THE ROCK

We are living in a highly volatile and chaotic world. The apostle Paul wrote that the last days would be “perilous” (2 Timothy 3:1). The word Paul used for perilous in the Greek means difficult, fierce, hard to live with. The only other time this Greek word is used in the New Testament is in Matthew 8:28 where it describes a demon-possessed man as being “fierce.” 

A few days ago, as Carol and I were watching the evening national news, a report came on about another random shooting spree with eight or nine people injured. I remarked to Carol that all this senseless violence seems to be demonically inspired.

Early this morning as I was praying and thinking about our chaotic world, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a passage of Scripture that I believe contains truth for us to lay hold of in these troubling times.

David’s journey to becoming the king of Israel takes him from the solitude of being a shepherd to the battlefield with Goliath; to becoming a celebrity; to the palace of the king; to running for his life from Saul, who wanted him dead. Once he became king, David’s life was far from quiet and subdued. He was very human and made serious mistakes but he always repented and reached out to God and expressed his love for the Father.

One of the most beautiful expressions of David’s love for the Lord is found in Psalm 18:1-3 and in the parallel passage, 2 Samuel 22:1-4. David penned these words in gratitude as he thanked the Lord for protecting and delivering him from his enemies, including King Saul, who had attempted to have David killed.

“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:1-3, ESV).

When I see repetition, as on the word rock in verse two, my curiosity kicks in and I have to try to understand what the writer was saying. In this case, the best way for me to grasp the meaning was to go to the original language (Hebrew) and see the meaning for these words.

The two uses of the word rock in verse 2 are different in the Hebrew and each is rich with understanding for us. Each word expresses an aspect of God’s protection and character that is just as meaningful for us today as it was for David.

The first use of the word rock (cela) suggests the idea of security, shelter, concealment.

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.”

David was forced to run from the assassins of Saul for seven years. After a number of attempts to hide, David and the men with him finally ended up secure in a cave called the Cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1). In fact, David was so well hidden there that when Saul and his army passed by the cave opening, they had no idea that David and his men were inside.

This is a picture of the safety of grace that becomes ours when we put our life fully into the love and care of God through Jesus Christ.

In the second part of Psalm 18:2, David exclaims, “My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.”

This second use of the word rock is taken from the Hebrew word suri and suggests the idea of being strong and immovable, a large mass of rock. The use of the word here is borrowed from Deuteronomy 32:4:

“The Rock (suri), his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

And Isaiah 26:4:

“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (suri).”

This second use of the word rock in Psalm 18:2 speaks of more than a hiding place; it speaks of a bedrock foundation, a mass of rock on which a building can be safely built.

Jesus gives us a word picture of being anchored to bedrock in Luke 6:47-48 when He says:

“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.”

He is my Rock—and I love Him—and I trust Him—and my life is built on Him! He is our Rock for the days in which we live. He is our shelter and we are anchored by our sure foundation!

HARVEST RAIN

 Is there going to be a last-days revival, a last-days outpouring of His Spirit that will touch the whole world?

Ever since I was a boy I’ve heard evangelists and pastors say that the last-days revival was right around the corner and we would see it soon — very soon.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Charismatic Renewal was often referred to as a significant part of the “last-days” outpouring that was promised in Joel 2:28-32 and Acts 2:17-21. A few years later the Jesus Movement began and again came the declaration, “This is it! This is really it.”

And now, here we are nearly fifty years later. True, there have been some wonderful moves of God’s Spirit in the land but there is currently no national revival in America. The Charismatic Renewal is over and the Jesus Movement was absorbed into the mainstream evangelical church. In truth, Christianity in America is now declining, while it is growing rapidly in other parts of the world. The percentage of the population of the U.S. that attends church grows smaller every year, and every year America becomes more secular and atheistic.

So what are we supposed to believe? Are we in the last days? Is there now going to be an outpouring?

We need to stop basing our thinking on what we hear said on a TV program, or on radio, or through any other form of media. We need to base our understanding and belief totally on what God says in His Word.

A theme that is repeatedly referred to in the Old Testament, and again in the New Testament, is that two rains were vital for a successful harvest — the former (first) rain and the latter rain.

The growing season for grain crops in Israel is different from what it is here in North America. In Israel, wheat was planted in the fall and harvested in the spring. The first rain was needed after the seeds were planted to cause them to germinate. The latter rain was needed just before the spring harvest to cause the grain to ripen and to insure a bountiful harvest.

“Let us live in awe of the Lord our God,
for He gives us rain each spring (the latter rain) and fall (the first rain),
assuring us of a harvest when the time is right” (Jeremiah 5:24, NLT).

Most theologians (which I most assuredly am not) believe the “former/first rain” was the outpouring of God’s Spirit at Pentecost. The first rain watered the Word in the early church and brought about the initial spread of the church throughout the world.

The latter rain, in the natural, was needed to ripen the grain and insure a good harvest — and so it will be in the last days.

Are we going to see the “latter rain” here in America? 

I believe we are!

“Ask the Lord for rain in the spring,

 for He makes the storm clouds.
And He will send showers of rain
so every field becomes a lush pasture” (Zechariah 10:1, NLT).

