Light Dawns

“Darkness cannot see, of course,” George MacDonald, History of Photogen and Nycteris

"Light dawns for the righteous..." —Psalm 97:11

Truth and moral order are imbedded in the universe: "The heavens proclaim (God's) righteousness" (97:6) No one has to teach us the knowledge of good and evil. We know. For that reason, most objections to truth are nothing more than smoke screens to cover our flight from God. 

That's a ruinous expedient, however, for when we turn away from what we know to be true we begin to descend into deeper darkness. And soon there is no end of the evil that we do. (Harvey Weinstein comes to mind.)

On the other hand, "light dawns for the righteous." The more we open our hearts to the truth and seek to obey it, the more truth we will know. Truth eludes those that oppose it, but the simple, the humble, the childlike understand. It's the pure in heart that see God.

Having trouble with God? The place to begin is to ask Him to align your will with His. If you want to do His will you will know (John 7:17). “What you see and what you hear depends a good deal on where you are standing," C.S. Lewis said. "It also depends on what sort of person you are" 

David Roper

What God Has Promised 

In the day when I cried out, You answered me,

And made me bold with strength in my soul.—Psalm 138:3

"Some folks' lives roll easy as a breeze..." Paul Simon said, but for most of old folks it's more of a push, or a "stumble." 

And, truth be known, there are no biblical promises that life will get easier as we get along in years, that God will, of necessity, transport us to the skies in flower beds of ease. No, in fact, though I'm loath to say it, the harder tests may be further along. That's certainly been my story. I'm not a dispensationalist, but I must say, sometimes old age feels like the Great Tribulation.😋

Here's the thing: God has not promised that you and I will Be delivered from every dire circumstance. But He has promised that He will give us grace to be strong and brave in the face of that circumstance. God, on the basis of His undying love, made David "bold with strength in (his) soul," though, as he later put it, David was still "walking in the midst of trouble" (138:7,8). 

Jesus, in Gethsemane, "offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard..." (Hebrews 5:7). Yet His Father did not save Him from the pain and humiliation of the cross. Instead He gave Him courage to endure it to the end and to think nothing of its shame. 

No...

God has not promised skies always blue, 

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;

God has not promised sun without rain, 

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God has not promised we shall not know

Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;

He has not told us we shall not bear

many a burden, many a care. 

God has not promised smooth roads and wide,

Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;

Never a mountain rocky and steep,

Never a river turbid and deep

But God has promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above, 

Unfailing sympathy, undying love. —Annie Johnson Flint

David Roper

11.7.17

Tears

By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion. —Psalm 137:1

I was raised on the creed of the stiff upper lip, but I've learned that there's no shame or weakness in weeping. The best and manliest of men, on one occasion, burst into tears (John 11:35).

The world is full of happy surprises, but it's also a vale of tears. It's unrealistic to suppress our sorrow. Solomon [and Pete Seeger] aver, "There is a time for weeping" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). 

George MacDonald describes sorrow as "a wandering woman, a kind of gypsy, always  going about the world, and picking up lost things. Nobody likes her, hardly anybody is civil to her; but when she has set anybody down and is gone, there is often a look of affection 

and wonder and gratitude sent after her." 

I don't understand the dynamic, but it seems to be true: Tears can relieve our sorrow. Quite often, MacDonald continues, "tears are the only cure for weeping."

Tears are not forever, however. One day the last teardrop will fall and  sorrow "will be forgot, love’s purest joys restored.” God will have wiped away every single tear.

In the meantime, a little crying might do us some good. 

David Roper

Kept

The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul."  —Psalms 121:7

Psalm 121 is a song for pilgrims on their way to the City of God, a journey through mountain passes and perilous places, ambush sites, bandits and brigands all around. Pilgrims need protection! Thus, "keeping" is the theme of this psalm.

The centerpiece of the psalm is verse seven: "The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul."  The parallelism establishes the only protection God has promised. He has not said that he will keep me from danger in the coming years but He has promised that He will keep my soul—the part of me that I call "myself," the "me" that is timeless and eternal. As Jesus said with such fine irony (and humor, I suspect): "Some of you will be put to death... But not a hair of your head will perish" (Luke 21:16).

The psalm is very personal. (The pronouns "you" and "your" are singular throughout.) "Hey, YOU," the poet says, "I'm speaking to you. You, the one listening to this song. Hear this: 'The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and forevermore'" (119:8). 

"Forevermore" is just that: From here to eternity. "He is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 25). 

"Rivers know this,” says Winnie the Pooh. “We shall get there someday."

David Roper

11.5.17

Weaned

I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD

from this time forth and forevermore. —Psalm 131:2,3

No longer clambering, complaining, fretful, frustrated, angry and out of sorts, David was at rest, content to rely on God alone. 

Aging is a little like weaning, in that we learn to disengage from childish necessities. We no longer have to be bigger than, stronger than, better than, smarter than everyone else in the room. We can just "be”— calm and quiet, content with God alone.

This is the secret of "good old age." 

David Roper

The Last Laugh

1. When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion,

We were like those who dream.

2. Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

And our tongue with shots of joy.

Then they said among the nations,

“The Lord has done great things for them.”

3. The Lord has done great things for us,

And we are glad.

4. Bring back our captivity (Do it again), O Lord,

As the streams in the South.

5. Those who sow in tears

Shall reap in joy.

6. He who continually goes out weeping,

Bearing seed for sowing,

Shall doubtless come in with shouts of joy,

Bringing his sheaves with him. —Psalm 126:3-6

We laugh when our minds are subverted, when we encounter an unexpected turn and we are surprised. 

Here in this psalm, the poet remembers an historic, unnamed serendipitous deliverance from famine, plague, or siege when God delivered His people from "captivity," a wholly unexpected, happy surprise that brought shouts of joy and laughter (126:1-3). Surely, God had done great things for Israel!

The psalmist then prays that he and his people will laugh again, that their joy would be restored as rain refreshes a wadi in the wilderness (Psalms 126:4).

"Laugh again." I wonder: Can it be that all occasions of joy and laughter are mere foretastes of that great guffaw when we finally "get in"?

Life is hard; we pass through and on, weeping and burdened by sin and sorrow. But one day we shall come home and we will see what great things God has prepared for us. And then, or so I believe, surprised by joy, our sides will split with laughter!

David Roper

He'll Come Running

"Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the LORD" —Psalm 119:1

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the psalter, twenty-two stanzas arranged around the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The psalmist affirms throughout his love for God's Word and his desire to "walk" in it. But the psalm ends with a whimper: "(Nevertheless,) I keep wandering off like a lost sheep" (119:176).

Nobody never sins. That's where grace comes in.

Julian of Norwich wrote, "When you are distressed by your failures, do not run from the Lord—as if any of us could hide from Him! Instead, run to Him quickly ... and say, ‘I have corrupted myself and made myself filthy, and I hate it because now I’m not like you. I cannot be clean again—I cannot be free from this corruption—unless you come and lift me and help me.' And He always comes!"—I Promise You a Crown

When you fall all you got to do is call, and He'll come running, wherever you are...

He whose day-life is obedient righteousness,

Who, after failure, or a poor success,

Rises up, stronger effort yet renewing—

He finds thee, Lord, at length, in his own common room.

—George Macdonald

David Roper