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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Sunday, 6 April 2025:
Psalm 66:10-12 – The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?
God will allow you to go through great trials to refine you like silver. Trust Him. Don’t resent His discipline. In Christ, whatever is happening isn’t happening “to” you, it is happening “for” you, and whatever doesn’t seem to be working “for” you is working “on” you as the refiner’s fire as God fulfills, not only His promise of Romans 8:28 in your life, but also His promise of Romans 8:29, conforming you to Christlike character, which is His goal for your life.
Psalm 66:1-4 — Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.”
The exact date of Psalm 66’s composition remains uncertain, as the text does not specify its author or the precise historical context. This is a psalm of praise that thanksgiving, but about what? Most scholars attempt to connect this psalm to a particular event in the history of the Israelites, perhaps one of David’s victories; when the Assyrians were miraculously defeated during the reign of Hezekiah; or perhaps upon the immediately following the Babylonian exile.
We certainly have a tendency to praise God when things are going well after significant trails, giving thanks for the deliverance. In fact, the psalmist points this out: “He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in Him….” (v. 6) However, if you look carefully at Psalm 66, the psalmist gives thanks to God for the trial, for how God had used the trial to remove iniquity from the psalmist:
“Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man…. For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.” (vs. 5, 10-12, 16)
Who brought them into the net, laid crushing burdens on their backs, let men ride over their heads, and made them go through fire and water? God did. Why? For their souls, to refine and purify their character as precious metals are refined in fire. The psalmist give thanks for this, understanding that God is Good, Faithful, Loving and Sovereign, and whatever God allows is best, though by definition, we won’t be able to understand it from our immeasurably limited and flawed perspective.
The psalmist understood that the path we need is never path we want; this is why in life we have parents, teachers, coaches, teammates, and various types of disciplinarians who make us do what we won’t or can’t do for ourselves for our own good. The psalmist also understood you don’t get stronger unless you carry weight that exhausts your current capacity, that makes you feel completely weak in the moment.
The spiritually mature learn to appreciate the process as much, if not more, than the outcome (which until Christ returns, is merely a moment in time). People who want to be strong but hate working out will never really be strong. People who love working out and who strive each workout for the feeling of having nothing left, totally spent, grow in strength with each workout.
The psalmist says, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (v. 18) Why? Because iniquity causes us to want what we shouldn’t want, and our Holy God of Love won’t give us what we ought not want. Only when our prayers echo “Thy will be done,” can we receive what we want from God, and only with that ambition can we learn to be thankful for trials, understand that God’s ultimate will for us is Christlikeness, which only comes by way of suffering with joy. If our ambition is really comfort rather than Christlikeness, we will not only always be anxious and miserable, we will be distant from God.
“Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” How you respond to trials reveals what you really think about God and about what you think He thinks about you. When we go through trials, we tend to pray woefully that God would deliver us from the trial, as if He didn’t ordain it in His sovereign love. We never stop consider that the trial might be exactly what God wants for us for our benefit, so we don’t give thanks for what He is doing on our lives, looking forward to the outcome of our spiritual growth. It is ok to pray for deliverance but only as Jesus exemplified before facing the Cross — “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) What Jesus prioritized in His request was for the Father to do what needed to be done in accordance with His will, even if it meant the Cross for Jesus, and thank God for our sake it did! But remember, Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) And how did Jesus take up the Cross? “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) Have you learned to carry your God-given cross with joy in the hope of what you are becoming through the process? Rather than merely praying for comfort from God, pray for the Christlikeness which only comes from discomfort – “There is not growth in the comfort zone, and there is no comfort in the growth zone.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18 — “…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
- Philippians 4:4-8 — Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Psalm 66:18 – If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Don’t let sinful desires hinder your prayers. You cannot choose sin over God and expect to have a meaningful relationship with Him. Your perfectly Holy and Love Father will give you what you want when you want what He wants, which is always perfect. Until then, pray for what you want, but first and foremost, pray that He will help you increasingly want to want what He wants until you actually do want what He wants – “Thy will be done…. Not my will but your will…. But make my will your will….”
Numbers 20:10, 12 — Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock? … And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
It is hard to completely understand what happened at Meribath. There wasn’t any water for the Israelites, and they were turning against Moses and Aaron; but God told Moses that He would bring water out of the rock for the people. If you recall, this wasn’t the first time that God allowed this miracle to be performed through Moses. He ‘struck the rock’ the first time in Exodus 17:1-7, and God miraculously provided for the people, while giving Moses a miraculous experience with God’s glory.
