January 22, 2022 -- Psalm 18:25-28 -- What is God like?

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
Psalm 18:25-28 ESV

What is God like? It is interesting how different people perceive different facets of God’s glory and goodness. A merciful man will know God has the Merciful, full of kind compassion. Someone who was purified, aware of her great sinfulness and how she has now been made clean by the Spirit’s application of the accomplished work of Christ, will know God the Father as Pure.

When you share what God, the Multi-Faceted, Excellent in all His Attributes, is like—you will find a non-believer will utterly disagree with you. A crooked, or sinful person, will find the way of the LORD torturous. A non-Christian will find the way of the LORD is filled with too many rules, He asks too much, He is too incomprehensible. Why is that?

Look at verse 28. Picture a lamp as human understanding. In the time that this was written a lamp would be a candle consisting of wick and oil. Without a flame it can do nothing. Now, look carefully and see who illuminates human understanding. It is the LORD, the God Who stoops to human weakness. Without the Spirit’s work of lighting human understanding (in modern terms, without the electricity of the Spirit, without being plugged into Him) there can be no light, no understanding.

Who receive such a light of understanding? Those who are humble. Being brought to a place of humility can be a painful process. Pride is hard as iron and bricks in the human heart. Often it will take a loss, or a painful experience for pride to be broken and a heart to be humbled enough to receive the lightning of the Spirit. This is why children are often open to the glory and the beauty, the kindness and the love of the Savior--many children are humble, already aware of their dependency on parents and teachers and mentors and siblings. Such humble dependency helps them to understand God Who approaches as the Father Who helps the needy.

When you speak with a non-believer, be prepared for their mocking, their scoffing and their disbelief, but do not give up. Your words are used by the Spirit to send off sparks of light and the Spirit may choose to work on the kindling and paper theories of their lives, burning them up with a holy passion that will illuminate Jesus Christ. Remember your own heart, it's haughtiness and deep darkness, before Jesus blessed you with light and understanding, and then praise the Living God for giving you such joy in knowing Him.

With the Psalmist we shout and bless You~

I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

For who is God, but the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless. Psalm 18:1-3;31-32)

God, our Rock and Stronghold, from this place of blessedness and with the light of understanding You have given us, empower us to be bold and faithful witnesses so that the people around us whom You have put into our lives will regularly and persistently hear the Good News of Your great love. Amen.

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