Category: Psalms

Posted in 2Samuel, Acts, Psalms

What’s Your Dream?

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.” Psalm 27:4

David’s dream was that he would know the intimacy of God’s presence which is why he was called the man after God’s own heart.  His dream was to know God Himself. What’s yours?

David also had an assignment, in fact, it was a big one. He was appointed by God to be king in Israel which meant that he was responsible to lead and shepherd them, which he did with integrity and diligence (Psalm 78:72), but his assignment was never his dream.

This became evident when he sinned against God and was in danger of losing everything. In his prayer recorded in Psalm 51, he pleaded with God about his dream but never even mentioned his assignment: “Do not cast me from Your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me…” (Psalm 51:11) When Absalom was seeking to overthrow the kingdom, David fled, but made Zadok keep the ark in Jerusalem: “If I find favor in the Lord’s eyes, He will bring me back…”, but if not, “I am ready; let Him do whatever seems good to Him.” (2Samuel 15:26) David’s identity wasn’t in being king but in being God’s child. He didn’t have to fight to be or do something, He just wanted to be where God wanted him.

Acts tells us that David completed his assignment while on earth (Acts 13:36) and you should aim to fulfill yours as well, but I hope you don’t make it your dream. Making your assignment your dream will burn you out and all those who are around you because burn out is always the end result of putting the second commandment (Love your neighbor) before the first (Love God). But if we seek God Himself as our dream, like David did, we will find an abundance of grace to complete His assignment and all the glory will belong to Him.

Posted in Daniel, James, Psalms

The Humility of our Humanity

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16

God gave King Nebuchadnezzar a dream and then gave Daniel the interpretation to warn him about the brevity of his life. In the dream he was pictured as a head of gold, but Daniel explained that the reason why the metal changed at the shoulders was: “after you will arise another kingdom…” (Daniel 2:39) The king didn’t like this reminder of his humanity so he ordered that a ninety foot statue be made of himself out of pure gold, and then ordered those in his kingdom to bow down and worship it. He had those who would address him use this phrase before stating their business; “O king, live forever!” (Daniel 2:9)

God was very patient with this proud king revealing Himself in many ways until he finally came to a place of worship. Daniel records his words: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:37) I wonder if he had his servants remind him by changing the greeting to something like: “O king, you won’t live forever.”

When we remember how short our time on earth is, it is easier to live for the important things of eternity instead of the temporal things of this world. No wonder David prayed, “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am;” (Psalm 39:4) and Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

When we’re right with God we have no anxiety about the brevity of our lives because the best is yet to come!

Posted in John, Psalms, Romans

Natural Disasters

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Romans 8:20-22

As we witness earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes around the world,  the age old question arises: Is this an act of God? Was this somehow God judging people for not responding to the gospel? Or maybe His way of preparing them for the gospel? We know God could have stopped the disaster, but did He intentionally plan it? Or was this an act of Satan? Do demonic forces somehow have the power to bring about disasters according to their mission statement of “kill, steal, and destroy?” (John 10:10)

I believe it’s neither God or the devil, but a result of the curse which came on this earth when Adam and Eve sinned. In nature we see evidence of the beauty of our God, but also evidence of the ravages of the fall. Very similar to what we see in mankind.

Although neither God nor Satan directly causes disasters, in my opinion, both kingdoms are very active in the aftermath. Darkness will use tragedy in human minds as proof that God doesn’t love them, or that God doesn’t exist at all. It will try to bring despair, survivor’s guilt, bitterness, etc., anything to lead precious people who Jesus died for away from the help only He can bring.

What is God doing? “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) Notice it doesn’t say, “Close to the brokenhearted if they’re Christians,” or “if they’re praying.” He is unconditionally close to the brokenhearted whether or not they even believe in Him. He is speaking gently to hearts about His love; He is bringing comfort beyond comprehension; He is raising up individuals and governments to help; and yes, He will use tragedy to show people that they can’t put their trust in anything man builds or guarantees.

One day soon Jesus will not only liberate the children of God from their sin nature, He will remove the curse from creation itself, and then the lion will lay with the lamb.

Posted in John, Psalms

Born Broken

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘ It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” John 9:1-3

Many people become blind because of an accident or disease, but some are born blind. The disciples are troubled by this because they think bad things only happen to bad people and this doesn’t fit their formula. When they ask if it was this man’s sin you see how predisposed they were to this thinking. You can almost hear their thoughts: It absolutely has to be this man’s fault that he’s blind… but he was born blind… maybe he sinned in the womb!

Jesus says that it wasn’t his sin or his parents’ sin. He also says that the work of God is not his blindness, but him being healed and made whole. So why was he born blind? I think it’s just the brokenness that sin has caused to the human race passed down from generation to generation. It has affected everything, including our DNA, so much so that some people are born blind even though Adam and Eve weren’t created blind and no one will be blind in heaven.

We have spiritual DNA as well as physical and it too has been broken by sin. In fact, the Bible says that the effects of sin multiply over generations. The sin nature passed down will become worse and worse if given into by the previous generation, so much so that people can be born with strong tendencies toward addictions even though they themselves haven’t done anything wrong yet. It doesn’t seem fair, but the truth is all of us are born broken in some way.

Although God has allowed this, He has promised to be close to the broken (Psalm 34:18) and He sent Jesus to redeem us from our sins and to bind up our brokenness. He doesn’t judge us for being broken, but invites us to make our identity in Him instead of in how broken we are. The work of God is that we become whole. Although blind eyes can be instantly made whole, spiritual wholeness is a process that won’t be completed until heaven.

Posted in Psalms

Eden Restored

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19

Eden means delight.  We were created to be the delight of God and to find our delight in Him.  Delight means, “to be greatly pleased in.”

Why did David believe that God delighted in him?  I think it was because he refused to hide anything from God.  We see his prayer life in Psalms and nothing is hidden.  His joys, his sins, his pains, his loneliness, his anger and frustration; whatever David was going through, he was going through with God.

Delight was lost in Eden when Adam and Eve hid from God because of shame.  And then even the word delight is almost entirely lost in Scripture until David, who believed he was a delight to God, and who invited all of us to “delight” ourselves in the Lord. (Psalm 37:4)

I see a picture of how God can delight in us when I observe my wife with our grandsons.  They make huge messes and make constant demands, yet how does she treat them after they treated her in this way?  Pure delight, and there’s seemingly nothing they can do to change this.  She can’t stop smiling when she holds them, changes them, feeds them, and reads to them.  Everything new they do requires a picture, so she now has a thousand pictures and videos on her phone.

This is how God feels about us when we don’t live hiding from Him.  He can handle the mess we make and do all the work required to take care of us.  Our ways may please or displease Him from time to time, but make no mistake about this:  we are His delight!

Posted in Luke, Psalms

The Lost Sheep

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” Luke 15:4

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) and won’t take “no” for an answer.  When He invites people to follow Him and they choose to go further into darkness instead, He just keeps looking for them like the shepherd looks for his lost sheep, “until he finds it.”

If Jesus doesn’t give up on people then we can’t either.  If people don’t want to be found right now, pray for them, knowing that the time is soon coming when they will need Him.  We are to give this world a taste of His goodness and unconditional love.  God reveals Himself as “an ever present help in the time of trouble,” (Psalm 46:1) so let’s join Him in being present to people when their lives are hard.

If it’s difficult for you to envision God saving someone you know, remember that He saved you.  He kept looking, kept knocking, kept seeking until you finally gave your life to Him.  Remember those who were used by God to help you come to Him, and purpose to be that to someone else.

When I think back on how I came to the Lord, I am amazed.  There was so much darkness around me, yet the Divine pull was stronger.  He used so many different people and books to secure me.  It’s funny because my gratefulness to God doesn’t reduce my gratefulness to those He used to help me.  It really was God, and it really was the people He worked and loved through.

Posted in Philippians, Psalms

The Key to Great Peace

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The meek inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” Psalm 37:11

The proud seek to be in control and are continually trying to get what they want. If they can’t get it now, they live in grasping anxiety that blames and complains about everyone in their way.

The meek of heart yield to the One who really is in control. They trust they will inherit everything God has promised in God’s timing, and find great peace in the assurance that God will have His way eventually, even if it seems darkness is winning right now.

A few verses before our text, David writes: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” (Psalm 37:7) This may sound like the meek are called to do “nothing” while evil is growing around them, but this is not the case. Here is our part when we those around us are making destructive choices:

  1. Patiently wait on God. We don’t pretend evil isn’t happening; we take that evil to God in prayer.
  2. Don’t fret because of the evil. We don’t just pray, we actually believe God hears us and that He will reverse the evil that seems to be succeeding in the short run.
  3. Walk in peace now. We don’t have to wait for everything to work out because our peace isn’t in our circumstances, it’s in our God.

