Skip to main content

Where is your God?

Image
By

 


William Wordsworth wrote:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Wordsworth is lamenting the fast withering connection between people and nature because of the all-embracing industrial society of his time, a great theme of his day. I find people are often aware they are somehow disconnected from something bigger than themselves. I sense their longing for they don’t know what, their frustration at an inexplicable sense of fragmentation.

Believers can experience this frustration, when ‘the world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending.’ That sense we have laid waste our powers, given our hearts away while distracted by the demands of life. Like Esau, we can feel we have traded our new-birthright ‘for a mess of pottage.’ Genesis 25:29-33 ‘The world is too much with us, late and soon,’ and little we see in spiritual things that should be ours but are not.

As I read psalm 42 last evening I discovered David experienced this longing for connection, as he found himself far from Jerusalem in, ‘the land of Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar,’ Psalm 42:6. Although he knows God is never far from him, David feels physically far from God (42:9), the world is too much with him, and it taunts him, ‘where is your God?’ So David cries:

‘As the deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When will I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food

day and night

while they say to me all the day long,

‘Where is your God?’’

Psalms 42 and 43 stand together as one song and are a great comfort to those who feel as David did, surrounded by, ‘ungodly people...unjust man.’ (43:1) I find myself in this psalm as David cries, ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?’

David prays fervently for vindication and deliverance (43:1) for leading and guidance (43:3). In all this David is open and honest with his God, sharing his thoughts, speaking of his sense of abandonment (42:8,9)

At the same time he is determined to prove faithful to his God. David answers his own plight with two comforting words of encouragement. In the first he remembers those days when he was in communion with God and his people:

‘These things I remember,

as I pour out my soul:

How I would go with the throng

and I lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise;

a multitude keeping a festival.’ (42:4)

Remembering is a gift and a comfort to the saints. In those times when I feel the world is too much with me I go to his Word, remind myself of his mercies, and recall those countless times of blessing in fellowship. God has been good to this man and I remember his goodness.

David’s second word is encouragement to hope in God. Our present circumstances do not, finally, determine our future, or our eternal place among the saints of God. We have every reason to hope in him, to praise him. He is our salvation, our God. When the world is too much with us, late and soon, we may encourage ourselves with David’s encouragement:

‘Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall praise him,

my salvation, and my God.’ (43:5)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Obama's mother posthumously baptized into LDS Church - Salt Lake Tribune

By
In the wake of his remarkable success it seemed that the world and his wife wanted to claim President Obama as their own with even an Irish connection being dug up. Now the Mormons have got in on the act by posthumously baptising his mother. They have in the past upset the Jewish community, the Catholic Church and now the American President with this wacky and unbiblical practice but there is no indication that they will review it. And, of course, it is always someone else’s fault and they promise a thorough inquiry to uncover the real culprits. Maybe they should try looking in the mirror. President Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995, was baptized posthumously into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints last year during her son's campaign, according to Salt Lake City-based researcher Helen Radkey. The ritual, known as “baptism for the dead,” was done June 4 in the Provo temple, and another LDS temple rite, known as the “endowment,” was
Post a Comment
Read more

Mormon Christians? Whats in a Name?

By
The Mormon Church, disturbed by the continuing identifying of polygamus sects in the news with the name Mormon, recently issued a press statement aimed at "clarifying" issues. It is interesting to note that if you substitute the name "Christian" where they use the name "Mormon" it makes a very good argument for us against the claims of the Mormon Church. The full press release is reproduced below in italics with each paragraph rewritten in ordinary text to present it from a Christian perspective. SALT LAKE CITY 10 July 2008 On 26 June, Newsroom published a package of information featuring profiles of ordinary Latter-day Saints in Texas. With no other intention but to define themselves, these members provided a tangible depiction of what their faith is all about. They serve as the best distinction between the lifestyles and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a Texas-based polygamous group that has recently attracted media attent
70 comments
Read more

Who and Where are the 144,000?

By
  Last time we saw that only 144,000 have a heavenly hope. Where does that leave the rest of the millions of faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses, the great crowd? “ The key to the identification of the ‘great crowd’ is found within the description of them in Revelation chapter 7 .The vision there presented is concerning persons not in heaven, from where the 'New Jerusalem comes down,' but on earth, among mankind .If the ‘great crowd’ are persons who gain salvation and remain on earth, how could they be said to be 'standing before God's throne and before the Lamb?' (Re 7:9) The position of 'standing' is sometimes used in the Bible to indicate the holding of a favored or approved position in the eyes of the one in whose presence the individual or group stands .It thus appears that the "great crowd" is formed of those persons who have been preserved during that time of wrath and who have been able to "stand" as approved by God and the Lamb.” - I
Post a Comment
Read more