God is our shelter, a refuge in times of trouble

Psalm 9:9-10 (NLT)

The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.

My wife, Midge, and I attended the funeral of the wife of one of my closest friends.  I did not know her that well, certainly not as well as I knew my friend, a college fraternity brother.  I did not know how strong her faith was, evidenced by a list of her favorite Scriptures published in the funeral agenda handout.  Seventeen Scriptures were listed with Psalm 9:9-10 at the top of the list.  I wanted to write about Psalm 9:9-10 in remembrance of this woman.

Who are the oppressed?  The original Hebrew word has the meaning of being crushed, dejected, and afflicted.  Have you experienced times in your life—maybe right now as you read this-- when you have felt crushed, dejected, and afflicted?  When you think of the word “oppressed” you think of being under the weight of a very heavy burden, almost more than you can handle.  Oppression comes in the form of people, organizations, life’s circumstances overall, or even the demonic that could lead you to serious frustration and depression.  You lose your job.  You lose your health.  You lose a loved one.  Someone causes your heart to break in many pieces. You make a very bad decision that is very costly. Perhaps one of the greatest outcomes of oppression is the feeling of uselessness.  Feeling useless is one of Satan’s greatest tools in deceiving people and causing them to succumb under the weight of oppression. 

Psalm 9:9 teaches that the Lord is a shelter or refuge for the oppressed during times of trouble.  The Hebrew used for both words has the meaning of a high place, a stronghold, or a retreat that the Lord provides to enable the oppressed and the troubled to find relief and help.  How is He a shelter and refuge?  Well, first and foremost, there are many biblical passages that make the simple claim, like this one, that He is willing and able to help you (e.g. Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 11:28, John 16:33, Romans 8:35-39, many others).  The main problem is that you need to have sufficient faith that God’s promises are true and that as a child of God, you have a Father in Heaven who is greater than any problem you will ever face in your life.  Psalm 9:10 emphasizes the importance of trust in God and trust comes from faith built up through consistency in seeking the Lord through Bible study and involvement in His work (church, fellowship, service, interest in others, etc).  God also provides people to enter your life who will help you if you allow them to do so.  That’s why those who are most helpful to you are people who have gone through and emerged victorious from the same oppression and trouble that you are experiencing (II Corinthians 1:3-7).

God never abandons those who seek Him.  He promises that “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5), but you must have a relationship with Him.  He is willing to fight your troubles for you, but you must be willing to give them over to Him and not keep trying to solve them all by yourself.  He brings other people into your life to help you.  That is one of the main roles of the church, but if you are not involved in a local church, how can its people help you?

I have personally experienced the Lord providing a refuge for me during my deepest troubles that have included being without a job, dealing with a family member who was in serious trouble, dealing with a significant health problem, and feeling like I no longer could contribute anything to anyone.  I have been in those situations where I had no answers and had to go to the Lord for help.  He provided it, just like He did for many people in the Bible like Joseph, and David and Daniel and Paul and like He has provided for many people I know who experienced far greater problems than I did.  You must trust in His Word---His promises—that He will be a shelter, a refuge, a hiding place, a very high place---for you to turn to when you have no other place to go.  I am so grateful for God’s helping me in my times of oppression and trouble and promise that He will help you if you trust in Him. 

God Himself is your shelter and refuge.  Say to Him in prayer as the psalmist write in Psalm 91:2 “I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust”.  Seek Him, receive His help, and thank Him.

Marriage held in honor

Hebrews 13:4 (NASB)

Marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

I have a friend who claimed to be a Christian, yet tried to convince me that he was not sinning by having sex with a woman who was not his wife.  He argued that his wife was becoming more and more difficult to live with and she was not the woman he married many years before.  He ended up divorcing his wife to marry his mistress and I think still believes that he did no wrong.  Almost all who read this meditation likely have had a similar experience with a friend or family member.  

