5 ‘W’s For The Valleys - Psalm 42

‘Who?’

‘…so my soul pants for YOU, O God.’ v. 1

When you find yourself in the valleys of discontent always ask what it is that would make the difference.  The only real answer will consistently be the presence of Almighty God.  He is the Healer, Comforter, Provider, Friend, Lord, Savior, and any other title that you need in life.  That’s why perhaps his greatest name is Immanuel.  God WITH us.  It’s not that there is a part of God that we need.  It’s that everything we always need is met in who he is.

‘When?’

‘When can I go and meet with God?’ v. 2

Doesn’t life have a way of gathering up on itself and you feel like time is the scarcest commodity you have?  At least one of two things has happened when that is the case.  We have said, ‘yes’ to too many things of this world, and/or we have said, ‘yes’ to too few moments with God.  We must check our priority lists, and if ‘time with God’ drops down to the point that we wonder if we’ll ever get there again WE MUST MAKE CHANGES.

Our soul’s needs will not be met by anything or anyone else.  Yes, we have responsibilities and commitments, but none more vital than knowing and enjoying the God we claim is our very life.  Besides, apart from Him what will we really accomplish anyway?  (see John 15 for the answer to that question).

‘Where?’

‘…men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ v. 3

If it wasn’t enough that we would trip over our own feet at times, there are always those other voices that would gladly lead us deeper into discontentedness.  These are the ones who would believe that the answer to the ‘Who?’ of above is something other than God.  They are voices of discontent that seek distraction rather than peace.  Numbness rather than life.  They need to find security in their choices and direction by deriding absolutes and recruiting others to wander with them.  The notion of any truth outside of themselves is as foreign to their minds as peace is to their souls.  Beware of allowing the bitterness of others to affect your resolution.

‘What?’

‘These things I remember as I pour out my soul…’ v. 4

Never remain in the victories of the past, but recall them in order to move into new ones.  There is a fear that the best has passed us by, and we are tempted to feel empty and futile.  But realize that the ‘better-than-any-experienced-or-hoped-for-best’ is always ahead of us.  We look forward to the coming victory of the King we have never seen but yet we love.  We await the arrival and installment of new, better things (like earths and heavens and bodies!).  Let the former tastes and echoes of these things encourage you in the valleys.

‘Why?’

‘Why are you downcast, O my soul?’ v. 5

Question your questions.  ‘Why downcast, O my soul?’  Are you looking to something or someone other than the Lord God Almighty to fill you up and satisfy you?  Are you cramming more and more into your schedule rather than remaining faithful to your highest priority?  Are you finding solace in others’ doubts instead of the security of Truth?

‘Why, O soul?’  Have you forgotten what has come before and, most importantly, what lies ahead?  How can you recall these things and think on the dawning future and be downcast, soul?

When the valley walls loom large seek out the Person of God (Who), regain the proper priorities in your schedule and life (When), stand firm against the bitter solicitors of doubt (Where), recall better times that remind of an even better future (What), and, by faith, speak to your soul words of truth and encouragement.

Reverse Echoes

From the shore of a lake ripples and waves lapping at the edge speak of activity.  But they, in and of themselves, are not the reality or truth.  They are the effect of some, more significant, cause.  A rock.  The wind.  A boat.

In the same way, we experience ripples in life caused by actions long past.  And some by realities in the future.  Their very presence, though unseen now, is so significant that they reach back into our hearts today to gird us up.

Consider the book of Revelation where we read of choirs of voices and angelic shouts as being “loud”, spans of “silence”, colors like white, red, blue, yellow, and gold, things like trees, mountains, cities.  All these nouns and adjectives we can relate to, but I wonder if we will realize then that we have as yet failed to understand their true meaning when we see, hear, taste, and feel them on the other side of eternity.

We perceive the ripples of these distant truths today (“loud” noises, solitary “silences”, blue skies, yellow flowers), and they speak not of their own beauty or being but of those which exist and last for eternity.

In the church we have bread and wine that reverberate with meaning infused into them by Christ as He declared that his body would broken like bread for our sins and his blood flowing like wine would seal the new covenant of our forgiveness.  But as we partake of them today and remember yesterday, we also experience the truth of the “yet to come” as it ripples back through time to us.

We HOPE that the promise of the bread and wine will yet come to fruition in eternity.  We do not now see all things as they should be.  But we HOPE for “that day” when we drink deeply of current reality made “anew” in the Father’s Kingdom (Matthew 26).  For then all that we are hoping in now (based on the past) shall inherit their true being.  Bread will no longer be a ripple for we shall see the body pierced for us.  Wine will be fully wine for it will release its burden of representation and be simply, fully itself evermore at the consummation of the new covenant.

For this we HOPE and long.  And, with hope, we wait patiently for what is to come.

“…no eye has seen…what God has prepared” (I Corinthians 2).

A New Place To Start

…Before the foundation of the world…before the ages began…before times eternal… (Ephesians 1:4, Titus 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:9)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning was the word… (John 1:1)

You’re Older Than You Think

The reality of God’s love and purpose for you (and everything) must be seen and known in light of Ephesians 1.  Called, chosen, adopted, loved, promised, provided for - all before one star was strewn across the night sky or one grain of sand began to make up the beach.  You preceded creation.  The purpose of God’s will revolved around you and Jesus before any of the fireworks of Genesis 1.

You think the mountains are awesome?  They were an afterthought compared to you.  The stars can be counted.  God’s thoughts towards you cannot.  There is an immenseness that we miss when we fail to begin at the beginning.  And the beginning is not Genesis 1.  It is Ephesians 1.  The gospel of God’s love and purpose for you predates the creation of the world.

Adding Why To What

Purpose precedes action precedes reality.

In creation (reality) we see what God did (action), and by it understand who God is.  But only through Christ do we know why He did it / to what end He did it (purpose).  The ‘mystery of his will’ is revealed to us only through the gospel: the act of redemption accomplished by Jesus on the cross (Ephesians 1:9).

Redemption is purchasing some reality from non-existence by the sacrifice of another reality’s existence.  It is a transfer of being.  For example, I have a coupon for a free cup of coffee.  The coupon is real, the cup of coffee is not.  I must cause the coupon to cease to be real to me in order for the coffee to become real to me.  I must redeem the cup of coffee by transferring the being of the coupon to the cup of coffee.  Jesus does this for us in regards to our righteousness, and he does it in regards to God’s purpose.

Mission Accomplished

Our state of righteousness is embodied in Jesus.  It was not a reality in anyone before the cross.  Christ redeems us from our sinful state by allowing God to transfer His being to us.  He became sin that we may become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  The reality of our righteousness comes at the expense of Christ’s.

And in doing so Christ also redeems God’s purpose of uniting everything in subjection to one head, Christ himself (Ephesians 1:10).  The reality of His position of exaltation is redeemed by Jesus giving up his life in humble submission (Philippians 2).  The reality that now exists is the product of God’s action in accordance with God’s purpose from before the beginning.

Ponder this new timeline of events and be transported to time before time when God’s purpose for you always existed.  And be lifted out of the earthly, temporal muck that we feel every day.  Yes, the muck is still going to be there, but so is the love that has been yours forever.  What will your focus be?  It’s your choice.