Psalm 111 Today

He has shown His power, no matter what we do. With or without us, God will accomplish His divine plan.

In the aftermath of what could be called a senseless killing, I find myself reflecting on my once urgent question, why, God? Over the "Thanksgiving" weekend a woman and her two young children (5 and 11) were driving along when suddenly t-boned by a drunk driver. The mother was killed, the 11-year old remains in critical condition, the 5-year old was released from the hospital. The first person on the scene, a wrecker driver, was the husband and father.

Father, Almighty, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer: Why?

My heart aches for the dad, the children, the other two family members who were also in the car, and all other family members and friends. And for the drunk driver, whose decisions and actions have affected many lives.

I pray the dad will receive holy comfort, mercy and grace through family, friends, and strangers. I pray the other driver will receive forgiveness; Jesus Christ.

And the question is asked: If God is a merciful, loving God, why?
And His answer remains: I AM with you.

Oversimplified? No. Misunderstood? Yes, often. In fact, God does care very much about each one of us. So much so that He sent His Son to pay the price of our imperfection, of our wrong decisions, so that when we leave this earth we can enter into the Perfect Place, and be in the presence of the Perfect, the Creator Himself. Without His gracious gift of forgivenss, we would be unable, as less than perfect people, to be in a holy, perfect place because our very presence then would make it less than perfect. So our faults have to be wiped clean.

What's that got to do with the lingering why? God has not promised us an easy life on this earth. His promise is that if we accept His gift, we will have eternal life with Him. And He fulfills that promise daily; constantly. Its at the heart of the difference between outcome-based prayer, which begs to fulfill a self-absorbed, materialistic desire to manipulate God, and true prayer, as Jesus taught us, which connects us with God, fulfilling all that is Good, acknowledging His Holiness, and the Truth about His Will. True prayer asks not to manipulate God, but that He use our lives to glorify Him that His will is done here on earth, through us, as it is in Heaven.

At every moment we have decisions. Some, maybe all, have eternal effects.

What I find challenging to grasp is, if God knows the number of our days, and if God knows all, then He knows how old or how young we will be when we depart this life; He knows the loved ones who will be left behind to grieve, and the final blow which causes our breath to cease, our hearts to stop sending the messages to arms that used to hug, and lips that used to whisper, "I love you".

Our unknown time sometimes seems so random. Does God cause us this pain?

Our understanding is limited at this time - for now we see darkly, as through a glass, but there will be a day when we see clearly. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (New Living Translation) New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

After reading "90 Minutes in Heaven", Don Piper's personal account of the 90 minutes he was pronounced dead, crushed in his vehicle, what he remembers of that time and what he has experienced since, one thing strikes me as imperitive. Don said he was in a place of light and love and the music was beautiful beyond human explanation; all these people were singing praises to God and it didn't matter how they got there, it only mattered that they were there!

BINGO! It didn't matter. Yes, it matters to those of us left behind. It hurts deeply and it hurts for the rest of our lives - the time of our separation from our loved ones. But it doesn't matter to the ones who get to move to Heaven. Can we accept that we don't have the capacity to fully understand right now? Can we choose to trust His promise?

Whether or not God actually causes to happen the events which lead to our earthly death, is probably a moot point when we move to Heaven-either we'll understand or it won't matter. Whether or not God causes pain, now that's a different question. We hurt because we are separated from those we love, because we want to be with them, because we care. The pain we feel is a result of our inability to understand all that God knows. Perhaps if we could see the whole picture, we would have a different point of view. Perhaps we wouldn't even hurt. Perhaps we could easily see that pain of separation from our loved ones is not caused by God, but by our own lack of understanding.

What changes when: one day we have all these wonderful things in life and we praise God for being so Good and then the next day, when it is all taken away, and we are told we are supposed to praise Him anyway? Our circumstances.

God hasn't changed. We are changed by our experiences and circumstances. When we look at God through our circumstances, we don't have a clear view, and God seems to change. When we look at our circumstances through God, God doesn't change. That is why Christ could go through what he did, an innocent man, tortured and beaten and murdered, and kept his focus. He was looking at his Father and saw what lay ahead.

In Exodus 33 and 34 is a story about Moses where he's having a really bad day and still he asks God to see his Glory. God says okay, but here are the conditions... Moses followed through with the conditions set by God. But here we are, we say, I want to see your Glory God, but I want it to be under the following conditions! We, the created, are dictating the what, where and how to the Creator!

I, too, am one who wishes I could have things happen such that I would be content all the time. I would love to be with my family. But I pray until that time that God will use me for His glory, that I will be sensitive and responsive to His direction so that I can participate in His will, here on earth, as it is in Heaven.

Psalm 111 (NIV)

1 Praise the LORD.
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

2 Great are the works of the LORD;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.

3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.

8 They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.


*Thanks to Mike for contributing to this article