The spring rain was the latter rain, which brought about the final ripening of the grain and insured a bountiful harvest.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah had just triumphed over the prophets of Baal. It had been dry in Israel for 42 months — not a drop of rain. First Elijah said to the evil King Ahab, “I hear the sound of a heavy (abundant) rain” (see 1 Kings 18:41).

Elijah then went to prayer and asked God for rain. Six times he sent his servant to look and see if there were any rain clouds in the heavens. And six times the servant returned to say, “Not a cloud in the sky.”

Finally, after looking the seventh time, the servant said to Elijah, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him to go back home. Tell him if he doesn’t hurry, the rain will stop him!” (see 1 Kings 18:44).

Let me finish this brief article by saying, in the patience of faith and in my understanding of the Word of God, “I hear the sound of the harvest (latter) rain!”

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains” (James 5:7, ESV).

LIVING LETTERS

“Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3, NKJV).

It was a common practice in the early church to give letters of introduction and recommendation to missionaries and traveling ministers. A false prophet or a false apostle could travel from city to city, receive support from the church, and spread false doctrine simply by saying, “I am a friend of Paul” or “Paul sent me.” To make it more difficult for this to happen, Paul and others in leadership began issuing letters of recommendation to those who were traveling.

Paul wrote this letter of Second Corinthians from Macedonia about five years after his first visit to Corinth. While in Macedonia, and apparently in response to a challenge to his leadership, Paul says to the Corinthians, “I don’t need a letter of recommendation written on paper; you are my letter of recommendation. Everyone can see what God has done; your lives are seen and known by all men. You are a living epistle of God’s love and grace.” Paul had a right to make this claim because he was the apostle/missionary who established this church in the midst of a very pagan and immoral city. 

What an incredible point Paul is making here—that for many people in the world, the Bible they first see is the life of a believer being lived out in front of them. And what a challenge this is to us as we come to grips with the reality that our lives are being looked at as a living testament of the work of God. I can honestly say that I rarely feel like I am a Bible, a living letter. Being very aware of who I am and what I am, most of the time I feel more like the tattered dust cover on the book than the book itself.

In verse three, Paul says, “Clearly you are an epistle of Christ.” I believe that what he was saying is, “You are what you are because of the work of Christ in your lives. I was simply an instrument that God used to bring you to Christ. The Holy Spirit was the pen and ink that God used to write this new life on the paper of your heart and cause you to become a Living Letter that openly witnesses to God’s great love and grace.” Based on the way Paul penned these words, I cannot help but wonder if he also realized that this was a work in progress. It was an epistle that was continuing to be written; the work was not yet done.

I am challenged by the magnificence of Paul’s metaphor as he likens the life of the believer to a living epistle. I am also challenged with the thought, “How do I live up to this ideal? How do I do this in a way that people actually see me as a living example of why Christ came and gave His life?”

Clearly this is a challenge; clearly it is something we are going to have to work at in order to achieve; clearly there is a lot of room for growth.

Jesus gives us one of the most important keys to our growth as a Living Letter when He says “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

There is an old Scottish saying that I used to hear my grandmother and my mom use, “The proof of the pudding is in the tasting.” This is not a bad idea to keep locked away in the back of your mind. If someone takes a look at my life, what is he going to see? Will he see a life that points him to Christ or some other direction? Will the life he sees be one that encourages him to want more? The best evangelists of all are not the men and women who stand on stages in front of big crowds but those who lean on the fence and talk to their neighbors.

LIVING IN THE SHADOW

In 1998 Carol and I moved to New York City to spend a year overseeing a special evangelism project at the request of a ministry we were assisting. Our apartment was four blocks south of the World Trade Center, directly “in the shadow” of the Twin Towers.

More than once Carol asked me, “What would happen to our apartment if those towers ever came down?”

I blithely replied, “But that could never happen; those buildings are engineered to withstand all kinds of weather, earthquakes, and explosions. They will never fall down!”

In ancient times the word shadow held a stronger, more ominous meaning than our current usage does and, in fact, the word exercised a superstitious influence upon people. In some cultures it was thought that if a person’s shadow was trampled upon, that person would suffer injury. This superstition grew from the belief that the shadow was a reflection of the soul. In some parts of Asia, everyone attending a funeral would leave before the casket was closed because they feared that a portion of their shadow might get caught in the casket. Superstition said that if any part of your shadow was trapped in a casket, sickness and ill health would follow.

We are given a glimpse of the superstitious aspects of the word in Jewish culture in Acts 5:15, where it says, “They even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them” (ESV).

Whether or not God used the superstitious thinking of the people as an occasion for miracle healing is hotly debated, and it is difficult to prove one way or the other from this passage. Personally, I believe that God did a “special” miracle in this instance, as He later did through Paul, and many were healed (see Acts 19:11-12).

The word shadow also spoke of the influence or power that a leader or a person carried with him in the society where he lived. To live under the shadow of a ruler/leader meant that you were being covered by all the might, power, and influence that belonged to the person in authority.