The New Testament scripture that puts all this together for us is Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Posted in Matthew, Psalms

Mary’s Worship

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“In Your Presence is fullness of joy…” Psalm 16:11

Have you ever had a one-way friendship?  Someone you genuinely like, but whenever they contact you it’s only because they need something?  They are so busy and focused on their own lives that they may not realize they treat you like a means to an end instead of like a true friend.  Once in a while, true friends just want to be with you with no other agenda except to be together.  In our weekly prayer meeting we begin by emptying our thoughts, worries, and desires at the cross and just worship for a half an hour.  The goal is not to get something but to just be with Him.

What does God do during this time of concentrated worship?  It doesn’t matter because it’s not about us, it’s about Him.  No doubt He will transform us and bless us with a new joy in His presence, but that’s His agenda, not ours.  We just want to be with Him and pour out our worship and thanksgiving for who He is.  Even the disciples said, “Why this waste?” (Matthew 26:8), when Mary poured out her costly perfume on Jesus.  The great temptation of the church today is to make God and our worship a means to an end instead of the main event.  Please listen to Jesus’ response to Mary’s worship: “Wherever the gospel is preached I want this story told.” (Matthew 26:13)

Finally, in this act of worship, Jesus saw the response God is looking for to the gospel.  Abandoned worship that isn’t looking at its watch or at the crowd for approval; someone who just wanted to spend herself on Jesus for His sake.  I want to join Mary’s worship, don’t you?

Posted in 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians, Psalms

Beholding the Glory of God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2Corinthians 3:17-18

Whatever we behold we eventually become. If you behold, or “keep before your eyes,” your worries, you will become anxious. If you keep anger before your eyes, you will become bitter. If you keep pornography before your eyes, you will become lustful. But if you and I keep the glory of the Lord before us, we will be transformed from one level of glory to the next. It sounds easy but there are a few problems.

“As in a mirror” is a problem. The mirrors back then were made of brass and the image they gave was very dim. Paul says earlier in Corinthians, “we see in a mirror dimly.” (1Corinthians 13:12) Even though we have nothing between us and God (unveiled faces), in this current time we live more by faith than sight. Yet even now a glimpse of His glory will transform us. Are we willing to behold Him even if it isn’t always powerful or instantly rewarding? Are we willing to spend time in His Word and prayer seeking to behold Him even when it seems like He’s hiding Himself? Will we prioritize church over a thousand other things we could do on the weekend even though it’s kind of boring to us? The more we behold Him, the more others will be able to behold Him through us.

The other problem is the abundance of other things to look at. Hollywood and the internet are filled with images that you can easily behold without doing any work at all; excitement and entertainment at the click of a button. We were made to behold and our hearts will always behold something. Even as a Christian, the only way you and I will behold the Lord is if we make it our priority. The man after God’s own heart said, “One thing have I desired and that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4) It isn’t enough to desire, we must act on that desire by actively seeking or something else will easily creep in.

Am I saying that it’s wrong to enjoy a movie, a game, or other legitimate pleasures? Absolutely not. What I am saying is that when we make beholding the Lord our first priority, everything else takes its proper place and won’t become an idol.

Posted in Isaiah, James, Philippians, Psalms

Willing and Obedient

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13

What God has worked in us, we now need to work out in our everyday lives. By grace He is in us to create both the desire and the ability to do His will. When we cooperate with His grace by being willing and obedient, grace flows freely in and through us. Isaiah 1:19 says, “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.” I don’t know about you but I want God’s best. The key is to be willing and obedient.

Sometimes we are willing, but not obedient. We love God, we worship God, we say “yes” to God when someone’s preaching, but we don’t do what He says to do. We won’t forgive, we won’t throw the porn away, we won’t cut off the destructive relationship, we won’t give money He’s asked us to give, we won’t check our speech, we won’t lay down our judgments on others, etc. Being willing but not obedient leads to self deception which is why James said, “Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (James 1:22) Worship must be more than a song or a prayer to touch God’s heart; it has to include costly obedience.

Others are obedient, but not willing. This person says, “I do the right things but have no joy or love in doing them any more.” If this applies, you need to return to your first love and ask God for a new grace to make you willing. Just going through the motions leaves you and I very vulnerable to sin and the schemes of the enemy. After David sinned horribly he prayed to God, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:12) Notice he didn’t just ask for forgiveness, but prayed for a change of attitude so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Check your life right now. Are you willing, or do you spend most of your time complaining to God? Are you obedient, or has your life become one compromise after another? God wants His very best for you. If something is off ask Him now to pour out more grace, so you can make it right.