Psalm 119:73-90 NIV – Waipoo Falls, Waimea Canyon, Kauai, HI – by ReadPsalm119.com.
What has God said?
How can we know to put our hope in God’s word (v74), or to know that God’s laws are righteous and faithful even in affliction (v74), or to know the comfort of God’s promise of His unfailing love (v75), unless we read it for ourselves?
Numbers 13 and 14 tells the story of God’s command to Moses to send 12 spies, one from every tribe of Israel, into the Promised Land to scope it out and bring back a report. This was not to determine if they should go in, but to give full picture of what lay ahead of them.
Two spies, Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb of the tribe of Judah, had an intimate knowledge of God. They were interested in God and they listened and kept their eyes open to see God at work. They remembered all that God had said in the past about the inheritance in Canaan that God had promised their forefather Abraham. They remembered their sin and the hope of a Deliverer who would come from the seed of woman. They had reverenced the Law of God brought down from Mt. Sinai by Moses; Joshua had even been with Moses on the mountain when they were given. Joshua saw and believed. Caleb had “the spirit” of faith that made God glad (Numbers 14:24).
When they came back, ten of the tribal leader spies gave positive reports of the uncommon fruitfulness of the land that lay ahead of them—a land of milk and honey—and brought proofs of the produce that must have stunned the people. God had not lied! The land was truly a plenteous and gracious, fertile land of promise!
But…they smeared joy with fear. There were also in that land the infamous giants, descendents of the Nephilim, many tribes who had abominable and wicked practices, all of which cowered their courage and melted the entire congregation into a grumbling, murmuring, panicked cesspool of fear and rebellion.
The reporters had done everything they had been charged to do. They had repeated the truth of what they saw. They even brought back evidences of God’s promise of fruitfulness. However, and this is important, they also brought back their own opinion.
Their opinion did not figure in God’s perspective at all. It was their own reckoning based on what they could see with their physical eyes and what they could know from their own horizontal level of suffering. They forgot everything that God had said, everything that God had done in their sight from the Promise, to the salvation from extinction during the famine, from their preservation through multiplication and favor during the hundreds of years of their term in Egypt,from the crossing of the Red Sea, the water from the rock in the desert, the preservation of their clothing, the manna that fell from heaven to feed them, their preservation from surrounding enemies as they traveled. These are only the miraculous highlights!
Yet here God’s people (for the people followed the counsel of the 10 doubting spies) were standing before the culmination of their generation’s part to play in world history and they forgot all the past because of the stupefying present. All they could see was seemingly indefeatable giants who would brutally and mercilessly crush them like ants in the dust. Forgotten—all God’s Word a lie.
Caleb broke the clamor of the crowd with a one-line statement of faith:
“Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30 ESV).
Caleb didn’t argue the facts. He simply gave a Call to Action based on the memory of God’s faithfulness. If God said it, surely, it will be done. The only thing left is to follow Him in obedience. ”Let us go UP and occupy!” Caleb understood the terms well. They were on an uphill path. They would feel the heat of battle, but they would rally and God would perform His will through His people, if only His people would believe.
What has God said to you?
What did Caleb and Joshua do? They kept God’s Word by hearing it (i.e., attending to what they heard of it). God rewarded them for their obedience and they entered into the Promised Land.
The fear-reduced grumblers, however, were given what they desired most. The people desired safety, so the Lord kept them from conquering their giants. He gave them a long and “safe” life in the wilderness. They achieved no victories, went no longer on adventures that showed God’s glory. They simply lived out the rest of their lives in a mind-numbling regularity. Does that seem satisfying to you? Do you want more out of life? Has your faith been trounced by fear and unbelief?
Caleb and Joshua didn’t have a Bible as we have. But they had the law of God given to Moses for their government. They all heard the same law, but only two out of 12 leaders looked beyond the terms of the law to the God Who gave it. They sought to know Him intimately. They obeyed God and trusted that God would give the increase as promised.
We can’t know the peace of our psalmist in Yod if we have not been interested in the active reading of His Word—not just the act of reading, but the act of reading to know and understand its Author.
The promises of God are for you and I, just as they were for the Hebrew people of old. Christ, our Deliverer–the Promised Messiah–came in the flesh, just as promised. He has forgiven not just the Jew, but all of mankind who will believe in Him and trust Him with their giants. Such is the grace of our God!
Christ still calls us to come to Him, lay down our burdens, take up our cross of faith and move forward to enter into the rest of God. Will you come?
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I don’t know you like I should know you, or like I would like to know you just now. I have not been interested in Your Word, but have been like the 10 spies and have spread fear and doubt and confusion around me by my ignorance. I come to you right now in sorrow for my lack of intelligence and faith. Even a short period of thinking back on my life with a new perspective causes me to see or remember how you have performed your quiet miracles in my life, and how you have preserved me from unknown dangers only seen now from hindsight. I don’t understand today, and I certainly don’t understand tomorrow, but I know You are here with me and You understand enough that I can follow You safely and victoriously. You will do all that You have said You will do and I will wait for you. I will not only wait, but I will move forward in faith to fulfill whatever task you set before me. I will learn more of You through Your Word, and I will put my trust in You. Only help me in my unbelief and be gracious in Your forgiveness of my sin. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
© by ReadPsalm119.com.
” Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3 KJV.
