Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (11)

 

Continuing to consider our Father's pruning: 

 

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:12 – 14).

 

Keeping in mind the questions asked in our previous reflection, how do we arrive at verses 12 – 14? Where does the journey begin in Psalm 19?

 

In verses 1 – 6 we see God speaking to us through His Creation, then in verses 7 – 11 we see Him speaking to us through His written and inspired Word, the Scriptures. Yahweh reveals Himself through both the Scriptures and through Creation – He gives us two books in which He unveils Himself. We see Him and hear Him and touch Him, and are touched by Him, in both; we hear God in both. Both are sacramental – that is, God communicates His grace to us, imparts grace to us, through both Creation and His Word.

 

Let’s be clear about this, for the person who knows Jesus Christ, Creation is about so much more than evidence about God – after all, we are speaking of God’s Creation – so ought we not to expect to see and hear our dear Father, to touch Him, as we live in and among His Creation? We can sense the numinous in Creation just as we can sense the numinous in Scripture – and in one sense the two are one, for they have one Author. Creation plays a significant role throughout Scripture, and the Psalms evoke Creation and extol the majesty of God in Creation, and see His glory in the heavens and earth, on page after page.

 

Unless we ignore the inspired text, to read the Psalms is to contemplate Creation. Consider, if the Scriptures are sacramental, if we receive the Divine Nature as we participate in the Living Word (2 Pt. 1:4), then since Creation is woven into the Bible (as we see in Psalm 19), then the Bible teaches us to also enjoy koinonia with God in His Creation.

 

Can we see what a disservice we do to Creation and its Creator when we only use Creation as evidence for the Creator?

 

Let’s also acknowledge, while Creation can be misused and misunderstood by both exploitation and by deification, that so can the Bible. Just because people misuse the Bible – either by making it dead letter or by deconstructing it, or even by functionally worshipping it, does not mean that we do not rightly enter into God’s Word and desire it to enter into us. Why should we reject our glorious inheritance in Creation because others seek to misuse it in any number of ways?

 

Creation speaks to us of the transcendent, and sacramentally draws us into communion with the Trinity.

 

“…because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them, for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19 – 20, NASB).

 

Creation speaks to our souls, our inner persons, we see this in the words, “is evident within them.” Our innate sense of God speaks to His Creation, and His Creation speaks to our innate sense of God – they correspond to each other. Our downward spiral begins when we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18).

 

But once again, let’s be clear that we are speaking of much more than Creation as some form of evidence of God, for Paul writes that God’s “invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen” through Creation.

 

If this is true, and if we have a high view of Scripture it must be true, then this demonstrates how far professing Christians have fallen, how far the professing church has fallen, in its understanding of Creation – for when is the last time you heard a message or read a book which teaches about God’s attributes and His Divine Nature as revealed in and through Creation? Such people and books exist, but they are rare.

 

Let’s now consider a transcendent and mystical passage in Romans 8 concerning Creation:

 

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” (Romans 8:19 – 22).

 

Creation is longing and waiting eagerly for us to be revealed in Christ Jesus (see also Colossians 3:4), for with our revealing will be Creation’s deliverance from slavery to glorious liberty. Creation is suffering birth pains. It seems to me that Creation has more awareness of our destiny in Jesus Christ than we do; Creation is looking forward to the Eschaton while we still contemplate our religious navels. Creation would like us to move on with the business of sonship, living as the sons and daughters of the Living God, and cease from our preoccupation with our sovereign selves.

 

I hope you will agree with me that what we see concerning Creation in Romans chapters one and two is a bit more than Creation as mere evidence of a Creator.

 

How does Creation lead us to verses 12 – 14 in Psalm 19? What does this look like in your life?

 

I will give you two examples in mine, but I want to hasten to say that every morning the sacrament of Creation is renewed in my soul…every morning. Viewing Creation as the sun rises to the east of our home, as its rays hit the pond across from our house, as I see and hear the first birds of the day, and drink in the colors of the plants and trees outside our windows – my soul is refreshed. And there is always something new about first walking outside, whether it is on our rear deck, or going out our front door – there is something about moving from inside to outside, a renewal, a reconnection, a refreshing in the graciousness of our dear heavenly Father.

 

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Mt. 6:26).

 

Do we actually “look at the birds”? If not, why not? Doesn’t Jesus tell us to look at them? Do we refuse to do as Jesus says? Do we think the birds are beneath our attention? Do we think we can learn nothing about our Father from His Creation, specifically from His birds and His care for them?

 

More than once, I have been convicted by birds, convicted of my unbelief and also encouraged to trust the same God who cares for the birds. Many times I have been encouraged by songs of praise and joy from birds, by their call and response way of life. Birds have led me to Psalm 19:12 – 14 as my heart has been laid bare before our Father and Lord Jesus. Am I not called to offer the sacrifice of praise? (Heb. 13:15).

 

Let me tell you of how Creation has done what no preacher has done in my life, it has convicted me of sin so deep it cannot be described. My dog has partnered with the Word of God, penetrating my soul (Heb. 4:12 – 13), as no preacher has ever done. Let’s recall, that in Psalm 19 we see a partnership between Creation and the Word of God.

 

For I will tell you something, and if you have been blessed to have a dog, and I suppose a cat, you should know the truth of this – Creation is innocent and we are not. (Creation’s innocence makes cruelty to animals especially heinous and despicable.)

 

More than once, my dog Lily (and other dogs we’ve had) has looked at me in her innocence and my heart has been pierced with the illumination of my selfishness, unthankfulness, petulance, and other disgusting noxious sinful growths within me. The unconditional love of dogs has convicted more than one man or woman of their attitude and  behavior, and it has driven me to Psalm 19:12 – 14.

 

Preachers are not innocent, and we tend to manipulate, to construct rhetorical schemes to lead to certain results, such as conviction of sin. I do not say this is necessarily wrong, for we see responsible rhetorical construction throughout the Bible, but I think we likely interject our own humanistic machinations in preaching more than we ought to – for we are not innocent…saints in Christ though we may be.

 

My dog is innocent, and she has laid me low in conviction at the altar of God in Creation more than I have ever experienced in a church setting. I fear that I have succumbed to peer pressure in church settings, with my dog there is no peer pressure, with my dog I am caught between the innocence of Creation and the holiness of God…and there is no escape!

 

How has Creation been a sacrament in your life?

 

O dear heavenly Father, open our hearts and minds and souls to receive from You through Your Creation. To see You, to know You, and to rejoice in You. Amen.