Affinity 8: Psalms 139

In our days of confusion, self-doubt and blurred certainties, the first eighteen verses of Psalm 139 reminds us, God knows everything about us, is always surrounding us and makes a way for us. It is comforting to note how thoroughly the Psalmist records our Creator’s mind toward us. It is as though the truth found in II Peter 4:8 held literally, “ . . . one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” and that the length of those years were spent preparing each day for every one of us. Not only are these verses a comfort in the aspects they teach us about God, they free us to be who we have been created to be, i.e. we aren’t surprising God by our shortcomings.

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalms 139:2-4).

Here we see how God permeates all of our life. He knows when we are going to stand up and when we are going to sit down. He knows when we are lying down and when we are walking, where we are walking and everything about our walk. He knows what we are going to say before we say it and knows what we don’t say. It is comforting that we don’t have to fake it with God. We can be who we are, because He knows and understands the inner workings of how we think, speak and act. Seeing how naked we are in His sight, let us lay aside all of our pretenses and be real with Him. ‘Salvation’ any other way will only lead to those dreaded words, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23).

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psalms 139:7-12).

Here we see how God is everywhere and in all things. There is no hiding from Him. Even in Hell, God is there. He struggles with us, He holds us up and He never leaves us, no matter what we think, say or do.

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee” (Psalms 139:13-18).

Here the Psalmist is talking about how we have been created. Notice the thorough job God does in knitting us together. He invests time in defining every one of our individual aspects. With the loving pen of our almighty author, He writes down our character, our image and our personality with great forethought and effort.

Affinity 6: Ezekiel's Four Faces

Ezekiel had a vision in the first chapter.  The vision was of four creatures and each creatures had four faces, “As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle” (Ezekiel 1:10). The appearance of the number four brings to mind the four personality types.  The fact each creature had four faces indicates perhaps each creature had the ability to think in different ways, to see the world through different views, mainly four different views. 

Have you ever noticed the old testament is split up into four sections?  There is the Torah, the first five books of the bible.  Then there are the history books.  These are followed by the Literature books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. It concludes with the books of the prophets.  The New Testament is also split up into four sections: the gospels, Acts (history of the church), the Epistles and the book of Revelation (a book of prophecy, for some).  When I first thought about Ezekiel’s four faces, I thought about the four section of the Old Testament and the four sections of the New Testament.  Perhaps there is an alignment. 

I also began to wonder why God gave us these four sections in each testament.  Perhaps it was because certain sections would appeal to certain types of people.  Perhaps there were four different personalities and so, four different types of books.  When you look at the personalities, you can sort of guess at what books would appeal to what types of people:

Law, Gospels – Stabilizers

History, Acts – Analysts

Literature, Epistles – Persuaders

Prophets, Revelation – Controllers

You can think too much about these kinds of things, but it is interesting to note there are certain aspects of the four faces that may align with the sections of the Bible and personality types.  For example, the face of the man could represent intellectual thinkers like the analysts.  The face of the lion could represent the controlling personality.  The face of the ox could be the persuasive types and the eagle, who must find balance in flight could be the stabilizer. 

I like the fact all four creatures had all four faces.  It reminds me we are called to put our best face forward for any given situation.  We have the resources to be what we need to be when called to our best, however, we typically get accustomed to looking at the world in one way and therefore favor our view.  This drives our personality.

Affnity 3: The Greatest Commandment

We have ten finger, ten toes and The Ten Commandments:

1. One God
2. No Idolatry
3. Keep His Name Holy
4. Remember the Sabbath Day
5. Honor Father and Mother
6. Don’t Kill
7. Don’t Commit Adultery
8. Don’t Steel
9. Don’t Lie
10. Don’t Covet

When challenged by the Pharisees to name the greatest commandment, “Jesus said unto [the Pharisee], Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” (Matthew 22:37-40). When asked, God boiled it all down to Love. We are to love God and others as much as we love ourselves.

First John gives us another picture of the struggle our souls face against sin, also tying it to love, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever,” (I John 2:15-17). John says, ‘all that is in the World,’ are three temptations: Lust, Greed and Pride.

How could there be only three temptations in this world? In the passage where Jesus is tempted, have you ever noticed he was only tempted three times? God in the flesh tempted by the Devil himself. I’d expect His temptation to be the hardest ones a man could face. For the longest time, however, I didn’t understand them. They seemed anti-climactic. First of all – only three temptations? And, to be honest, at first blush, they don’t look too exciting. Only in the context of First John do they start to make sense.

The Devil tempts Christ in three ways. Saint John tells us why, “All that is in the world.” Jesus faces lust, greed and pride in a way only the Creator of Heaven and Earth could. “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread,” (Matthew 4:3). This is tempting the Lord to feed his appetite. Let’s call that one lust. In Jesus’ second temptation . . . “ . . . the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone,” (Matthew 4:5-6). Here the Lord is asked to prove who he is. This is clearly a temptation of pride. Lastly, “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” (Matthew 4:8-9). Here the Lord is tempted to accomplish the Father’s will sooner than ordained, an action of greed. Just as St John tells us, there is nothing more in the world but these three.

When you look at the World the way First John describes it, “all that is in the World,” boils down to three things: Lust, Greed and Pride. Why is that?

Could it be because we were created in the image of God to be a Body, Soul and Spirit. Lust therefore is a function (or de-function) of our Body, Greed a de-function of our Soul and Pride is a de-function of our Spirit. Lust is the satisfaction of bodily wants beyond what God has designed or outside of His perfect timing. Greed is the unbridling of our desires to fulfill every whim of our souls. Pride works on the spirit of man, causing us to exalt ourselves above one another and put ourselves even in front of God himself. 

Let’s take a look at the Ten Commandments again. The first one could be an overarching commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” (Exodus 20:3). The other nine then become groups of three, three to address lust, three for greed and three for pride.

No wonder Jesus tells us the first and greatest commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” We are to so align the affections of our heart, soul and mind (Spirit, Soul and Body) that we no longer chose to sin. When we love God with our bodies, we will not yield to lust. When we put God as our chief of goals, we won’t be greedy. And when we love Him above all else we will not be prideful. One commandment portrays all ten.  By keeping our Spirit, Soul and Body in Love with God and His ways, we’ll be keeping all the law and the prophets.

 

Affinity 2: The Soul: Our Mind, Will and Emotions

I Thessalonians 5:23 describes the man as three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Matthew 12:30 and Mark 10:27 reference Deuteronomy 6:5, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Equating heart to spirit and might to our bodies, we have a three-part person: spirit, soul and body as verified by the Old Testament Law, the New Testament Gospel Accounts and Paul’s Epistles.

Spirit, soul and body. Man is reflective of the Holy Trinity: Holy Spirit, Father, and Son. Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Surely we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

As it would seem, our physical bodies house our souls. But where do our spirits reside? Do our souls hold our spirit like a flame? Or, maybe our spirit sits over us like the cloud resting on the tabernacle in the wilderness.

The soul seems easier to identify. Science separates the brain into three parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brain stem. The cerebrum fills up most of your skull and does all of your remembering, problem solving, thinking, and feeling. It is the largest part and is divided into three parts, two halves on top with a separate section on the bottom for the thalamus and hypothalamus. Roughly speaking the cerebrum has a section for analytic reasoning – your left brain, a section for creativity – your right brain, and section for your emotions – the thalamus and hypothalamus. I’ll call these three portions our mind, will and emotions. This gives our soul three parts, just like our being’s spirit, soul and body.

A Blog is a Fearful Thing . . .

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. So a word un-fitly spoken? Hence the title. Words, after they have been spoken, take on a life of their own. Ask a politician.

Nevertheless, like Jeremiah, we have an obligation. The Spirit of God in his bones burned as a fire, impossible to contain. Paul said, ‘Woe unto me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ The image of the Dead Sea comes to mind. Taking in all the minerals of the Jordan River and letting none of it return to water the fields around it, a simmering pool of deadly chemicals, stray fish wandering into it become pickled and float to the shore – a vivid picture of the soul who accepts God’s blessings without returning them to those around them.

Lord, help your Church open its mouth and declare you. If Christ be lifted up, the world will be drawn to Him. Let us lift him up.

Still, we should not all seek to be teachers, knowing we incur a greater condemnation (James 3:1). Look for the cause as David did (I Sam 17:29). When the enemies of the Lord stand in our gates, casting forth the challenges to what we believe, do not hide in the shadows or shrink from the battle – come what may. The Lord has given them into our hands. The battle is the Lord’s, and though it be our victory or theirs in the eyes of the World, duty is ours – results are God’s. God’s road leads to a cross.

Thank you to those who have read my past entries and will read my future ones. Please feel free to contribute. I’d like this to be more of a dialogue than a pulpit. Send me topics.

 

v/r,
George