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Psalm 21:6-7

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 22, 2019
Psalm 21:6 “Surely you have granted him eternal blessings”
 
[You granted David the blessing of being an ancestor of Jesus and along with that, eternal life. You granted Jesus the blessing of the Resurrection and now He lives forever to intercede for those who believe in Him. And You grant us a rich, everlasting relationship with Him, from which flow further blessings into our lives: grace, goodness, power, protection and wisdom, to name a few—all a foretaste of what we will have in eternity.]
 
“and made him glad with the joy of your presence.”
 
[To exult in your powerful and pure presence, Lord God, is to have joy! You, Heavenly Father, restored David’s relationship with you after his adultery. And in the Resurrection, you restored the fabric of the Trinity, which was torn when you turned away from Jesus as He became sin for us on the cross.
 
Now in the God-head there is no end to your joyful, pristine relationships–the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’s rich unity–and your joy of being in the presence of each other.
 
And you also brought us into your presence, into your family, into your embrace when you made us your children, giving us gladness. Jesus after his discourse in John 15 said, “ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” This is His desire for us.]
 
Psalm 21:7 “For the king trusts in the LORD;”
 
[When David trusted in you, he was led on in paths of righteousness. Jesus trusted you in his time on earth. As a man He was totally vulnerable, absolutely weak, helpless in his humanness. But He was willing to be weak because He knew and trusted your pure, positive, perfect character which proved true again in the Resurrection where He obeyed the Father and submitted to the cross and death. And so can we trust Him!]
 
“through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.”
 
[Your love Heavenly Father, did not fail, did not leave Jesus in the grave, but brought about the great victory over death, decay and the devil. And that “unfailingness” continues on in our lives, as you, the Most High, the Final Authority, the Almighty One, persist in your perfect love to protect us so we will never be shaken as we rest on the rock-solid reality of your rich and reliable character.
 
Praise be to you Lord God, Triune King, Gracious Shepherd, Mighty Warrior. Tender Father. To you be honor and glory and praise as I submit to and trust in your goodness today and on into eternity forever. Amen.]
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Psalm 21:3-5

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 21, 2019
Psalm 21:3 “You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.”
 
[You crowned David as king, after his long wait of living as an outlaw. And you crowned Jesus as Savior, after His 30 year wait, and His 3 years of intense work and immense suffering. And you crown us as children of the King every day with love and compassion (Ps 104:4),continually pouring out abundant, good and gracious blessings on us.]
 
Psalm 21:4 “He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—length of days, forever and ever.”
 
[In his death, you granted Jesus resurrection; He rose to eternal life and passes it on to all who believe in Him, David included. We, as your children, have eternity before us–length of days forever and ever–and can rejoice now in the certainty of it.]
 
Psalm 21:5 “Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;”
 
[David was given many victories, beginning with Goliath and spanning his whole reign. Jesus, in His incarnation was strengthened by your power and had one long string of victories: no sin, no failure, no defeats, only obedience and triumph in every temptation. Even the greatest possible defeat, death, led to the greatest possible victory—the resurrection destroying the power of death, the devil and destruction.
 
What great glory Jesus earned in His many victories, and He passes on this possibility of being victors on to us, calling us to be more than conquerors with Him in His power (Rom. 8:37). He also wants to share His glory with us, as we triumph with Him through our faith (1 Pet 1:7).]
 
“you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.”
 
[David ruled in the golden age of Israel. Jesus now reigns in the church age from His throne on high as the mighty and majestic Ruler of creation and all beyond. You, Heavenly Father, have raised Him up above all principalities and powers, above all might and majesty, above all names and titles. You have seated Him, the eternal Victor, at your right hand to reign forever and ever.
 
Evil can now be eliminated and a new and sinless start can be had through our physical death, into the new Heaven and Earth. There the splendor and supremacy of Jesus will be endlessly on display and we will be forever with Him in His wonderful, wide and wise eternal love. Like the flower below, there is much beauty yet to be opened.]
 