I wish that I had known about this verse when listening to my friend attempting to justify his actions.  Not that these words would have changed his ways, but might have been a conduit for the Holy Spirit to change his thinking.  My friend was not holding his marriage in honor, he was defiling the marriage bed, and he was a fornicator and an adulterer. 

Marriage is to be held in honor, literally meaning to be viewed as precious, like a precious stone worth a fortune.  Yet, do American men and women view their marriage like a precious stone worth a fortune?  Not if you believe marriage and divorce statistics where up to 50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce.  Yet, how blessed are those marriages where the husband and wife do view their marriage in honor, like a precious treasure.  There are no happier people on earth.    

God will judge fornicators and adulterers.  First, what’s the difference between a fornicator and an adulterer?  The Greek word for fornicator is “pornos” that means sexual immorality, prostitution, any illicit sexual relationship.  In the Greek translation of the Hebrew in the Old Testament (called the Septuagint), pornos or porneia (fornication) referred to Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord (e.g. Hosea 1:2, 2:2).  Adultery (Greek = moicheia) refers to immoral sexual acts after marriage. Fornication, when used with adultery, refers to immoral sexual before marriage.  Jesus used the word porneia when referring to adultery in Matthew 5:27-32, thus referring to all immoral sexual acts.  Fornication and adultery also result in lying and cheating that destroy individuals and relationships.   

What is the judgment of God against fornicators and adulterers?  Well, in Jesus’ discussion of fornication and adultery in Matthew 5:27-32, He said that it would be better for you to tear out your eye or cut off your hand than to see your whole body perish (verse 29) and go to hell (verse 30).  Furthermore, fornicators are listed with other sinners in Revelation 21:8 who will be part of the lake of fire.  So God’s judgment against fornicators and adulterers is horrible.  God’s judgment against fornicators (immoral people) also is mentioned in passages such as I Corinthians 5:9-11, I Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 5:5, and I Timothy 1:10, all warnings that such people will not be part of the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God not only is eternal, but also exists during life on earth so it’s a terrible judgment to be put outside His kingdom.  Fornicators and adulterers exist in a hell on earth because deep within their souls, they know they are violating God’s commands against these kinds of actions. 

Obviously, defiling the marriage bed through fornication and adultery is very wrong in God’s eyes.  Succumbing to the temptation of instant gratification can have immediate, long term, and eternal bad consequences.  Yet God provides a way out through recognition of the sin, asking forgiveness, repenting from it, and living the rest of your life free from this extremely hurtful and egregious sin.  Easier said than done.  Sexual sin is extremely difficult to escape and be free from it because of the inherent sin nature of man and the emphasis on it in our permissive society.  However, you always will have hope and the power of God in you if you give over this sin to Him and live your life everyday by asking for forgiveness, asking for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and taking all protective measures to get away from these easily addictive and destructive sexual sins.

“Even adultery is not the unforgiveable sin. It is a terrible sin, but God forbid that there should be anyone who feels that he or she has sinned himself or herself outside the love of God or outside His kingdom because of adultery. No; if you truly repent and realize the enormity of your sin and cast yourself upon the boundless love and mercy and grace of God, you can be forgiven and I assure you of pardon. But hear the words of our blessed Lord: “Go and sin no more.” — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Cycles of God

Luke 6:37-38 (NIV) 

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

Have you ever heard or thought about the cycles of God?  God’s creation is full of cycles.  There is the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of day and night, and the cycle of birth-life-death-resurrection.  There’s also the cycle of sowing and reaping, the cycle of sin (sin—sorrow/repentance—forgiveness/restoration—sin again), the cycle of confession (private sin-private confession, personal sin—personal confession, public sin—public confession) and life’s general cycles like the law of averages. There’s a scientific discipline called chronobiology that studies life’s bodily rhythms that include circadian (24 hour cycles of body temperature, blood pressure, sleeping and waking), ultradian (daily changes in heartbeat, energy levels and attention spans), circatrigintan (monthly menstrual cycle), and cirannual (seasonal depression, sexual drive, susceptibility to certain diseases at different times of the year).  Most, perhaps all of life is cyclic in nature.  

This passage from Luke contains a few cycles of practical and successful Christian living.  There are certain things that you should not do like judging and condemning others.  If you do, then God’s natural cycle of life will cause you to be judged and condemned.  There are certain things that you are to do.  You are to forgive and to give.  If you do, God’s spiritual cycle of life will enable you to be forgiven and you will end up receiving far more than you have given.  This is what Jesus meant by His words, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over”.  Your giving results in God returning to you so many blessings that you cannot comprehend them all just like pouring excessive grain into a container.  No matter the size of container (good measure), no matter how much you smash the grain and shake the container, it will not all fit in that container and will overflow.  God allows an abundance of harvest to result by your generosity of forgiveness and giving. 

“For the measure you use, it will be measured to you” is called God’s “Law of Reciprocity”.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  If you are friendly to others, they will be friendly to you.  If you are a complainer to others, they will complain back.  If you give generously, you will receive generously.  If you have ever given generously, did you not experience blessings beyond belief?  Were not an abundance of blessings “poured into your lap”?         

Have you ever tried giving something like half of your paycheck away to help others with them not knowing it came from you?  Do you have sufficient faith in God’s promises to try this sometime?   Perhaps the key to happiness and contentment in life is to be a generous giver.  The abundance of your life may be largely based on what you give away.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -- Winston Churchill

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” — Anne Frank

Turning sorrow into happiness

Psalm 30:5,11 (NCV)

His anger lasts only a moment, but his kindness lasts for a lifetime.  Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.  You changed my sorrow into dancing.  You took away my clothes of sadness, and clothed me in happiness.

We all experience the vicissitudes of crying, then joy; sorrow, then dancing, and sadness, then happiness.  Note that the negative emotions (crying, sorrow, sadness) are human emotions while the positive emotions come from the Lord.  While these verses may speak about life’s troubles that produce crying, sorrow and sadness, I wish to focus on the consequences of unconfessed sin that produces these same emotions.  Yet, realize the blessing and provision that the Lord gives you if/when you confess your sin.  You are not only forgiven, but also reap the positive results of His love expressed through kindness, unmerited favor, and acceptance.   

The Lord will get angry when you sin.  The anger of the Lord is described in several parts of the Bible; to list a few---Numbers 25:4, Judges 3:8, II Kings 24:20, Psalm 2:5, Jeremiah 52:3, John 3:36, Romans 1:18, Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:6, and several verses in Revelation.  Yet His anger does not last.  God is a God of love who is always willing to forgive and forget (Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:32, 10:17).  His kindness lasts for a lifetime.  The Hebrew word for kindness is actually translated as “favor, delight, acceptance”.  Think about the wonderful truth that God bestows His favor and acceptance upon you for all of your life when you give your life and will to Him and confess your sins when you commit them. 

While Psalm 30:5 and 11 does not say so, other verses do say that you must confess your sins to the Lord in order to receive His forgiveness and “favor”.  Here is a list from James Fowler (http://www.christinyou.net/pages/confession.html):

General verses about confession:

Leviticus 5:5 - "he shall confess that in which he has sinned"

Numbers 5:7 - "he shall confess his sins..., make restitution..." Proverbs 28:13 - "he who confesses and forsakes his transgressions will find compassion." Acts 19:18 - "many kept coming and confessing and disclosing their practices." James 5:16 - "confess your sins to one another" I John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."


Examples of confession:
Psalm 32:5 - "I acknowledge my sin to Thee...I will confess my transgressions to the Lord."
Psalm 38:18 - "I confess my iniquity"
Isaiah 6:5 - "Woe is me...I am a man of unclean lips"
Luke 15:21 - "I have sinned against heaven and in your sight"
Luke 18:13 - "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!"

After sincere confession of your sins, you will experience the kind of positive emotions that Psalm 30:5 and 11 speak about.  What indescribable blessings to think about this Christmas season.  No wonder Christ’s coming is good news of great joy to all humankind.  Do you believe in the miracle of Christmas?  Celebrate it.