In the Presence 2

Read Part 1

Living in the presence of God is much more than just relying on the emotion in which you feel when you sing worship songs. We need to be careful in how we worship God and make sure that we are not relying on our worship pastor to draw us closer to Him. It is not the job of the worship pastor to sanctify you, it is the job of the Holy Spirit. If you rely on worship every Sunday morning to make you feel close to God, this may be idolizing something that is of man and not of God. The first part of this series discussed the praise of God by resting in his presence while abiding in Him. The second part will look at how this happens with the psalmist. Let us look at Psalm 38:1-3;

1 O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath,

And chasten me not in Your burning anger.

2 For Your arrows have sunk deep into me,

And Your hand has pressed down on me.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation;

There is no health in my bones because of my sin.

The same psalmist who wrote Psalm 5:11-12 also wrote this. I find this very intriguing to think about. The psalmist who rest in the presence of God also has a reverent fear of the Lord. This I would say is the reaction to the action. The action of resting in God’s presence leads to a healthy fear of the Lord. It also brings recognition to ones sins that they need to be cleansed of.

Verse three is very intriguing to me. The recognition of one's sins is so great that the psalmist has the feeling of no health in one's bones. When was the last time we felt this way after we sinned? If I am honest it has been a very long time for me.

We must not seek pain to reach salvation but I think it is important to ask ourselves if we are truly concerned with our sin and how it impacts our relationship with God. It is not worship music that draws us closer to go, it is the lack of sin. Sin is the opposite of God and is the sole thing that draws us farther from God.

There is a difference between conviction and sin. Conviction may come before sin which protects us by warning us of sin before we actually commit it. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. Our prayer should be requesting conviction to protect us, prayer asking for it to desire the things that He desires and to gain wisdom from Him. May the moments when we feel spiritual pain draw us closer to Him be rejoicing in the conviction that we have and to know that we are a child of God and that He loves us and desires us to live a that is pleasing to Him so that our life is not of a waste.

May we forever Praise our God! Amen.

In the Presence 1

We often look at the psalms as a book of celebration, and I would agree that many psalms are written in praise. What I think get lost while reading the psalms, at least I know this happens to me, is that we don’t reflect on how the psalmist had arrived to their praise. It is kind of the idea that every action has a reaction. There are moments in which we recognize that God loves us more than others, this usually happens when we reflect upon something in the past and we give praise. Let us look at Psalm 5:11-12;

11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad,

Let them ever sing for joy;

And may You shelter them,

That those who love Your name may exult in You.

12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,

You surround him with favor as with a shield.

Let us take a closer look at what this verse is saying. As I explain this I am not trying to be too simplistic, but I think this is something we often miss while reading the psalms and rarely apply to our daily life.

In verse 11 the action that first takes place is taking refuge in God. What does taking refuge in God look like? I would present two points. One, that it is total surrender to God’s will. When we take refuge to our earthly parents this means that we surrender what we desire and abide in what their house rules are. When we have the freedom to move out of our parents’ house then we have a different freedom that occurs. In the same way when we take refuge in God’s will we are abiding in what his will is for us. Two, those who exalt Him are the ones that love Him. The condition that is taking place here is that to love the place in which we have refuge is to live out the action that is asked of us. The outcome of these two things is that there is righteousness granted to man and the Lord is our shield.

This is what we call sanctification. The Lord purifies us, makes us righteous through these times in which we abide in Him. We so often rely on the emotion of the psalms to praise our God, but the concern is that we do not know where this emotion comes from.  Read PART TWO to see how the psalmist comes to these praises.