Praise be to you, Heavenly Father, for revealing these things by the pen of David, by the triumph of Christ and by bringing us into your bountiful and beautiful Kingdom. Help us to live daily in this unseen reality, rejoicing in you, in your love for us and in the certainly of what you will bring.
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More History

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 21, 2019
The Summer of 1980 came and with it an increase in the fighting on the streets. Every night we heard several bombs explode, often followed by the firing of machine guns. Then the dogs would bark. We had trouble getting enough sleep.
 
There was still nothing in the newspapers to tell us what was happening, but there were often soldiers in full battle dress with loaded rifles on street corners. The situation was clearly becoming more and more dangerous.
 
One time when I went to my language tutor Tom’s house for a language lesson, there was a bullet hole through his front door, through the kitchen door and out the door beyond that.
“It was from a firefight soldiers had with terrorists,” he said. “We lay on the floor and the bullets went over our heads, so we were safe.”
 
Another time when I came to visit, Tom was so shaken that we couldn’t do our lesson. He had been at a tea house that morning when someone drove by and opened fire on the place with a machine gun. A number of people had been killed.
 
This was not an isolated incident; another acquaintance of ours told how his little grocery store was machine-gunned while he ducked behind the counter for protection.
 
An American soldier in our city was killed when he tried to start his booby-trapped car. I started looking under my car for bombs each time I got in. Things were going from bad to worse.
During that summer Nat woke up every morning with the call to prayer, which came before 5 am, so I was up with him. It did help me get some more time in with the Lord, and I tried to look at it as an opportunity. However, the combination of lack of sleep from all the bombs, the ongoing adjustment to culture, the surrounding violence and the pressures of language study made us more weary by the day.
 
I saw how tired I was when one night Barbara asked me to fill the diaper-laden washing machine with water. This wringer washer came with the apartment and was much better than having none, but had its interesting points.
 
We had to put water in it with a hose, and to complete a load required running all the clothes through the wringer twice, once after washing and again after rinsing. I would tape my local language word lists on the wall and work on them while running the many diapers through the wringer.
 
That evening I put the water hose into the washer, turned it on and watched carefully until it reached the proper level. Then I went to bed and fell asleep immediately.
 
After a while Barbara nudged me. “Hmph?” I mumbled groggily. “Do you hear water running?” she asked.
 
“I’ll go check,” I said. I swung my feet out of bed and stepped into an inch of water! Then it hit me that I’d brought the water level in the washing machine to the right point, but failed to shut the faucet off! Now this whole end of our apartment was flooded and the rug in the bedroom was soaked.
 
We leaped out of bed and began to clean things up. I wanted to hang the soaking wet rug over the railing on our balcony, but fortunately Barbara first looked over the edge and saw the glow of our landlord’s cigarette as he sat in the dark on his balcony below us. We spread the rug out elsewhere to dry.
 
The next day Barbara found Nat lying on his stomach on the balcony, trying to swim in a puddle that was left from our night’s adventures.
One scary and seemingly significant event occurred while we lived in that apartment. While we were studying, we heard a yelp from the boys’ room and ran to find Josh lying flat on his back with a safety pin in each hand. He had stuck the pins into the 220 outlet to see what would happen.
 
Providentially God protected him; he didn’t even get any burns. But from then on Josh was actively interested in and amazingly competent with electronic devices. We wondered if maybe the shock had crystalized the chips in his blood stream!
 
Picture of little Nat with Barbara in the background
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Third Aspect of Humility

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 19, 2019
More on humility.
 
Third, humility is being teachable.
 
This is related to the second aspect, thinking we know better than God. When we experience God’s chastening, be it through the Word convicting us, through some event, or someone confronting/rebuking us, our response shows our humility or lack of it.
 
As it says in Proverbs 9:8-10, “Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. The fear of the LORD [obeying Him rather than man or self] is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
 
A humble response was demonstrated to me by a fellow worker in one place I served. He made a decision which had a negative effect on several of us. I strode into his office and told him that this was wrong and why. His response was, “Thank you so much for telling me this; I will consider it.” That humble, teachable attitude took the wind out of my sails, and I went away blessed by this man’s humility.
 