In Psalm 91:1 the Psalmist declares, “He who dwells in the shelter (secret place) of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”

The last part of this verse is a promise to the person who chooses to make his relationship/communion with God a priority of his or her life. The person who chooses to honor God with all parts of his life — his private life, his personal life, his vocational life — is the recipient of a powerful promise. I call it “living in the shadow.” The promise is that we will live within or under the influence of God’s all-sufficient power.

The term used in this verse — “the Almighty” — in the Hebrew is Shaddai. El Shaddai is commonly known as one of the names used throughout the Old Testament to reveal the character of God. Each of the names of God in the Old Testament served to express another aspect of His character. El Shaddai indicates the richness and fullness of God’s grace, His readiness to pour out His mercies on His children — merices that He is more ready to give than we are ready to receive.

In Hebrew the word shaddai also means “the breast,” as speaking of a nursing mother. It is meant to convey the understanding that the same way a mother’s milk is completely sufficient for a newborn, El Shaddai’s sufficiency is more than enough for us as we draw on it.

We are not to live or dwell in the shadow of superstitious thinking. We are to fully embrace the understanding that we are a part of the family of God and, as such, we live under the influence or shadow of Him. We did not deserve to live in this relationship but He took us into His family and made us one of His children. As His children, we live under His protection, provision, and sufficiency.

God is the Shepherd and we are the sheep; we live in His pasture and He takes care of “all our needs.” He is a good and loving shepherd. Charles Spurgeon, the great British pastor, wrote about this phrase and said: “The Almighty Himself is where His shadow is, and hence those who dwell in His secret place are protected by Him. What a shade in the day of noxious heat! What a refuge in the hour of deadly storm! Communion with God is safety.”

Welcome to “living in the shadow.”

SURROUNDED AND SAFE

“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).

A few weeks ago I wrote about “comfort food” and how the Word of God brings comfort to us in time of need. I referred to those passages of Scripture that become “oases” of comfort to us, the ones we find ourselves returning to over and over because of the comforting/healing/encouraging that we find there.

This past week I found myself returning to one of the passages that I referred to in the aforementioned article, one of my personal “comfort” passages. I went to Psalm 34 and began to draw on the wonderful healing and strengthening ministry of this precious psalm.

David wrote this psalm at a time of tremendous pressure in his life. His popularity with the people had caused King Saul to become insanely jealous, so jealous that he tried to kill David. David fled with Saul’s mercenaries in hot pursuit and his flight took him into the territory of the Philistines, who were Israel’s mortal enemies. While Saul was jealous of David, the Philistines were distrustful and wanted nothing to do with him. So David fled from them and ended up hiding in a cave where this psalm was written.

David may have been rejected and his life threatened but he knew that God loved him. As he contemplated God’s love, out of his heart flowed this amazing psalm that begins, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).

Doesn’t really sound like someone who has let pressure get the best of him, does it?

As I drank in these encouraging words, my whole outlook on life began to change. I got to verse 7 and the words of the verse just seemed to come alive through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I knew God was speaking comfort and peace to me through this portion of His Word“. 

"The angel of the Lord”.  We don’t know exactly what David meant when he used the phrase, “The angel of the Lord.” Was he referring to God’s presence surrounding him or was he referring to angels sent by God to protect him? Both of these are true. Psalm 91 tells us that God protects us and 2 Kings 6:17 is part of the amazing story of Elisha’s servant seeing the vast armies of angels that are around God’s people.

“The angel of the Lord encamps around.” We don’t use the words “encamps around” in our everyday vocabulary. The simple meaning is “completely surrounded.” I think this is important to understand. This verse is saying that we are totally surrounded by God’s protection.

This protection is not offered to everyone who claims to be a child of God. The next phrase in the verse tells us that it is available only to those who “fear Him.” The word fear means “to show respect and reverence.”

The fear of the Lord is the trigger that releases the protection of the Lord. No reverence—no respect—means no protection. It doesn’t mean that the person who claims to be a Christian but shows little or no respect for the standards of Christian behavior as outlined in Scripture, is not saved. But it does mean that he or she will not be living in the blessing of the Lord as they should be.

When the Jewish nation was in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, they had very strict instructions on how their “camps” should be set up as they traveled. The Tabernacle was always in the center of the camp and then the tribes were aligned in a square around the Tabernacle (where the presence of the Lord dwelt).

The picture of the camp is a wonderful metaphor of our spiritual life and journey. We know that we are on a journey and that our permanent dwelling is not here but in heaven. While we wait for that day to arrive, we are doing His pleasure here and we are under His protection throughout the journey. God is the center of our life and all that we do. Because we have established our camp according to His instructions, we know we are surrounded by His protection, and therefore sin and evil cannot penetrate.

Elisha’s servant went outside one morning and saw that Elisha’s dwelling was surrounded by the army of Syria who had come to take him captive. The servant cried out in fear, “What are we going to do?” Elisha responded, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than they who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16) and then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he might see.” The Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw the vast army of angels that surrounded Elisha’s home. The angel of the Lord was “encamped around” Elisha’s home!

“Please, Lord, open our eyes of understanding that we are comforted with the encamping of the angel of the Lord around our life.”