God Speaks: Are You Listening?

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets... Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages. (Psalm 50:1-3)

The author of Psalm 50 was very emphatic about who he was writing about at the beginning of this Psalm, using three different terms for God, the Creator of heaven and earth. In a culture filled with idolatrous worship of other things and other “gods”, the author didn’t want to leave any doubt about who he was writing about. Psalm 50 is a clear reminder of who God is, his place in the universe, and what he expects of his people. It offers valuable lessons for us also here in the 21^st century.

First, Psalm 50 establishes the fact that God is both the owner and the ruler of the physical universe – both heaven and earth. And as the ruler, he has something to say to the inhabitants. God is not a silent ruler. He speaks. It is within our best interest to listen to what he has to say.

The main point Psalm 50 is trying to communicate is that God is not concerned about religion – a system of activities or rules that people use to try and please God or earn his favor. No, God is not concerned with religious activity. He wants a relationship with us. That is the heart of what he is trying to communicate to his people in Psalm 50.

The religious system in place during the day this Psalm was written was a Jewish system of sacrifices that were started during the days of Moses. It was never intended to be a religious system where the people would earn God’s favor by performing these sacrificial duties prescribed by the law. It was intended to be a reminder to the people of how dependent they were on God, both for their spiritual needs as well as their physical needs. The purpose was to draw their hearts and minds back to God, and to rely on him alone for all of their needs. That kind of worship, where one totally depends on God alone for all their needs by walking in faith, is what was supposed to separate the Jewish people from all other nations and religions.

So God reminds them in this Psalm that they have lost their focus, and that they have replaced their dependency on him with religious activities:

I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? (Psalm 50:8-13)

Notice that he states that he is not rebuking them for the sacrifices. The acts of sacrificing themselves were not wrong, they were written in the law that he had given to them after all. It was their perspective on the meaning of those sacrifices that bothered God. He is basically saying “how foolish of you to think that I need these sacrifices for some reason. I already own the universe, including all your livestock and all the wild animals that are not domesticated. I know every single one of them. So what makes you think I need these things? You have lost your focus on the purpose of these sacrifices.”

Fortunately, God does not simply stop there with pointing out their faults. His criticism is a “constructive criticism” designed to get them to change their behavior for their own benefit. He goes on to state what he really desires from his people:

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me. (Psalm 50:14-15)

God knows that we can do nothing apart from him. The very air that we breathe every second of our existence is dependent upon him. He desires a relationship, not religion. He wants us to come to him for everything, both in good times and in difficult times. When we enjoy any good thing in life, he wants us to thank him. That’s a sacrifice, because it takes a sacrifice on our part to set aside time to focus our thoughts and mind on God and thank him for his blessings in our life. When things are not going well in our lives, he wants us to turn to him for help, because he is the best person in the universe, being its creator and ruler, to supply what is lacking in our lives.

Things have not changed much today. The principles all remain exactly the same. Most of us have religious or what we consider “spiritual” activities that we do, and it is easy to think and engage in these activities thinking that we are pleasing God somehow. But God is not pleased with our religious activities. He wants a relationship with us. He speaks to us all the time, and perhaps he is speaking to you right now through this message you are reading. Will you make a sacrifice of thanks to him today, and take time to listen to him? He knows what your needs are, and he has the solution.

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. (James 5:13)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11)

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:15-17)

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How to be Restored from Sickness

The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness. (Psalms 41:3)

The way sickness was viewed in Biblical Old Testament times and the way sickness is viewed today in the 21^st century is almost in completely opposite terms. In Old Testament times, sickness was primarily viewed as a judgment from God for sins. This view primarily stemmed from Israel’s experience in the Exodus from Egypt, when God inflicted plagues on the Egyptians.

He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you." (Exodus 15:26)

In our modern day post-Darwin era, sickness is almost always viewed as strictly a result of natural causes, with no thought given to spiritual issues such as sin. Medicines and other cures are seen as the remedy for all sicknesses. If a cure does not exist in medicine, it is believed that one will be discovered in the future through scientific research.

Both of these views are extreme and imbalanced. The Book of Job in the Old Testament, the record of a righteous man and his sufferings and sickness, completely contradicted the belief that righteous people never suffer, and that all suffering is a result of some sin in our life. Here is what was written about Job:

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. (Job 1:1)

But as the story unfolds, Job loses everything and suffers terrible sickness as part of God’s plan for his life. His “counselors” came to try and convince him he was suffering because of some sin in his life. But God himself had declared Job “blameless.”

Jesus also contradicted the belief that all sickness was a result of personal sin:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:1-3)

The naturalistic view today that all sickness is a result of natural causes that man can control and cure through medicines is certainly not supported by real science. There is no medicine or natural cure that works 100% of the time, and properly prescribed medicines today kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, and are the third leading cause of death in the US. Our current day medical system, which historically has only been around for a relatively short time, began post Darwin and ushered in an era of great hope and expectations with the belief of being able to cure all the world’s diseases through medical technology. Many are now seeing the limitations and problems inherit in the medical system and its underlying philosophy and approach towards disease, and many are now beginning to lose faith in the medical system which is dominated by politically and economically powerful forces that dominate western culture.