If we react negatively to the challenges of life, we can be sure we lack humility. When we respond with a teachable spirit, we honor God and open the way for growth.
 
God is in the process of refining us through difficulties (are we going to cooperate?) so He can give us more rewards in Heaven: “…for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.(1 Peter 1:6-7).
So let us consciously grow in humility, choosing to think His thoughts, shifting to His worldview. Let us see ourselves in the full-orbed way God does, in both our natural depravity and our supernatural holiness. Let us submit our intellect to His Word and ways. And let us be teachable.
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More on Humility

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 18, 2019
Continuing with thoughts on Humility, the most important virtue—three aspects
 
Second, humility is submitting our intellect to God’s Word.
 
Psalm 119 is full of statements of the need to embrace, to affirm, to live God’s Word and way rather than our own. “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart….You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed” (Ps. 119:1-4).
 
I have a number of friends who say they are born-again believers in Jesus, yet they choose to run their lives by their own ideas. For instance, they are too busy to go to church, work seven days a week and have no quiet time. Jesus is an “add-on” rather than being the center of their lives.They think they know better than God about these things and go their own way.
 
As Luke 6;46-48 says, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice….They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”
 
Another version of this pride are those dissatisfied with the unchangeable things in their lives: how they look, the family they are in, their spouse, their financial situation. These are things God has given or allowed. He has His purposes and plans with them. Humility means embracing what He has giving us, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving for all, rejoicing in His wisdom, love and grace, instead of thinking we know best.
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Humility, First of Three Aspects

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 17, 2019
Humility, the most important virtue—three aspects
 
First, humility is seeing ourselves as God sees us.
As believers in Jesus, we have received a new nature, but still have our old nature. We are both sinners and saints, both condemn-able and chosen, weak in ourselves, powerful in Him.
 
Both aspects are pointed out in Psalm 86:1 “Bow down your ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy [ our natural depravity]. Preserve my soul; for I am holy [our position in Christ]: O thou my God, save your servant that trusts in you.”
 
We need to embrace both truths, for if we only look at our position in Christ, we can become proud, looking down on those “sinners” who don’t know Him.
 
We can also be ambushed by serious sin as we don’t take our ability to sin seriously. When a Christian, after committing a sin, says, “How could I have done that?!!!” he shows his lack of understanding of his old nature.
Our lives as believers is like a sailboat. The body of the boat is our new life; the mast is our faith, and the sail is obedience, ready to be filled with the wind of the Spirit. The keel, which prevents the boat from overturning when the wind hits the sail, is our old nature; acknowledging it (keeping the keel in place) keeps us from be capsized (falling into sin) by events in life.
So, humility, first of all, means seeing ourselves as God sees us in the full orbed picture, preparing us for the battle of each day.
 
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Wow!

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 16, 2019
 
Praise be to you, Lord, for the wonder of stability in you, in your amazing, unchanging, ever flowing and always perfect love. I praise you for your gracious and good commitment to us, your beloved children who are so often selfish, unbelieving and rebellious.
 
Every day we grieve your Spirit, choosing to exalt our ideas and agendas over your Word. You endure this willingly, and thankfully, your suffering this pain inflicted by us does not alter the course of your love, your plans or your grace. You are love itself, so you can never not love. In your wisdom you take each failure and use it to chasten, teach and bring surrender.
 
In this reality of your perfect and powerful character, I can rest, sure that my place in your heart is secure, certain and unshakable. “My soul finds rest in God alone…for my hope comes from Him…” (Ps. 62:1,5).
 
I am deeply thankful for this. I am both quietly and wildly joyful that you chose me to be your child, to be your partner in your plans, to be a fruitful branch in your vine. Thank you that nothing can separate me from your love and that my place in eternity is secure.
 
I praise you for your never-ending flow of grace, forgiveness and transformation in this present life. I praise you that today is a gift from your hand, prepared and packaged perfectly so that I might walk with you through every event in the light of your presence, as your ambassador, as your servant-warrior, able to stand in the attacks which you will allow from the enemy.
 
I praise you for the opportunities you have prepared for me to give you honor through faith responses: offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving and having a willful belief in your Word–living in the light of Truth rather than in the darkness of the human condition.
 
I thank you, too, that we have “all kinds of trials…so that the proven genuineness of [our] faith…may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet.1:7,8).
 
This is life on a high and wondrous level, where every event, every interaction is filled with potential significance–if we will just join you in what you are doing.
 
Help me to do that today, Lord; grant me discernment so I can see what you are doing and join you in it, so that you may be honored, that the enemy may be defeated and that your light and hope may overflow from me to all those around me. Praise be to you now for what you will do in this day.
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Psalm 21:1-2

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 15, 2019
 
Psalm 21. For the director of music. A Psalm of David.
 
[This Psalm has a triple message. First it speaks of David’s relationship with the Lord; secondarily it is a Messianic prophecy, predicting the victory of Jesus over the devil and death; third, it speaks truth about the life of each believer.]
 
“O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.”
 
[In realizing how helpless we are, Lord, it is wonderful to know that your strength is at work in our weakness, that our weakness actually makes your power perfect (2 Cor. 12:9). David struggled with his own weakness in dealing with inner danger from his men (his general, Joab and David’s son, Absalom, and when his own men wanted to stone him at Ziklag), as well as those enemies who attacked from the outside.
 
In like manner, Jesus made himself vulnerable and weak as a human being, having to rely on prayer, the help of the Spirit in His ministry and the Father’s power to rise Him from the dead.
 
We, also, on an everyday basis, face enemies who are too strong for us, both human and spiritual, but we have your strength to rely on.]
 
“How great is his joy in the victories you give!”
 
[The victories in our lives are gifts from you, Lord, and we can rejoice as you help us move ahead, defeat our inner evil (the flesh), and the outer evil (the devil and the corruption of this fallen world), just as Jesus did. To know you, Lord Jesus, to intentionally live in your Truth is to experience your power, and to receive your joy.]
 
Psalm 21:2 “You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips.”
 
[You consistently answered David’s prayers, giving guidance, help, protection and victory. In the many battles he was involved in, there is no mention of David ever being wounded.
 
You answered every one of Jesus’ prayers, Heavenly Father. And so you answer ours, especially when we delight in you, opening the way for you to put in our heart the right desires and grant these “idol-proofed” requests at the right time.]
 
Help us, Lord, to ask according to your Word, to find our delight in you and to rejoice in whatever answer you give, whether it be “Yes!” “No” or “Wait.”
 
Selah (think on that)
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The Fruits of Memorizing and Meditating on Scripture

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 14, 2019
As I continue to memorize and meditate on your rich and powerful Word, Lord, you continue to transform my being.
 
There is a growing grasp of your great supply of significance and honor, poured out upon me every day. This is part of an ongoing, deep, transformation that flows from basking in the truth, listening to Scripture telling me that I am yours (Eph 1:3-10), that I am with you, treasured by you, delighted in by you (Psalm 18), invited to join you in your mighty purposes (Eph. 2:10), that you freely and consistently give me worth, belonging and competence (Ephesians 1:18,19).
There is also an ongoing shift away from the fear of man to a fear of God: a desire to please you and a corresponding ability to reject what people think–to be free from their disapproval, their denigration, their disrespect. Your approval is enough to rest in, live in, die in.
Another aspect of this is a better grasp of the joy of being weak, the opportunity to trust you to work where I am without influence, leverage or power. If I want adventure, trusting you in my weakness is it!
This, combined with the daily reminder that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil, brings me a changed perspective of those who oppose me: a compassionate, forgiving, positive view–even a warmth as I think of them.
What a change you are bringing in my being through memorizing and meditating on your Word, Lord, especially Psalms 18, 34, 37, 62 and 86. This is certainly a foretaste of heaven as you bring me out into an ever more spacious place, into growing freedom, into a greater joy. Glory be to you for these changes that carry me forward in every area of my life.
I praise you for what you are going to do today, Lord, as you orchestrate the flow of events, protecting me from evil and exposing me to the challenges as you know are best for me.
 
I praise you for the negative feelings that may come: frustration, a sense of uselessness, failure in my plans, anger, impatience and a feeling of worthlessness. Each of these is an opportunity to replace these feelings with Truth, to surrender to you, to get up the shield of faith and quench the fiery darts of the evil one, a chance to use negatives as a stimulus to respond with a positive that I’ve memorized from your Word, to be a glory-giver rather than a glory-stealer.
 
Before anything happens today, I give you glory for it now, Lord Jesus, trusting in your Great, Good, Glorious and Gracious character to bring what is best.
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More adventures from 1980

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 13, 2019
More from 1980
 
In the beginning of language study, I got tangled up trying to make long sentences, but Barbara wisely pointed out that long sentences are simply a series of short ones strung together. She encouraged me to stick with short ones to get it right and later combine them to make longer sentences. As usual, she was correct, and this approach helped me greatly.
 
Then the point came where I could no longer understand the explanations of grammar, even if they were given in English (grammar had never been a strong point for me). Here the Lord gave me the idea of getting my language helper to make two or three useful sentences using this new grammar point. I would then memorize them, and begin to use them in every day interactions.
 
I called these my “pattern sentences” because they provided the template from which I could build other sentences. My work of memorizing and meditating on Scripture had given me the ability to do this memorization work more easily.
 
As time went on, I found that doing this memorizing not only seeded my mind with the grammar points I was targeting, but also with other new points that these sentences contained. I spontaneously started using them, too. The locals told me that I “talked like a book,” meaning correctly, but a bit stilted.
 
To increase my vocabulary, I tried to memorize thirty new words a day. I would write these words down on one side of a strip of paper, and the English meaning on the other. Then I would fold the paper down the middle, with the new words on one side, the English on the other and memorize them. Then I would look at just the new language word and try to remember its meaning.
 
I used my travel time to do this memorization, going to and from work or while shopping, walking or riding on a bus. Once while walking to work, I was focusing on my vocabulary paper, when, for no discernable reason, I looked up and found myself right on the edge of a ten-foot deep hole dug in the sidewalk! There was no railing and no warning, which was a common situation at that time. If I hadn’t looked up at that particular moment, my next step would have been into thin air. The Lord was not only helping me with language learning but protecting me in the process. Another God sighting.
Along with language study, I was teaching English several nights a week. This was tiring and demanding, but necessary in order to have a resident permit. The school provided some training, and combining that with my teaching experience in Alaska, I was able to do a credible job.
 
My students were all adults seeking to improve their English, mostly for advancement at work. Having paid for the classes, they were motivated and engaged in the learning process. They wanted conversation practice, and that made the class time go quickly.
 
One night, classes were called off because there had been a bombing at the school during the day. After the explosion, the director of the school went to his office and found a great shard of glass stuck right into his desk chair. If he hadn’t been out of his office at the time, he certainly would have been killed. These were uncertain times.
 
Terrorists weren’t the only danger. After class one evening I said to Barbara, “There is a good looking woman lawyer in my class. She sits right in the front row and looks at me lovingly. Tonight I noticed that her eye shadow matches the green color of her eyes.”
 
That got Barbara’s attention. I suggested that she come to class with me the next night, and she was very much in agreement. When my lawyer student saw what a fine, elegant wife I had, she gave up and moved to the back row for the rest of the semester.
 
This was the first of a long series of female students and teachers who showed an interest in me. This was not because I’m suave and handsome, but because I have an American passport! If a woman could snag me, I’d literally be her passport out of a difficult and dangerous country.
 
These women were all attractive and intelligent, so it was a thrill to have them signal a desire for a personal relationship with me and there was a temptation to play along.
 
However, rejecting this and following the leading of the Spirit instead, I would immediately tell Barbara about it. Secret desire and titillation is powerful but confessing this temptation to the proper person takes away a lot of its strength.
 
I am thankful for a wife who is secure enough in Christ to listen to my struggles and to help me. After telling Barbara about it, I would take her with me to class and that always broke the focus of my “pursuer.” God guides and protects.
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