Desire

Psalm 37

"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).

Desire is the mainspring of our hearts, the driving force of our lives, hidden from others, but always lingering just under the surface of our thoughts. We can’t put the feeling into words; it’s beyond us. C.S. Lewis called it sehnsucht—a bitter-sweet longing for something just out of reach.

Fame and fortune don’t assuage it; they only beget more desire. The more we get the more we want. Like a child opening a dozen Christmas gifts, we keep looking for that elusive "something more." Whatever the object of our quest, when we find it, it never contains the joy we sought.  

Disappointment, thus, is the rule, not the exception in this life. No thing, not even a very good thing, can fully satisfy us. That's why there's always a tinge of sadness in our greatest pleasures. 

On the other hand, the Psalmist writes, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires (the "askings") of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). This the secret of satisfaction and joy: Knowing that everything we ever wanted or desired is found in God’s love. There's no other way to be really, truly happy. Period!

Whom have I, Lord, but Thee,

Soul-thirst to satisfy?

Exhaustless spring! The waters free!

All other streams are dry. —Mary Bowley Peters

David Roper

“E'en Though It Be a Cross.”

Psalm 40

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is in my heart” (Psalm 40:6-8).

“You have given me an open ear…” Literally, “You dug out my ears”: a reference to the ear canal God "excavated” in both sides of my head.

To what end? That I may hear, of course, but preeminently that I may hear what God has to say and put it “in my heart.” And then, with my entire body, willingly, joyfully  comply. The author of Hebrews, quotes the Greek version of the Old Testament: “a body you have prepared for me,” substituting the whole for a part. Hearing involves putting my entire body on the line. 

The New Testament puts these words in Jesus' mouth as he assures his Father that he will do his will no matter what it will cost. (Hebrews 10:5-10). On this occasion, his Father's will was the cross.

God's will may indeed entail something akin to a cross. Can I hear it and bear it manfully, not as my duty but as my "delight" (40: 8)?

Bearing up isn’t easy, but if I make a start, grace will do the rest. "The readiness is all," Hamlet said.

David Roper

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