David’s words in Psalm 41 give us great wisdom regarding how we can be restored from sickness:

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness. I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." My enemies say of me in malice, "When will he die and his name perish?" Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad. All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying, "A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies." Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 41:1-13)

As I have noted in other articles about the life of David, sometimes he suffered sickness because of personal sin in his life, and at other times he suffered because of persecution – the sins of others. But his approach to being restored from sickness is very consistent throughout his writings. Notice the principles he teaches in this Psalm:

1. He looks to the Lord in his helpless condition.

2. He trusts in the Lord for his healing.

3. He confesses his sins.

4. He depends on the Lord’s mercy for healing – he does not see healing as something he deserves or he can purchase from disease specialists.

5. He is honest before the Lord, and before others.

David saw healing as an act of mercy from God. Being sick puts us in a helpless situation, where we recognize our dependency on God. David was honest about his own weakness and sins, and he depended upon God’s mercy for healing. “Mercy” means receiving something you do not deserve as an act of benevolence. You can’t purchase mercy – it’s free and it is totally dependent on the benevolence of the one offering it.

Contrast this with the way most people view being restored from sickness today. We are not honest about our sinfulness and dependency on God. We believe that sickness can be remedied by counter-acting the illness through drugs, rather than dealing with the root problem of the sickness. We don’t believe we need God – we believe that science and medicines have the answers to our problems via man’s knowledge, and we put our faith in medical experts. Sadly, many people only turn to God after much suffering, and when they reach a point where they understand that man’s knowledge is insufficient, and that medical technology has its limits and faults. They spend great resources and sometimes even give away their entire wealth and family inheritance to the medical system in fighting the sickness, rather than being honest and acknowledging the source of the problem and asking God to act in mercy, trusting in him rather than man’s wisdom and technology. And while the medical technology does work sometimes, it only deals with the symptoms, and not the root cause of the problem. Hence, even in those situations where relief is accomplished, true restoration from sickness is not accomplished, since that depends on our relationship to our Creator.

The ultimate restoration from all sickness, of course, is in redemption from our sins through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As I have written in other articles, viewing sickness from strictly a physical perspective is historically a unique view on health, unique to our day and age post Darwin. Other cultures throughout history have always viewed the process of healing as part of the spiritual realm as well, and healing was always accomplished through appeasing those in the spirit world (usually through offering some sort of sacrifice at an altar), in addition to any physical remedies that might exist. This is viewed as “primitive” today, but it would seem that “primitive” man may have been more intelligent than modern man in some ways, because they understood that true health could not be accomplished strictly through physical remedies. The spiritual restoration from sickness has existed for a couple of thousand years, however, and is solidly based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and restoring man to a proper relationship with his Creator by dealing once and for all with the spiritual and physical consequences of man’s sins.

How do you approach healing and restoration from sickness today? Do you only seek physical remedies while never giving thought to the spiritual causes of sickness? If so, you can find greater success by following the five principles listed above that David followed to be restored from sickness, and acknowledge that healing has a spiritual aspect also. Being honest before God about our spiritual condition and looking to him for healing can result in our own spirit being completely renewed through the rebirth process.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:8-9)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. (1Pe 1:18-25)

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Dealing with Unhealthy Anger

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed.... (Psalm 37:7-9)

Psalm 37 was apparently written by an older and wiser King David (I was young and now I am old… v.25.) If you know anything about the life of David as recorded in the Bible, you will know that David suffered through many trials and persecutions throughout his life. Many people hated him and tried to kill him throughout his lifetime, including government officials, “friends”, and even his own son. Psalm 37 deals with the heart of the issue of injustice in the world, and the anger it can produce in our life. He writes:

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. (Psalm 37:1-15)

Dealing with the injustices that we see in the world and in our own personal lives begins with a faith in God, believing that he created everything and has absolute control over his creation, including the affairs of man. “Evil men,” as David calls them, those who do not believe in or serve God, have no future either in this life, or in the life to come in eternity. God has a master plan. He has the last say. A long-term view of life sees that God and righteousness always win. So when we see injustice and things in life that are just “not fair,” we need to first understand that God sees it also, and he has a plan to make all things right, to bring everyone into an account for their actions someday. Having this understanding, our proper response is to wait for God to take action, and follow his leading in our life to accomplish his purpose in us, the purpose for which he created us. Anger is not a proper reaction, because it pre-supposes that God either does not exist, or that he exists and just doesn’t care; that he has no plan to take care of things and bring about justice. According to David, this incorrect view of God leads to anger and negative results in our life.

Look at the benefits, however, of trusting in God in these situations:

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. (Psalm 37:3-6)

What a wonderful promise he makes to us if we trust in him! With such a wonderful promise from someone who never lies and never goes back on his word, why would we ever have any reason to be angry at the difficulties life puts in our path? We know what the future holds, and we know that there is an all-powerful God who will make all things right.

Are you caught in a circle of anger and frustration over the “unfair” circumstances of your life, and your powerlessness to be able to do anything about it? If so, then be assured that you are right where God wants you to be, in a position to come to him in faith and helplessness and to “wait patiently for him.” Replace your frustration and anger by “delighting yourself in the Lord,” and you will soon experience the joy and peace that comes from trusting in God. If you are delighting yourself in the Lord, you will then find out that the things you desire in life are the things God wants you to have, and that he delights in giving them to you! All the reasons to be angry will then just fade away…

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed. (Psalm 37:23-26)

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