regression from God seems complete in that the Creator has been replaced by the created thing.  But one equation that is consistent in the Bible is that behavior is directly related to faith or religion.  Thus we read three times in these verses God gave them up (v24,26,28) to sinful behavior.  And each phrase is preceded by a logical connector (there, for this reason, and even as).  God gives man over to behavior that is the logical consequence of man’s choice to reject the Creator and worship the creature.  In considering these three steps we see the beginning of God’s wrath on sinful man.  The Creator is giving man what he asks for.  The law of the harvest says, what a man sows that shall he reap.  That law is in operation here.

First, God gives mankind up to uncleanness so as to dishonor their bodies.  This I the consequence of man exchanging the truth of God for the lie and because he worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.  Man believed the lie perpetrated by Satan when he told Eve, you will be like God (Gen. 3:5).  Man has turned from God to worship himself (Rom. 1:23).  The result is that man follows the lusts of his own heart, resulting in uncleanness.  This term has to do with sexual sin, the means by which man dishonors his body.  God does not say that sex or the sexual desire is sinful.  Rather the sin is man’s rejection of God’s boundaries that the desire is to be satisfied within the marriage relationship (Gen.2).  Since man becomes his own “god” he satisfies the desire according to his own lusts and thus in fact dishonors the body God created.

Having rejected the Creator man is now given over to a rejection of what is natural in creation.  Ruled by his own lust (v24) he is prone to vile passions (v26).  The uncleanness (v24-25) becomes that which is against nature.  The homosexual desires and relationship spoken of here are the result of replacing the boundaries of a loving Creator with insatiable or burning lust.  Thus they commit shameful acts.  Note how this is a just penalty; it is the law of the harvest at work.  What is being described here is more than a few instances of homosexual behavior that might be dealt with in the context of a society that generally honors the Creator.  Instead it involves unnatural behavior that becomes tolerated, accepted, and then promoted in the life of the community.  As an illustration, God’s judgment on Sodom (Gen. 19) came at a time when homosexuality had become a widely accepted lifestyle.

Given man’s unbridled lust and vile passions, God gives man over to a debased or depraved mind (v28-32).  Man’s lack of personal control and his desires becomes lack of control in every aspect of life.  This grievous list of sins is evidence of a totally selfish mindset and lifestyle.  And the selfishness extends beyond the individual man to the society around him.  He rejects the idea that those who do these things deserve death, as the Creator says.  On the contrary, the society comes to approve of this selfishness.  How can this happen?  It happens because man determines to remove God from his knowledge.  Without God the man and society have no restraint of conscience.

What a sad situation.  Man imagines a good life doing everything he desires to do.  But in the end man loses his significance because he rejects the purpose of the One who made him.  We would be immensely benefited if we were to consider our own mindset in relationship to these verses.  Have we retained God in our knowledge?  Do we seek for and accept His boundaries for our desires?

Romans 1:21-23

The verdict that they are without excuse (v20) is based on two truths.

1.      Men had access to truth about God.  This was shown in 1:18-20.

2.      Men have rejected this truth.  That is explained in today’s passage.

There is a 7-step regression away from God that is laid out here.  (You can see it in a simple diagram form on the back cover of this booklet.)  It is a definite, purposeful movement away from the truth.  Let us consider the downward steps.

·        They knew God.  It begins with man knowing God through creation.  One can imagine this at the beginning of creation.  But I am not so sure that this also applies to every civilization and society.  Even a child might easily know God in this sense of seeing a Creator in nature.  It is common sense.  We actually have to work to reject the idea and conclude that something came from nothing.

·        They did not glorify Him as God.  Though creation cries out the glory of the Creator men do not acknowledge Him as God.  They deny His involvement.

·        They were not thankful. Men benefit from creation.  But they do not seek out the Creator so that they might acknowledge His goodness.  Instead they seek to explain the benefits in purely natural terms.

·        They became futile in their thoughts.  Their thinking becomes empty.  Men have not glorified or thanked God.  They have emptied their minds of the truth they knew.  They explain the existence of the stars and mountains and flowers without the Creator.  And this explanation is empty, devoid of truth.  God’s assessment is that we live an empty way of life (1 Peter 1:18), that we should turn from worthless things (Acts 14:15), no longer living in the futility of our thinking (Eph. 4:17).

·        Their foolish hearts were darkened.  The heart refers to the seat of our affections, our desires, our motivations.  Out of the heart we live.  The mind is always the channel to the heart.  So empty thoughts lead to dark hearts.

·        Professing to be wise they became fools.  Claiming to be wise as they seek to explain creation apart from a Creator, men in fact become fools.  The ultimate foolishness is to say in your heart, There is no God (Psalm 14:1).

·        They exchange the creature for the Creator.  To conclude that there is no God is eventually a thought that man cannot endure.  Something within man (in fact the Creator put it there, Gen. 1:26-28) cries out that there is more to life than what meets the eye.  Further, men cannot live without some kind of higher power.  Without it life and civilization and society are chaotic.  But since man will not acknowledge and submit to the Creator he must then become his own god (into an image made like corruptible man) or else, as is evident worldwide, he worships creatures (birds, four-footed animals and creeping things).

Don’t miss Paul’s reference to God.  In creation men can see that there is a Creator, one who is the First Cause for which there is no other cause.  Thus it makes sense to refer to Him as the incorruptible God.  He is the One with life in Himself.  On the other hand, man is always dying.  Always, without exception, man is corruptible.  Yet it’s that corruptible man who has decided there is no incorruptible God.  How arrogant!  If God is defined as the One to whom you give glory, and that you thank for life’s blessings, let us ask honestly: Who is our God?  Who is my God?