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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Sometimes we really don't want to be around God. Sometimes we really don't want to think about Him. Sometimes we don't really want to obey Him. Sometimes we just forget to remember Him.
We live in a world that has warps and woofs that don't focus on God, either. It seems that everybody has something they're supposed to be doing, to make money or to learn things that will help them make money later, and none of those things seem to focus on God at the center of them. Bosses don't care about God. Teachers don't care about God. In the world's eyes, God is something some people "do" on the weekends...or maybe on Wednesday.
So, not only do we shove God under the rug, the world system doesn't help us, either.
That couldn't have been more opposite than the way the sons of Korah viewed God in Psalm 42...and in there we find some help on our topic of worship.
Verse 1 says, As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God." As a deer has a physical thirst for God that drives it to a place to get water, from the deepest parts of him, he has a physical desire for God and a relationship with Him.
Verse 2 says, "My sould thirsts for God; for the living God."
The Message says, "I want to drink God, deep draughts of God. I'm thirsty for God-alive."
Frankly, there are days when I can barely say words like that...much less actually mean them. Drink God? I'd rather go thirsty. Deep draughts of God? I don't want any more of Him because I've got my own view of things. Thirsty for God-alive? Hardly. I like being "me-alive."
In addition to fighting myself, like the psalmists say in verses 3 and 4, outsiders are reminding me that they have their own things going and God isn't in the mix. Double trouble.
It's usually at these points in the Bible that I want to throw up my hands and walk further from God. I can't be these people. The "God thing" was cute for a while but it's lost it's joy. It's fun. It was a good camp high, but now that I'm back in the real world, well, it's just not the same. Not what it used to be back then.
How do we get that thirst for God back? How do we get the desire to drink deep draughts of God? How do we become God-alive again?
I think there are some answers in verses 5 and 11.
In verse 5, when the psalmist asks the question about why his soul is in despair and become disturbed, he says to "hope in God, for I shall again praise Him."
The same question is asked in verse 11, and the answer is the same.
Hope in God. The result will be that we'll praise again.
So, what does it mean to hope in God?
Focus on Him. Try to let God's thoughts become my thoughts. Dive into the Word and hear from Him. Review His past faithfulness to you. Look at His creation and remind yourself that He made it all. We are NOT of this world.
At least those are some things it means to hope in God.
But verse 8 makes things really practical: Ask God to give you that thirst for Him. That focus on Him. That your soul would long for Him. Like everything else, you can't do it alone.
A joyful soul fixated on God praises Him. Gives glory to Him.
That's worship. The true worship we talked about yesterday and the lifestyle worship we'll talk about tomorrow.
Is your soul distant from God today? It doesn't have to be. Just ask and focus.
But be careful...sometimes you don't know what you're getting into when you start praying prayers like that one. Our self is stops stopping us and the world system is drowned out by our own thirst. Praise happens. Salt & Light happens. God is glorified.
And that's dangerous.
Brent 4:57 AM
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