Jeremiah 23:21-25:38, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Psalms 84:1-12, Proverbs 25:15
Today is the 14th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s good to be here with you today as we continue our journey through the center…the center week of the month. I guess we’re pretty much…well…I guess like halfway through the day tomorrow we’ll be halfway through this month. So, we’re taking the journey and the journey is pulling us forward, and the next step forward in the Scriptures will take us back into the book of Jeremiah. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah 23 verse 21 through 25 verse 38 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, Psalm 84. That's…that’s one of my personal favorite verses in the Scripture just because of the passion just the description, the longing for the presence of the Lord, like the deep deepest reaching and longing. And, so, I’ve thought like, yeah, we can describe what’s written there as passion, we could describe it as desire. And it’s interesting, like passion and desire in our culture, they…I mean…usually that’s an erotic thing, right, something sexual or like an elite athlete, somebody like really going, passionately going after a goal or a deep unwavering desire, like this focus. And neither one of those things are bad. Like passion…having passion and desire in either of those ways in the right context, it’s totally appropriate. So, like we’ve probably pursued ambitions in our lives with desire, with passion. And many of us are aware of what passionate and intimacy is like, but do we ever think of passion and desire when think of our spiritual relationship and intimacy with God because…because that’s what’s being described in Psalm 84 today, right? “I long, I faint with longing enter the courts of the Lord with my whole being, body and soul. I will shout joyfully to the living God.” That’s passion, that’s desire. And obviously as a species, as humans, we have plenty of passions, but have you felt that kind of passionate and desire for God’s presence because we certainly give our desire, our passion to things and even to people who are withholding that from God, the one who most passionately loves us. And that's…it’s not like we’re withholding on purpose like we’re withholding ourselves from God on purpose to spite Him or something. We’re just usually not even paying attention. This isn’t even a category. We don’t even think of our spirituality in these terms. We think it’s something that stabilizes us and something that’s our ultimate destiny, but we don’t always think about how we real, how immediate, how pervasive the presence of God is if we’re just paying attention. And we’re not always paying attention to where our passions are leading us, but whatever passions we have those are first born out of…out of the seeds of desire. So…so the psalmist is basically saying that the presence of God even…even in the humblest position, like even with the lowliest status is still better than anything else and we would agree with that even if it’s just like in theory. So, how do we actually find this place that the psalmist is describing, this place where our passions and our desire is fully given over to God. Well the Psalm answers that question. Like the Psalm unpacks itself. “Worship”, and…ahhh…that…we start down that path and we’re starting down a path that it is seriously full of baggage. Like, worship is a word that means a lot of things to a lot of people. Like, I wish we had this nonreligious sort of word that didn’t have the baggage but…but worship is anything that we’re willing to give ourselves to and extend our heart toward, to offer ourselves and not withhold in hopes of receiving life in return. So, the psalmist had been in God’s presence had tasted this union with God and the way that he achieved this place, this awareness was through worship. So, worship isn’t just something that happens at church, like it’s not the songs that we sing or the clapping of the jumping up and down or, you know for that matter, the somber, contemplative silence. And worship isn’t just like, you know, something like a magic tonic we have in a bottle for depression or for grief. It is where we focus our passionate desire in hopes of finding life. It’s where we extend ourselves passionately, which means that anything that releases our heart in that way can be worship, which means that life can be worship. So let’s go into our day-to-day, no matter what’s going on, no matter whether we’re in the depths or we’re in the heights or we’re somewhere in between, which is where most of us always live. Let’s think about what we’re doing today and consider whether or not it can be an act of worship. Can we be aware of God’s presence in and among us and in what we do and say and think today because being intentional about this, becoming aware that God is always with us is what we’re actually looking forward, we’re just usually not paying attention. And that lets our desires and our passions be led toward distractions where we are offering ourselves in worship to something that isn’t even alive. So, when I was growing up there was a hymn that was often sung and I can’t remember all the words but it was like, “turn your eyes upon Jesus”, right, and one of the phrases was, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about passionate desire for the presence of God.
Prayer:
Father, it is You we seek in all things. We can’t confess that we are consciously seeking You in all things all of the time, but this is ultimately what we are after, to be united with You. You are God, You are the creator of all, and You have loved us by simply being unwilling to abandon us. And we haven’t really loved You the same way. We’ve abandoned You plenty of times, but we see in the Psalms today, a posture of heart that is describing what we long for. And, so, Holy Spirit help us to become more aware of Your presence. Help us to not withhold ourselves from You by just trying to perform the day in our own strength. Help us to collaborate with You in revealing Your kingdom today we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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