I Will Yet Praise Him: A Battle Cry

I recently read Psalm 42 during my morning quiet time and have been kind of obsessed with certain parts of it ever since. In truth, this Psalm is quite sad. The writer was in a serious state of depression because of his circumstances of being in exile, away from his homeland and away from his temple of worship. He said "my tears have been my food day and night" because he was in a place where men mocked him all day long saying, "Where is your God?" Oh man. How many times has it felt like I am walking in this guy's shoes lately? How many times has it seemed like the evil of this world is winning the war and people in our own country are saying in a loud mocking voice, "Where is your God?" Heck, on really bad days I sometimes even ask for myself, "God, where are you? Are you even there at all?" Y'all, it's hard out there to continue to stand for absolute biblical truth when it seems like the rest of the world, including many influential Christian leaders, say it's all up for interpretation. It can begin to feel like those of us who are left in the "inerrancy of scripture" trenches are just trying to keep our heads above water while cultural relevancy is doing it's best to push us under once and for all. Wow, what a beginning to a blog post, hu?

I guess my greater point here is this... 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

I will yet praise Him! I will yet stand up for the truth of the bible because it is NOT up for interpretation. I will stand on this hill and scarily be willing to die here because I won't be bullied into swaying my opinion in order to give the world permission to keep on sinning. I think this post is also meant to be a battle cry to those out there who are going to die on that hill right alongside me. We will not be popular, y'all. In fact, we will be despised before it's all said and done. But, together we will remember...

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

Here's the thing that bums me out to no end. No matter how many times certain people hear that when given the opportunity, God will ultimately "make known to them the path of life; He will fill them with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand" (Psalm 16), many will refuse to hear it for what it truly is. An utmost outcry of love. Our urgent appeal that Christ alone can only ever truly satisfy the heart in many cases might get twisted into hate speech and intolerance. Many in the world may choose never to believe that Jesus really did "come that we may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10) Sadly these will not be interested in finding out what His "have it to the full" can actually look like in their lives. In truth, the only way we as believers know His "full" in our own lives is because at some point we allowed the power of the Holy Spirit to break down our walls and show us. God sought us, we heard Him, we heeded Him and He changed us from the inside out. Then we learned little by little that the short-term displeasure of giving up the world's temporary sustenance that contradicted biblical truth in our lives would soon be replaced by the long-term joy of gaining eternal sustenance from Jesus' living water. And of this water Jesus said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." (John 4) So, when we're up against the mockers who after hearing all of this good news continue to ask in a derisive voice, "Where is your God?" we can say...

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

Tolerance is a two-way street, but for those of us who live by the words, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12), the side of the street that runs in our direction seems to be under permanent construction. Sometimes there seems to be little room for tolerance of our way of thinking and believing. And it's distressing because for the majority of us who strive to see all people through the eyes of Jesus, all we really wish for them is to experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. We have a God who promises to adopt us as His own children and in doing so, offers to make us co-heirs with Christ Himself of God's own glory! As believers, we now know that earthly sin (in any form) pales in comparison to the glory of God that became ours by turning from our old ways and following Jesus. But, until a person regards God's call in their own heart, it's our job to show them Christ through our own lives. As Christians who are co-heirs with Christ of God's very own heavenly glory, our capacity to love others (and not just fellow Christians) should be entirely overwhelming. Tolerance from our end should absolutely abound. The fact that Christians may not get a fair shake should have no bearing on this either. Remember this one? "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." (Matthew 5) This takes practice because it is NOT automatic. Not by a long shot. But I will absolutely keep trying my best if you will too. So again, for my brothers and sisters who are already fellow co-heirs to God's glory, when (not if) there is unfairness in labeling you or when you are just sad for the people who still choose earthly sin over heavenly glory, we will remember...

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

Suffering for the sake of Christ is not a new concept. In fact, in this country it is kind of a stretch to use the word "suffering" at all. When there are people in other countries who face severe persecution and even death for their Christian beliefs, some name-calling and mislabeling here in the United States just sort of fades to black. But, just as sticks and stones may break our bones, words really do hurt us. Even though we are the bearers of the best news in the history of the world, sometimes being those messengers comes with a price. Paul tells us so in the same verse I alluded to above: "And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering." (Romans 8) Our suffering looks much different than those Coptic Christians who were beheaded for refusing to deny Christ, but our attitude towards it should be the exact same. They did not allow ISIS to sway their devotion just like believers in America will not bow to cultural relevancy and allow Hollywood to dictate our moral code. We just won't. Truth IS absolute and we know that God's word is truth. No amount of legislation will ever change that. So, to all us worn-out moms and dads who are sick and tired of the worldly agendas being shoved down our kids throats at every turn. To the lonely employee who is scared to death to open your mouth because your Christian world view is vastly different than the majority of your co-workers. To the women like myself who are disgusted with the uber liberal women's movement and the hideousness that has come as a result. To the teachers who desperately long to see God invited back into your schools. To believers everywhere who have your own stories to tell of God's love and transformation that are met with jeers and eye rolls. Let's read together one more time...

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6

One last note. It's very important for believers to be able to gently and intelligently verbalize that while love and tolerance go hand in hand (and should again be an overflow from our lives), wholehearted agreement is quite another thing altogether. Culture seems to be less and less satisfied with our ability to tolerate people of all different ideologies and lifestyles and wants to move everyone toward universal assent. We need to be very confident where we draw the line between tolerance and outright approval. Remember that hill that we're all dying on together? This is when we start to build our foxholes and sandbag walls because we need to be dug in. We are undoubtedly called to tell the world of the news of salvation through Christ available to all who will believe, repent and follow Him, but if in doing so you feel the need to alter the message to fit a certain cultural narrative, there's a problem. A big one. The world today is starving for the hope that only Christ can provide and giving the world a watered down version because we're afraid of stepping on toes is doing the starving people a disservice. As cliche as this is, we must stand for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or else what we have to offer is no better than the testimony of the one who just lied under oath. It will be thrown out and disregarded. No, the salvation found in Christ is too monumental to cheapen it like that. Jesus offers people the constancy their hearts truly desire (but may not be fully aware of yet). He offers a love that is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. So when the temporary pleasures pass away and lost people of the world are heartbroken and weary because life has pulled the rug out from under them yet again, they need the Lord's firm foundation where the standard never changes. And we pray for the day that they too will join us in saying... I will yet praise Him!