Tag: Psalms

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Canada Gospel Spiritual Growth Suffering & Trials

Socially Distant? Get into God

Charles Spurgeon saw the effects of the plague during his ministry in London. Reflecting on the ninety-first Psalm he noted the comfort and security of the words:

no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

(Ps 91:10)

He told a story about seeing these verses in a shop window. My friend Paul Martin wrote about this incident recently.

With the COVID-19 virus pandemic requiring people to be “socially distant” it is a good time to consider where our security lies.In Spurgeon’s commentary on Psalm 91, he addressed the question:

Get into God and you dwell in all good, and ill is banished far away. It is not because we are perfect or highly esteemed among men that we can hope for shelter in the day of evil, but because our refuge is the Eternal God, and our faith has learned to hide beneath his sheltering wing.

Treasury of David, Psalm 91.

This is the response of anyone in calamity. They get into God. They seek him, pursue him, and find refuge in him. Although they may be socially distant from others, they are secure “in Christ”.

As Spurgeon explained, there is a beautiful way that God gives comfort in calamities and security for those who are sick. Spurgeon said:

It is impossible that any ill should happen to the man who is beloved of the Lord; the most crushing calamities can only shorten his journey and hasten him to his reward. Ill to him is no ill, but only good in a mysterious form. Losses enrich him, sickness is his medicine, reproach is his honour, death is his gain. No evil in the strict sense of the word can happen to him, for everything is overruled for good. Happy is he who is in such a case. He is secure where others are in peril, he lives where others die.

Treasury of David, Psalm 91.

If you are home from work, self-quarantined, or otherwise unable to fellowship with other believers, then take this opportunity to get into God.

Categories
Canada Spiritual Growth Suffering & Trials

Heart Highways 

I’ve seen lots of highways. If you live in Canada it’s likely that you’ve seen lots of highways too. Our country is so large that we need highways to see each other. 

Though highway trips are long and possibly filled with car-sickness, flat tires, radiator leaks and bad hotels, the destination is worth the hassle. The people at your destination stir an affection that motivates your heart. It’s as if the highway runs through your heart. It’s a heart highway. 

For the ancients, they understood how the heart highways developed. The psalmists who were from the line of Korah recorded their heart’s destination: Zion. They wrote:

The go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion” Psalm 84:7.

Like many musicians, the Korah-sons knew what it was like to be on the road. Their goal was so good, that it kept them pounding the pavement. Imagine how the longing was met with overflowing delight! They would go from, “Are we there yet?” to “We won’t wander anymore”. To be in God’s special place, Zion, welcomed with grand hospitality to be with God himself. Such a meeting would require the language of poetry and the joy of singing!

The believer is strengthened for the journey by the delight in the destination. The goal of being with God provides the strength they need to go through valleys of tears and trials (84:6). God builds into the soul his own roadworks that lead the believer to himself. The believer’s longings, desires, affections, motives and goals are so many mile markers laid in the heart that is on pilgrimage toward God. 

When the believer finds strength inside, in their heart, in the inner man (Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), it is because they have had the highway paved there. Even as they meet sorrow and trial, they are merely passing through. Their delight and joy is in a destination, just around the bend, over the hill and around the corner. 

It is the destination of being with God forever, resting at home with Him, never needing to travel again. 

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Body Image Christel Creation Home & Health Spiritual Growth

What does a Pilates Class have to do with Intelligent Design?

I remember a while ago how I had to study anatomy intensively in order to get my Pilates teacher training certification.

The intricate and complex design of the human body was a little overwhelming to comprehend. Having barely scratched the surface of the muscular and skeletal systems, I was struck by how each of the many muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones are integrated so perfectly for the human body to function.

Each detail has a reason behind it. There is a distinct purpose in the masterpiece of the human body. The study of anatomy points strongly to a Designer. I recall how the Pilates instructor said on the one hand, “We don’t really need the psoas minor anymore, it was only necessary when we walked on all fours”, yet on the other hand could say, “The way the femur attaches into the hip socket is a genius design.”

Later another student asked, “Why is the lumbar spine designed like…um…I mean…whatever you believe…what is the purpose of its limited range of motion in rotation?”

As we saw the purpose and function of everything, it was pretty difficult to talk about the human body as a mere random chance. Presupposing evolution made it hard for anyone to ask “why?” without contradicting themselves.

Psalm 139 says:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

Psalm 139

Creation undeniably points to the glory of the Creator. What joy to know that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” in a way that transcends even our profound physical make-up. Studying anatomy has helped me appreciate again the wonder of God having “intricately woven” us in secret.

Who can comprehend the greatness of the mind of God?