Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.13 – April 1999

 

Nearer to God

 

Lord's Supper Preparatory Sermon, by Rev S. Bajema on Psalm 73:28

Scripture Reading: Psalm 73

Suggested Hymns: BoW 73A:1,5; 27:1,3; 473; 372; 241

 

Dearly loved people of the Lord.

For each believer there comes a time of profession.  For each believer there will come many times of profession.  For each believer there comes the profession we express with meeting together in public worship, and when we have Holy Communion.

The Form we use says that we renew our promise to live a godly life.  You see, we can easily forget that the Lord's Supper is a profession; a statement; a declaration of who Jesus Christ is to us.

The original Hebrew begins this verse with the first person pronoun...  "I".  Having expressed his deep sense of frustration at those inequalities in the world, having railed against the injustice which so much surround us, the psalmist brings it all home...  “".  And it's a use of "I" which makes this the thing in his life.  He says he loves God.

Now, this is not your love for your country; this is not your love for beauty and grandeur of nature; this is not the love for the creations of art, or the sense of compassion that makes you love those who suffer; it's not the love of what is noble, true and of good report, because really everyone would say they love these things.  And almost everyone would also say that they have a love for 'God', because whoever God is, they like to think of the good coming from Him, and how good He Himself is.

The Psalmist speaks from his heart – a saved soul.  With the same spirit as Joshua when he out of faith declared, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD", so Asaph expresses God Himself in him!  This is not something 'out there', these words are not from one who's described in verse 27 as being “far from” God, for the LORD is here – the God becomes a Shepherd who leads us, a Father who spiritually gave us birth, a Covenant-God with whom we're in league, a Friend who offers us His friendship, a LORD in whose service we stand, the God of our confidence, the One who is not just 'God' but my God.

These titles for the LORD are how Abraham Kuyper described the relationship we have with the Lord in faith.  In fact, so vital did he consider these words of our text, “...to be near God...", that he wrote 118 meditations developing this heart of faith.

Congregation... BEING NEAR GOD IS BELIEVING IN GOD!

David expresses this joy with saying in Psalm 65:4, "Blessed is the man you choose and bring near to live in your courts." And in Psalm 84:10, the Sons of Korah sing, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Then, after Christ, Hebrews 18:22 pictures it further, “Let's draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

BEING NEAR TO GOD IS BELIEVING IN GOD.

But, as Hebrews shows, our text also means that BEING NEAR GOD IS BLESSING FROM GOD.  Of course this had been a bugbear for the psalmist, as he explained earlier in the psalm.  He was very frustrated and almost distracted altogether by the apparent wealth and health of the wicked.  It seemed so good being so bad!  Instead of being drawn into closer communion with the Lord, he allowed the world to draw him away.  So far had he gone that he got to the position which many believers find themselves in, which was that terribly despairing wondering about where God was.  I mean, He didn't seem to be doing any good.

But isn't this like the expression goes, “If God seems to be far away, guess who moved?"  And we had moved then – hadn’t we?  We ourselves had walked right into trouble.  We allowed the tempting thought to become the sinful word or action.

We come back to the beginning of Psalm 73, “Surely God is good...  to those who are pure in heart.  But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.  For l envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (vs.1-3)  Guess who had moved?

And when you're not near someone, you're actually quite far from them!  James in his letter says in chapter 4:8, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubled-minded."  There's always this aspect to faith as well.

How close are you, then, to the Lord?  Will this coming week be a time of looking forward to the communion we celebrate with Him?  It's not always that way, is it?  Perhaps I could venture to say that for many of us it sometimes barely registers in our minds.  That's not good.

Then we could so quickly become swallowed up by the trap of the verses 21 and 22, “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you."  And you are 'you-know-who'!

But, then, the Lord's Supper is also here to remind us too.  “Do this", said Jesus, “in remembrance of me."  It is good to be near God.  As Martyn Lloyd-Jones comments, “If we but realised the true character of God there would be nothing we should desire in this world than to be in the presence of God."  We desire to be in the presence of people we like and love.  We like to be introduced to, and to be in the presence of, people that are considered great in various ways and for various reasons.  Who of our boys and girls wouldn't love to meet their sports hero or famous star?

“And yet", continues Lloyd-Jones, "how loath we are to spend our time in the presence of God.  How quick we are to think of God as the mere distributor of blessings, and yet how slow we are to realise the glory of being in His presence."  God, the Sovereign LORD!  That's what Asaph calls him.  He emphasises the sovereignty of God, the unutterable greatness of the majesty of God.  The LORD God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and of the earth, the self-existent God, the Eternal God, the Absolute, the Everlasting God – He’s the One to whom we can draw near.

Won't you do that this week?  Because you can, you know.  Put it all in the right perspective and what do you get?  BEING NEAR TO GOD IS BLESSING FROM GOD.  Not because becoming a Christian brings blessing; but since we are Christians we will receive blessings.

We remember that, too.  Asaph certainly did.  That's why he wants to stay there, near God.  The only peace of mind is being with the Prince of Peace.  The only salvation is meeting with the Saviour.  Anyone who has tasted this isn't ever satisfied by any other meal, much as he may try.  Dear believer – it’s His food and drink which is before you next Sunday.

