I’ve always been kind of a non-conformist. Can’t post a New Year’s thought on New Year’s. Almost didn’t post one at all. You may have noticed IC usually writes almost all the seasonal posts here. If something’s expected, I have real difficulty delivering.
I just don’t much like marching in lockstep or following the crowd. If I find myself
surrounded on my way from Point A to Point B, my first question is “Where
are we going and why are we going there?” My second question is “Who’s
leading us?” by which I really mean, “Does this person have even the foggiest
notion what he’s doing?”
That wariness is a product of having followed
a bunch of people who, well … didn’t.
Oddly enough, despite my natural
inclinations, there is one area of life in which I’m slowly learning to go with
the flow without a whole lot of annoying queries. Because when the right Person
is leading the procession, there’s no reason to ever worry where we’re going to
end up.
Over and over again in Psalm 68, David
pictures God leading his people.
Prisoners to Prosperity
The first reference is very personal. The
same God who vanquishes and scatters the armies of his enemies with ease
throughout the rest of the psalm is occupied first and foremost with the needs of his own. He is the “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows” even
while still enthroned in his holy habitation. He is not so occupied with
affairs of state that he cannot see the little guy suffering. In fact, this
seems to be his first priority.
So David can say:
“He leads out the prisoners to prosperity …”
God cares about the lonely. He “settles the
solitary in a home”. And the prisoners he leads out to prosperity.
He is still doing that today. We know it because we see the “ex-prisoners” coming into our churches, freed from slavery to
all kinds of evils. At Christmas, my brother shared a couple of remarkable stories of
prisoners he knew being delivered, one woman so enslaved to substance abuse that her
husband took her to the emergency room in despair, crying out to a God he wasn’t
even sure existed for help for his wife. He (and later she) found there a Father of
the fatherless who has led them out to emotional and spiritual prosperity and
settled them in a home.
Remarkable. And absolutely typical of a God who leads.
Through the Wilderness
The second reference takes us back into
Israel’s history. A nation is freed from slavery in Egypt and offered the
prospect of a land of milk and honey. But when they go out into the wilderness,
they do not go alone. God is at their head:
“O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness …”
He led them out into the wilderness
toward a dwelling of their own and the spoil of the land, and despite their
repeated sin and rebellion, whenever they have repented he has led them right back to
the place of blessing.
Israel’s history and its prophesied future stand
for us as evidence of God’s ability to take the most obstinate and useless
people and make something of them. If he could do this for some obscure
middle-eastern nation nobody would otherwise have ever heard of, he can certainly do it for you and me, notwithstanding
our failures and moments of doubt.
A Host of Captives in His Train
The third reference to God’s leading is
specifically Christian, probably not so much in its original context, but
certainly in its application:
“You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train.”
The apostle Paul appropriates this image to
great effect in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus. He’s saying there that
one of the consequences of Christ’s work on earth and his subsequent ascension
into glory is that he led a host of captives out with him.
Here we find that the captives are not
merely turned loose into a place of blessing to enjoy themselves like a dog running aimlessly around the back yard. He has also equipped these former
captives for service. He “gave gifts to men”. Part of the process of moving toward the filling of “all things” with his own
glory is that he fills us with it right now, giving us the tools we need to
show forth the praise of his glory in this life, and to equip others to enjoy
the same meaningful life we do.
In fact, he gave a spiritual gift to you. Are you
using it to equip the saints for works of service and build up the Body of
Christ, to help others grow to maturity in their new life? If you’re not, January would be a good month to start.
Into the Sanctuary
The fourth and final reference to leading
is related to worship:
“Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.”
Singers, musicians, virgins and princes —
the “great congregation” — all proceed into the sanctuary. This is the intended
destination, and it’s not some groveling, knee-wearing supplication of a
distant deity. God’s procession is playing tambourines and rejoicing. The Father seeks worshipers.
David had something awfully right in mind
when he danced before the ark of God. Worship is not some onerous task we drag
ourselves out of bed for weekly or monthly, but a joyous celebration of
deliverance and of the One who delivered us. The believer who does not “get”
worship does not get very much about the Christian life at all.
And in worship, as in all facets of life,
it is God who leads.
Letting Him Lead
So are we letting him? Our job is to hear
the Lord’s words and do them in every area of our lives. It is only in doing
them that we are established: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do
what I tell you?” Following faithfully along behind him is sort of implicit in the word “Lord”, isn’t it?
And isn’t it amazing that he even gives us
the option? He sure doesn’t have to.
Human responsibility is a very real thing,
notwithstanding the teaching we get in some Christian circles. Perhaps that’s
why far too many people in our churches today have made a public confession of
faith in Christ and then have not really gone anywhere at all. Some are sitting
at home watching the occasional Christian message on YouTube, not really sure
what to do next. Some are sitting weekly in the pews of churches where they are
not being effectively taught what they are supposed to be doing and have little
opportunity in a church context to either worship or serve. Then there are some
of us who are in happy fellowship with a group of growing believers, getting
lots of spiritual food … and yet are simply not doing very much with it.
We still think serving and worshiping are jobs for others.
God leads. That’s what he does, all through
history and all through the years of our lives.
So in 2018, are we going to let him REALLY lead
us? If not, we’re probably not headed anywhere good.
Just as with the apostle Paul God will sometimes select leaders from unlikely sources. Here is an example of someone who eventually recognized that abortion and God do not mix and now leads to change hearts and minds.
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