Tag: Names of God

Seek and Live (Part Two)

Amos 5:1-17

Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you (Amos 5:1 NIV).

Second, Amos prophesied by describing God (5:8-9, 14-16). Who is this one who has come to judge? Israel needed to relearn the truth about the true God. The people of God are in a poor spiritual condition when they need to be taught the basics about the Lord.

He described God’s greatness by proclaiming God’s ability (5:8-9). This is a familiar teaching device in the Scriptures. Compare Job 9:9; 38:31. Here Amos reminded the people that God is Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler. The Lord is able to bring human fortifications down (5:9). We should observe how often the Bible emphasizes these truths about God. Yet it is these very teachings that the church today has lost its grip on. Evolution, the belief in the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system, and the deep dislike of God’s sovereignty have consumed the faith of the church.

He described God by his names (5:14-16). God reveals himself by his names. We do not profit from this truth like we should, and we become formal and stale in our worship. What do I mean? Three times God is called “the Lord God Almighty”. Perhaps we need to say more than just “God” to people, because the word “God” has little meaning to them. We worship the living God, the Lord God Almighty.

Third, Amos presented a way to avoid judgment (5:4-7, 10-15). Is there any hope?

Hope could be found if they would seek the Lord.

  • He did not tell them to seek religion (5:5). Israel should place no confidence in religious ritual and experience. We need, somehow, to make this plain to people. God is a husband who wants no rival for his affections.
  • He told them not to presume that God is with them (5:14b). A boast about God’s presence does not mean that God is really with that person. A person may give the appearance of “spirituality” when his or her heart and life are a denial of that pretense. Religion can be an empty substitute for the reality of God’s presence. Human religion cultivates conditions (set readings, recitations, robes, bells, candles, prostrations, recitations, etc.) that strive to create a “feeling” that God is present. True Christianity trusts in God’s ability to reveal himself to the hearts of the worshipers through Christ without such cultivated condition. Approach God by faith in Jesus, and you will be found by him.
  • He instructed them to seek God (seek me) and not merely the benefits that God gives to us (5:4). Are we truly interested in God? Do we have a heart or passion for God? This calls us to a personal relationship with God. Later Habakkuk was to learn this truth (Hab 3:17-18).

Hope could be found if they would seek what is good. They had lost sight of what good was.

  • They did not act according to justice (5:7, 12, 15). So then they needed to repent of that way of life.
  • They despised those who told them the truth (5:10). We must avoid the trap of despising God’s messenger because we prefer another (cf. 1 Cor 1:10-18). Do not despise him because he is not a polished speaker. Do not despise him because you do not personally like him. Do not despise him because he tells you the truth. The most important fact about any ministry is “does it plainly tell us the truth?”
  • They were, generally, overrun with sin (5:12a). They sought the wrong things (compare 5:5 with 5:14) and hated the wrong things (compare 5:10 with 5:15). Yet God still offered mercy (5:15b)! How great God’s grace is—far beyond our comprehension (cf. Is 1:10-18).

Dear friends, there remains hope for our people, if we will truly change our minds, restore God’s truth to rule our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions, and depend on God rather than ourselves. Pray for a change in the world and life view of people so that God is supreme, honored, and loved.Grace and peace,
David

Psalm Eighteen (Part Two)

Psalm 18:1-3

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies (NIV).

David spoke God’s words to his people. He let them know the truth about their covenant Lord, the living God. In this song (always remember that the psalms were intended to be sung), he also wants them to feel the greatness of their God. He wants them to delight in the reality of all that God had made known to them. Too often believers have heard the poor counsel, “You shouldn’t be feeling that way. Now stop emoting like that and do this list of actions.” That is not how the Father in heaven speaks to us in his word. Listen to what the Spirit led David to write.

David related to God in an intensely, special way. He used the word “my” nine times about God in these three verses. We do this about people we love constantly: my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, my child, my grandchild, and my friend. We claim them as ours. Love naturally “hugs” those that we love. David was not ashamed to interact with God personally, even when writing a worship song. Hopefully, the point is obvious, but in case it’s not, when we sing in public worship, we reach out to claim our special relationship with God. Be bold; God likes it when we’re bold (Hebrews 4:16).

David expanded on previous revelation about God. The Lord in his word reveals himself in a progressive manner, building upon what he has already said in the past. Some people try to “find the whole Bible” in Genesis 1-12, or they say that “this passage is the Bible in miniature”. Never is correct. In the Scriptures, God made himself known bit by bit, carefully building on what he previously declared, until the fullness of his revelation in Christ as made known in the New Testament Scriptures. For example, God gave types and shadows of the Messiah in the writings before he came, which the writings after his death and resurrection explain more fully. In this psalm, David calls God his “Rock” a few times. This name from God comes from three texts in the Torah (Gen 49:24; Deuteronomy 32:4, 31). The best known opens the Song of Moses, which Christians today should know much better than we do (cf. Revelation 15:3). The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he (Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV). When we are familiar with this verse, we can see that David works this text out through the remainder of this psalm. In other words, part of what David sings is his meditation on Moses’ song. Ponder Colossians 3:16 in this context about what we ought to be doing when we sing in church. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalm s and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16 ESV, my emphasis).

David’s descriptive names of the Lord flow out from his experience of God and his protection during his years of trial and suffering. God is his strength, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield, horn of salvation, and stronghold. Read through David’s life in 1 and 2 Samuel up to this point, and listen to various psalms that he wrote about his troubles, and you will discover these concepts coming out from what he lived. Using what God has made known about his name, we likewise can speak of our God in this way. Though our life situations will be different from David’s, yet we can see, for example, that he has been our deliverer in many ways. We can sing to the Lord our experience of who he has been in our lives. As we read God’s word, these ideas will begin to pop out in our praise. Develop your relationship with God, as David modeled it in this psalm.

Grace and peace, David