So, congregation, if I could sum up what we heard so far about the first sentence in verse 28, I think I would use the word 'conviction'.  Conviction itself means 'a settled belief'.  But it also means an awakened consciousness of sin.  Really, it means a re-awakening of faith, if not perhaps an awakening of faith for the first time!  I hope that considering what being near to God meant, convicted you, too.

Now, following that "language of assertion", to use the words of F. Delitzsch for this conviction, we move on in verse 28 to the language of "address".  For, notice how the focus changes, and where that focus changes, too.  It's almost as if the psalmist is speaking to someone else – and he is!

Because verse 28 began with him reflecting internally.  Now, in this second sentence, he speaks out, looking up to the LORD Himself.  While at one point in the psalm, the time reflected in verse 15, when the best thing he could do was keep his thoughts to himself, because of how far away from the LORD he was, now his lips are open.

Can you see, he has made the Sovereign LORD his refuge?

In other versions this phrase is translated, "I have put my trust in the LORD God."  But the thing is that he speaks now from the place of ultimate security – he’s home, so to speak.

To have a home is something very precious.  I mean, you can live in a house, you can live with people whom you eat with and share things with; yet those things don't make it a home.  There's something else – an indefinable quality, true, but once you have experienced it, nothing else will do.  For in a home there is love.  And if there is one thing that Christians today can do, which would really witness to the Lord in this world, it is to show that they live in homes.  So many out there don't!

And what homes we have among us here, are because of the home Asaph talks about here – that refuge or trust in our Lord, the God of the Covenant, the One whom we are with by faith in Jesus Christ.

The psalms constantly emphasise this loving protection – that security – in the Lord.  Psalm 14:6 says, “You evil doers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge."  And Psalm 71:7 puts it this way, “I have become like a portent" – which is an omen or significant sign – “I have become like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.”

We also find this theme in the book of Proverbs: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." (18:18)  We are out there, in the world.  And the enemy attacks us; we're scared; we run into the strong tower – that ancient place of protection.  And we're safe; that enemy can't get us there, he can't get in.

This is what the apostle John wrote in his first letter, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one...", and “...the evil one cannot touch us”.  (1John 5:19,18).  It's the very point the apostle Paul wrote in that most comforting eighth chapter of Romans, “For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any other powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our LORD." (vss.38-39) Safe in the everlasting arms of Jesus!  Even if all hell should be let loose, it can't touch you.  With Psalm 91 we can sing, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom i trust." (vss.1-2)

Congregation, if the word conviction summed up the first phrase of verse 28, then the word consolation surely sums up this second.  No wonder that the Psalmist says in his very next breath, “I will tell of your deeds."

Again it connects with such a strong theme in the psalms and elsewhere.  You feel the relief of Psalm 118:17, "I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done."  And what a story he'll tell!  For the word for "deeds" here means all the manifestations and achievements of God's righteous, gracious and wise government.  This is what David meant in Psalm 48, “Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.  The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were i to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." (vs.5)

Congregation, we move from consolation to confession!  We've come to the stage of personally telling God's Story is where we all should be.  It inevitably flows out of being safe in God's presence, since that great and marvellous sense of security leads us to praise God and to honour and glorify Him before others.

When the Israel of the Old Testament lived with her Lord, this is what she was in the world.  Indeed, that's what the Lord wanted her to be.  The prophet Isaiah's prophecy is full of the light that Israel was meant to be, and how that light would one day be!

And, notice, when Israel in her history did turn to her Lord, they remember and recall the great salvation events of God in the past.  Such a time as the Exodus became the strongest motivation for praise and thanksgiving.  Every Passover it would remind them again, and renew them again.  In each family the children, too, were expected to ask so that they would hear the story as well.

You know, we are pointed in this service to an even greater saving work of the Saving God.  That's why a believer being near God and a church faithfully following her Lord will keep telling the old, old story over and over again, no matter how dull or predictable or rigid it may seem to others.

John Cooper notes that Psalm 73 provides no philosophical or theological "explanation" of why sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper.  In the face of the “problem”, it simply offers a solution: God is with His people and such fellowship is more than enough compensation.  With the solution provided, who but a stuffy professor cares any longer about the problem?

Congregation, we don't preach problems, we have met the Answer!

Charles Spurgeon hits precisely this same note, "He who's ready to believe the goodness of God will always see fresh goodness to believe.  He who's willing to deciare the works of God will never be silent for lack of wonders to deciare."

The Psalmist ends here where the Westminster Shorter Catechism begins.  For that Confession's first Answer states, “Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever".

Asaph is going to keep near to God so that he can glorify Him as well as enjoy Him.  He is the LORD God Almighty, and the tragedy of man and the tragedy of the world and the tragedy of history, is that they don't know it.

But I do.  And I'm going to tell them, too!  The whole of my life is going to be to the glory of God; and I can't glorify God unless I'm near to Him and experiencing Him.

I hope and pray that this will be what you have here next Sunday.  Like Asaph in verse 17, it was when you entered into worship that it all came together again.  It's a worship you can have personally every day; whether in your own prayer, Scripture reading, meditation and family time.

Dear friend, you can only talk knowingly about Jesus if He is your Friend personally.  Don't let it be a second-hand story.  Be the writer of your own book.  After all, you know the Divine Author who put you in His Book of Life.

Amen.