Strength

Psalms 63:1-6 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.


This was a song written by David about his strength. It was written in a time of waiting. David was anointed as king of Israel at a young age, but it wasn't until many years later that he actually became king.


Not only did David have the reality of waiting for a glorious promise to take shape in his life, shortly after he was anointed as king, he had to go into hiding in the wilderness. Jealousy and fear overtook the current king, Saul, and he pursued David with thousands of men, looking to kill him.


David had at least three chances we know of to take matters into his own hands and kill Saul, but he refused. David said that if God had anointed him to be king, God was perfectly capable of keeping that promise, and so David patiently petitioned God "early" and "late" as it says in Psalm 63. David KNEW God was his strength.


There is an amazing advantage to making God your strength: what God has built, God is responsible to defend. What man builds, man is responsible to defend! When I consider David's story, I see a pattern: David trusted God to not only make Him king, but He trusted God to keep Him as king. David was one of the most successful kings in history, but he trusted God to do all the hard work of keeping him in power. Even David's son, Solomon, learned this one from dad:


Psalms 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.


God's desire is that we make Him our strength. God made us to live in a relationship with him. He calls Himself a "Father" and a "Husband." Both of these roles were invented by God. A Father nurtures His children into a fullness of life that agrees with his good vision of their future. A husband joins himself legally to his wife and shares all his wealth and status with her, also nurturing her and providing a safe space to build a life with her.


It is no wonder these two roles, father and husband, are most under attack...most devalued...in our culture. Satan wants to rob us and our children of an understanding of this true nature of how good God is and how committed He is to partnering with us in love to do something amazing on the earth with Him.


This is what Revelation is all about to Jesus...preparing the earth to bring us, His Bride, into full partnership with Him to do what God called "very good" from the get-go:


Genesis 1:26-31 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.


This is what we were made for: doing something amazing with the resources of the earth and developing it in partnership with God forever. What has taken place in man's sinful and fallen state: technological advance, high rises, travel, exploration, discovery of all God made, fascinating wonder in the creative genius of our Father ...this was all supposed to happen, but in a much more full way...a less broken way. God will get what He desires...very good has not changed in His mind. Heaven will not be boring. Everything we have ever needed is locked up in this ball of water, earth, and life, and we will spend eternity un-locking it with the one who made it!


BUT, in the meantime, we need to contend, like David, for God to build the reality of the promise. We need to agree with David that God is our strength. David figured this out early in life and got a very unique designation in world history:


Acts 13:22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’


The man after God's own heart had one overriding desire, learned from that time waiting in the wilderness:


Psalms 27:4 One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple.


When David said these words, there was only ONE temple, and it WAS NOT on earth!! There had never been a temple! When David prayed this prayer, He got an answer on how to spend time at God's REAL TEMPLE: night and day worship. God gave David the heavenly plans to go from "early" and "late" seeking of God to 24/7 worship, called eventually "the Tabernacle of David." David obeyed God and ended up with not only day and night worship, but an earthly temple to do it in...one that represented agreement on earth with the reality that has always taken place in heaven: worship and revelation of God 24/7/52!! When earth agrees with heaven, glory IS released. So much glory and renewal ( a returning, step by step, to what God always desired) was released in Israel by the time David's son, Solomon, built the temple that it says silver and gold was as plentiful as stones!!


II Chronicles 1:15 Also the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.


God is the strength of mankind. When we agree with that reality in our choices...choosing to put our strength on Him with our time, money, and talent...investing ourselves in seeking Him, we will see amazing things happen in our lives, our family, and our cities.


Right now, there is a move towards building a House of Night and Day Worship and Prayer in Kalamazoo to benefit all of SW Michigan. Right now, people are volunteering to pray for it to be established. About a dozen people have committed every week to take at least 1/2 hour to "make God our strength" (pray) to see this happen. If you would like to commit to praying for this, private message me, and I will tell you how to pick a time to commit to being involved in laying the foundation with prayer! God is going to raise up a new song in SW Michigan, and this place IS going to flourish in a time of intense pressure. Want to be a part of it?!

Psalms 27:1-6 The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord .