Sermon(Ps 36): The faithful God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025286393

 

>> .... 5 Thy steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, thy faithfulness to the clouds. 6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God, thy judgments are like the great deep; man and beast thou savest, O Lord. 7 How precious is thy steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of thy house, and thou givest them drink from the river of thy delights. 9 For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light do we see light. 10 O continue thy steadfast love to those who know thee, and thy salvation to the upright of heart! 11 Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 There the evildoers lie prostrate, they are thrust down, unable to rise. (Ps. 36) <<

 

The really important question for Luther is how a man can be forgiven all his sins, become righteous before God, get reconciled with God and avoid his wrath. I've solved such a question thanks to Paul and Luther. I believe that I can become righteous and be saved by the faith in Jesus the Savior, and as for the question of sins, I live in peace in God. However what is really important to me is the question, Is God really faithful? Is he really reliable? Anyone who can do nothing but look upward to the heaven in expecting help from there in order to survive in the harsh world has such a question. But David, in the text today, says, "Thy steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, thy faithfulness to the clouds. (v. 5)" Do you not have various kinds of backing or support such as rich parents, a diploma from a prestigious university, or powerful supporters, etc., so that you just look to heaven these days? David also, as you do, had no such backings, so believed in and followed God only, looking to only heaven. Such a man David says, "The heaven and the sky are full of God's mercy and faithfulness. Therefore you can believe him. I bet you!"

 

How were God's righteousness and judgment that David found? "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep. (v. 6 of KJV)" People say that the laws of the state are the most just, but how many unjust laws of states are there? Sometimes dictators make laws as they like, and killed innocent people. Also in Korea, President Jung Hee Park enforced 'the emergency measures' willfully to harass people. The laws are helpless in front of those who have swords and guns. There is no law you can trust to, in the world. There is no law in any country on earth you can absolutely trust to. The righteousness of this world is subject to the arbitrary judgments of ones in power. The problem is that those who hold power are not so good, and that their power cannot last for more than 10 years. You know a Korean proverb '권불십년', that is, you can possess power for 10 years at the most. So it is right that there is no righteousness in the world and that what little righteousness the world has will soon vanish easily. But God's righteousness is like a big and high mountain. Who can move Mount Everest? The high mountain has weight and hight no one living on earth can violate. All God does is absolutely righteous. David found that God did not change his mind or plan easily. We, like David, must discover the righteousness of God that can never be shaken. When we realize that God's law has the last say in all, we can avoid becoming unrighteous ones who live in the ways of the world. David says that God's judgment is like a great deep. This means that God is the most deeply thinking One in the world. Who can challenge God's judgment when he, knowing all thoughts of men, says to one man, "You are right," while to the other, "You are wrong"? When God knowing all circumstances says, "Do not do that, but this," who can say that his guidance and instruction is wrong? We can trust in God because his righteousness is like a high mountain and his judgment is like a deep sea. How can we trust him to the end if his righteousness is like the chaff blown away by the wind, and his judgment is like accessories made of a lump of gold-plated lead? My brethren, trust in God's righteousness and his judgment. Trust his righteousness and judgment even if you don't understand it with your intelligent head. "How great are thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep! (Ps 92:5)" "Happy is he who trusts in the Lord. (Prov 16:20)" I'll give you another passage of the Bible if you ask me if a man can become wealthy if he trusts in God. "He who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. (Prov 28:25)" You may not make a lot of money, living in trust in God, but many people are living a rich life even with a little wealth.

 

What are specific faithful deeds of God which David found? God is the protector of man and beast. "Man and beast thou savest, O Lord. (v. 6)" A destroyer can't be a faithful one. These are by no means faithful: destroyer of home, murderer, arsonist, a corrupt son or a corrupt daughter, mischief-maker, raper, and etc. God is a faithful One, for he is the One who created man and beast and is keeping and protecting them. My brethren, God protects you. He protects your home, work, health, honor and life, because your life has come from him and God is a faithful Creator. But on this condition: he will help us only if we, believing in him as a merciful One, come to him to take refuge in him, in the shadow of his wings. “How precious is thy steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. (v.7)” Many people are suffering from adult diseases these days. Pray to God. He protects you from illness. Many people are suffering from economic problems these days. My brethren, cry out to God! It is the faithful God who will deliver you from your heavy painful burden of debt. You who have lost job and are suffering from credit card debt, please flee to the shadow of the wings of God who is good, kind and merciful. He loves you indeed, and his mercy is least restricted.

 

The faithful God feeds his children with good things. "They feast on the abundance of thy house, and thou givest them drink from the river of thy delights. (v. 8)" My brethren, if you have enough money, buy delicious food and enjoy it. Delicacies are a precious blessing of God. Koreans say, "What you've eaten is yours after all. (Eating is an act that makes a profit.)" That's right. Don't be too extravagant, but take good food of a reasonable price if you can, and give thanks to God then. But some people eat too much today. They must be temperate in food. The Scripture orders, "He who refuse to work should not eat." Today this passage can be interpreted as 'He who exercises less should eat less.' You've been suffering from obesity because of your unwise lack of temperance in food, for you can clear up the problem of obesity if you reduce your food. To tell you how to manage my weight, I set my maximum waist size at 30 inches. If I feel something wrong with my waist, I measure it with a tape measure before meals. If the size is near 30 inches, I take about half the amount of the usual meal. That's the secret. At lunch I eat as much as I do not feel hungry because I do my work by day. So I usually control my meal in the evening. I do not eat sweets and bread unless I especially feel like eating them. Therefore I try to keep my waist size before breakfast between 29 and 30 inches. (Of course, today when I am translating the sermon, it would be a little over 30 inches.) Another secret is to take fatty meat less but grain much. Thus you can avoid the heavy hunger that will appear when you try to manage your weight. You must overcome the severe hunger if you want to manage your weight, eating a lot of fatty meat. The fat in your belly never make you feel full. The greasy food goes straight to the fat reservoir, the belly. That's why it's not easy to control the weight with carnivorous eating habits. Even though you have a lot of fat in the belly, it's the way your body works that you feel hungry when it's time to eat. And when we eat, we feel as full not as the amount of the energy of the meal that came into the stomach, but as the volume of the meal. Fat has much bigger energy density than carbohydrates. You will definitely get obese if you eat beef or pork every day as much as you satisfy yourself. Let grain be your staple food, but if you feel somewhat languid, it is better to eat some meat. If you frequently eat meat, you would be wise when you reduce the amount of other food, rice for example. Sometimes I feel a heavy hunger in the middle of the night even when my waist size is about 30 inches. At this time, I give in to the test of Devil(?) if I cook a pack of ramen and eat it. We must regulate the meal not based on the intensity of hunger but on the size of the waist. Another thing to note is that we will definitely get obesity if we continue eating food as much as when we were growing. Some nourishment of the meal is used for the growth of the body in the period of growth. Therefore your body will keep expanding outer around the waist if you keep the same amount of meal as in the period of growth when you have ceased to grow upward. Therefore you can keep your proper weight past the period of growth if you reduce your food and a little endure hunger necessarily. And our body consumes less energy as it grows older. Therefore an aged person should take less food than before. At first the reduction of food would be painful, but you'll get used to the new amount of food soon. Of course, those who do a lot of physical labor may eat as much as they like without any severe harm. That's the blessing of God for the muscular laborers. I'm saying this because the good food should be God's blessing, not poison to harm your health. (In addition, you should not overlook that it can harm your health if you lose too much weight by excessive light eating. Do not reduce the food more and more when the body asks more food when it has lost too much weight. You'd better keep your proper weight. And the appearance of body changes; the fat on the belly increases as you grow older, so young people relatively look slimmer. It can be harmful to her health if a middle-aged or old woman keeps on dieting too hard, recollecting her good figure when young.)

 

Jesus said that our heavenly Father wants to give good things to his children. God is not One who hide something good behind him not to give it to us. How can we know such true heart of God? Giving a sacrifice to God is like dining with him. There are several kinds of offerings, and in the case of one of them, blood and fat are God's while the other parts are human's. Needless to say, God eats the bad part and humans eat the good part then. And God forbade Israelites to add honey to the offering that would be burnt to him. 'My children, the best parts and the most delicious food must be yours!' God is a good Father indeed for us. God wants to bless us abundantly and wants us to drink from the river of his delights (v. 8). Some say mother's love is great, but God says he will never forget us even if a mother forgets her suckling. "How precious is thy steadfast love, O God! (v. 7)" We know God's faithfulness from the fact that he helps us live without want.

 

God's faithfulness can be seen in the defeat of the wicked and in the triumph of the righteous. "There the evildoers lie prostrate, they are thrust down, unable to rise. (v. 12)" The righteous can be happy when the wicked persecuting them have disappeared. When the wicked attack the righteous over and over again, so that their guilty has grown enough to incur God's punishment; God unexpectedly gives them a fatal blow so that they can never rise again, because he is a faithful judge, a faithful protector and a faithful Father. God makes the wicked fall, and gives the land of the wicked to the meek after all. We need patience in order to taste the faithfulness of this God. He who trust in God to the end will see the ruin of the wicked and the triumph of himself. My brethren, are you suffering to death from the wicked, such as your wicked neighbors, wicked colleagues or the wicked in the society? Be patient a little longer! The faithful God will soon solve your problem. Once their sins have filled the measure of punishment, they will disappear from their places and you'll take their places. The just God punishes the wicked when their sins have fully grown, deserving just punishment. And it is God’s justice to grant good places to the righteous who, enduring righteous sufferings long among the wicked, have clearly shown themselves as children of God. Isn't it reasonable to give the places that the wicked have occupied to those who have endured the harassment of the wicked? You must know that it is never meaningless for us to go through a period of patience under righteous sufferings. When we think of God's faithfulness, we are not afraid of the evils of the world, but are strengthened to endure and overcome the evils.

 

My brethren, David who had been only looking to heaven said that God was faithful. His saying looks trustworthy for he was raised from a shepherd to a king. So God will be sure to be a faithful One to us if we have David's faith. David abhorred the mentality of the wicked. They do not fear God (v. 1). They thought their sins would never be founded out (v. 2). They always plotted mischief and didn't hate evil (v. 4). They are arrogant (v. 11). Therefore we, like David, should revere God, be humble before him, not hide our sins from him but beg him for pardon, and decide to live a good life according to God's will. God is faithful to such good believers forever.

 

May the faithful God be your protector and nurturer.

 

 

Chong Tack Kim

                                - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -