Quick–eyed Love

Psalm 33

"Behold, the Lord's eyes are on those...who abide in His love." —Psalm 33:18

I think of those portraits in which the subject’s eyes follow us around the room. So it is with God’s kindly gaze.

That’s because, by faith, we have become His beloved children and good fathers always keep an eye on their children. (They can pick them out of a crowd.)

God took a hard road to show the extent of His love. “He died for desire of us." The Cross is the show of his affection.

Such devotion would be worrying if I had to do something to earn it or keep it, but all God asks is that I bask in his love. 

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back 

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack 

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat. …

—“Love (III),” George Herbert

David Roper

In the Morning

Psalm 30

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning —Psalm 30:5b

“Life is suffering,” Buddhists say and almost everyone else who looks at life realistically. Some sorrow can be alleviated and some cannot. Some sadness may follow us to the grave. 

What can we say about wounds that do not heal? 

The "morning" that  the psalmist envisions is that “great gettin'-up  morning,” or so I believe, when Love will call us home, when sorrow and sadness will flee away. ”Weeping may tarry for the night,” but this is not forever.

That idea alone, turns my "mourning into dancing” this morning. My feet, like Snoopy’s start  tapping...

David Roper

12.19.19

Becoming a Man

Psalm 27

“Be manly. Be made strong; wait for the LORD!” —Psalm 27:14

This is a pep talk David gave to himself. (The verbs are singular.)

Paul paraphrases this text, putting a precise spin on the words: "Be manly, be made strong; Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:13, 14). 

If you were to ask me why I'm a follower of Jesus I'd be hard-pressed to name all the reasons, but one resides right here: I follow Jesus because I want to become a man.

Clap me on the back and say, "Be a man," and I will square my shoulders and try to man up, for no one has to tell me what it means to be a man. Men are "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent," to pull up the old Boy Scout Code. They are “physically strong, mentally alert and morally straight.” 

Paul adds another trait: Men are loving, which, as it turns out, is the greatest show of strength and the most important attribute of all (Cf. 1 Corinthians 13).

I know what I ought to be and I want to do better, but I need help. That's where God comes in. “Let your heart be strengthened (passive voice); wait for the Lord.” I must ask him to make me into the man I want to be. This is my prayer, all through the day.

“Waiting,” however, implies delay. It takes time to become a man—indeed, a lifetime. I'm still waiting to get there.

David Roper

12.16.19

God, My Judge

Psalm 26

“God be my judge..."—Psalm 26:1a

When challenged, David refused to justify himself and appealed to a higher court: “God, (you) be my judge!"

This is the secret of independence from the opinions of others as Paul learned through the criticism he endured: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God" (1Corinthians 4:3–5.).

Any assessment of ourselves is as irrelevant as that of our friends and foes. "It is the Lord that judges." Any other judgment is presumptuous (final judgment is a job for God) and premature ("before the time".) 

It's good to ask God for a check-up now and then—"Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind" (26:2)—but I must not spend time rummaging around in my soul. I must rather ask God to judge me. If I'm off course he will let me know. Satan fills us with vague thoughts of wrong-doing, and free-floating guilt; God's judgments are unequivocally clear.

In the meantime I can forget about myself and the opinions of others and get on with the business of following Jesus. 

What a relief that is! 

David Roper

Exposure

Psalm 25

"For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great" (Psalm 25:11).

These are the words of a man whose eyes were "ever on the Lord" (25:15). Yet, he was aware of "great" guilt, a nexus that, at first, surprises us. It must be that the more we see of God the more we see ourselves. 

I think of days past when my father plowed fields that had never been cultivated. On the first pass the plowshare would expose large, previously unnoticed rocks that he hauled away. Then, he would plow the field again, and then again, to further break up the soil. With each pass the plow turned up other, smaller rocks that he cast aside. 

Growth in grace is a similar process: When we first begin to follow Jesus, "big" sins, mostly sins of the flesh, occupy our thoughts. But as the years pass by us and God's word passes through us, other sins rise to the surface.  

Sins of the spirit once thought to be mere peccadilloes—pride, prejudice, self-pity, pettiness, spite, self-accommodating indulgence and the like—are revealed as the ruinous attitudes and actions that they are. God reveals each sin so that he can, in due time, cast it aside. 

Humbling exposure, though painful, is good for the soul. It's one of the ways by which He "instructs sinners in the way" (25;8). There is no other way to grow. 

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith and love and every grace, 

Might more of His salvation know, 

And seek more earnestly His face. 

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray, 

And He, I trust, has answered prayer, 

But it has been in such a way 

As almost drove me to despair. 

I hoped that in some favored hour 

At once He’d answer my request 

And, by His love’s constraining pow’r, 

Subdue my sins and give me rest. 

Instead of this, He made me feel 

The hidden evils of my heart 

And let the angry pow’rs of hell 

Assault my soul in ev’ry part. 

Yea, more with His own hand He seemed 

Intent to aggravate my woe, 

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 

Humbled my heart and laid me low. 

“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried; 

“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?” 

“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied, 

“I answer prayer for grace and faith.” 

“These inward trials I employ 

From self and pride to set thee free 

And break thy schemes of earthly joy 

That thou may’st find thy all in Me.” —John Newman

David Roper

All Things Great and Small

Psalm 24

The earth is the Lord's and all that fills it…” —Psalm 24:1

Everything belongs to God. It’s his because he made it, redeems it  and maintains it (24:1,2).  

It follows then, since we’re God’s children, that the earth  is ours as well. As confirmation, Paul writes: "All things are yours whether...the world or life or death or the present or the future" (1 Corinthians 3:22). In another place he argues that even food that’s been offered to pagan idols is ours to enjoy: “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market," and then he quotes this psalm (24) for support: "for 'the earth is the Lord's, and all that fills it”  (1Corinthians 10:25).

To be sure, we can exploit and ruin what God has made. We can use creation in the wrong way or harm someone in our use of it, but in and of itself, creation is part of the good that God created. Paul put the principle simply: “Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be refused…” (1 Timothy 4:4).

There was only one forbidden tree in the garden and that for good reason: It was toxic. He has given us every other "tree" to enjoy. God invented pleasure, fun, joy and laughter for His children and for their delight.

So go for it! Live large! "Rejoice in your youth, and let your heart cheer you...remove vexation from your heart" (Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10). (Why are young men and women always bummed out?) Find delight in all that God has created.

But in your delight, “Remember Your Creator" (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Don't forget the God who loves you. Stay close to Him. He's where all the goodness comes from.

David Roper

Today and Tomorrow

Psalm 23

"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my present life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord in all the days that stretch beyond ("through stretched out days"). —Psalm 23:6

Heaven is home. It’s not that heaven is somewhat like home. It is home. Our earthly homes are signs or reflections of home, primitive symbols of warmth, love, togetherness, and familiarity. The ultimate reality is our Father’s house where eternal love awaits us; where we’re gathered in, included. "Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in,” Robert Frost said.

I read about Odysseus, the Flying Dutchman, Frodo, and E.T., and I too want to go home, to that place where we will cease “to break our wings against the faultiness of things,” where everything works out for good.

So many things go wrong here; nothing will go wrong there. Nothing will go missing; nothing will go up in smoke; nothing will go down the drain. Heaven is God’s answer to Murphy’s Law

There's always been a bit of homesickness in me, a longing for that elusive "something more." Now I know it's a hankering for the Father's house and my eternal home. 

Home from my wayward wanderings, 

Home from the cold foreign clime, 

Home, to the arms of my Father.

Where I am His and He is mine. —Oswald Chambers

In the meantime, while we wait for that day, God's goodness and love will follow us, guarding us from our worst instincts, cleaning up the messes we leave behind, giving us faith, hope and love for the journey. He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you"; Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

"Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow!" Who could ask for anything more?

David Roper