This time, however, it cost Moses entry into the Promised Land – “And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’” Moses’ life-long journey seems to have come to a dead end. What happened? The accounts from Numbers 17 and Numbers 20 are almost identical, with one major exception, in today’s readings, Moses pridefully and harshly takes partial credit for the work of the Lord – “shall we bring water for you out of this rock (Numbers 20:20)?”
True, Moses was not supposed to strike the rock this time but rather “speak” to it. True, Moses seems to lose His temper. However, it would appear to me that the main issue (subject to much debate) was that Moses gave himself partial credit for the miracle of the water rather than giving all glory to God – “shall WE bring water….” God rebuked Moses, saying — “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold ME as HOLY (set apart) in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them (Numbers 20:12).” It is unthinkable for God’s servant to share glory with God. God’s ambassador represents Him and Him alone, and ALL glory must go to God.
“Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” God’s punishment of Moses may seem extremely harsh and unfair. After all, Moses had dedicated his whole life to humbly leading these stiff-necked people through great challenges in the desert, and his character was so much greater than everyone else’s. However, God holds leaders to a much higher standard than He does others (James 3:1), and when such an influential leader fails to uphold God as holy in the eyes of the people, that is a monumental violation which must be dealt with powerfully and publicly (before all who witnessed the offense). God’s standard for Moses was also much higher than everyone else because, though He was closer to God than everyone else, God intended to bring Him even closer – God’s goal for Moses wasn’t life achievements but rather unity with Him.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28, 29) If God’s sole purpose for Moses’ life was to lead the people into the Promised land, then this incident would be a tragic end Moses’ life – he failed miserably and didn’t make it. Everything he had worked for was lost. However, God had a much greater plan for Moses.
God gave Moses a mission to lead His people, but God’s ultimate purpose for Moses was to draw Moses closer to Him in eternal relationship, “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” It wasn’t as much what Moses was doing (the task) but rather who he was becoming along the way (the purpose). What was Jesus’ ultimate prayer for God’s people? “…that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…. they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:3, 22, 23)
God was using this failure to further refine Moses’ character and to reveal the reality of His grace and sufficiency to Moses – this was personal. God was more interested in Moses’ relationship with Him than in Moses reaching the temporal goal of crossing the Jordon River. God’s standard for Moses was much, much higher than His standard for everyone else, because Moses was at a different place in his relationship with God than anyone else, and God intended to take Moses to the next level by exposing Moses’ hidden pride so Moses would understand his total reliance on the love and grace of God. And ultimately, Moses did make it to the Promised Land, but in a much more powerful way — “And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus (Mark 9:4).”
Eternal life is not found in accomplishment but rather in “Knowing the Father and the One He has sent, Jesus.” (John 17:3) God often causes us to fail in our areas of strength we tend to rely on and take pride in order to expose and tear down our idols which stand in the way of our reliance on Him and fidelity to Him. Moses was the humblest man of his time, but God allowed him to fail in pride so Moses could understand the sufficiency of God’s grace. Similarly, Abraham was known for his faith, yet time and time again, God had to expose his lack of faith. Solomon was the wisest man of his day, and God had to bring him to the place where he would see that his ‘wisdom’ and unapparelled accomplishment was ultimately “meaningless.” Peter was courageous, yet he had to fail through cowardice, denying Christ three times, in order to come to a place where he truly understood the sufficiency of God’s grace, empower Peter to truly die for Christ.
Fear of man, selfishness, and lack of faith in God’s provision often causes us to seek reverence or honor from others as a defense mechanism or for self-gratification. We take pride in the gifts, talents and opportunities that God alone has given us, failing to uphold Him as Holy. When we are secure in God’s love, we have no need to be justified by others, and we have no reason to be harsh towards others. When we act out of insecurity or pride, we dishonor the LORD and mistreat others. I pray that I won’t worry about what others think about me but rather about what others think about God when they observe His works in my life. When unloving people naturally treat me unlovingly, I pray I will only respond in love and seek only to lead them to the God who is Love, without whom it is impossible to love.
Where might you still be trying to share glory with God in your pride and efforts? What personal ‘strengths’ will God have to expose as idols in your life, that you may learn to understand the total sufficiency of God’s grace?
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 6 April 2025: Pray that God will convict your heart of sins which might be hindering your right relationship with Him, and pray that God will give you the love to obey Him with passion and joy, as your heart’s true desire. Choose God over self and over sin today. Give it all up to God today in appreciation for what Jesus has done for you. Live in joyful obedience today. (Psalm 66:18) Rest in the sufficiency of God’s grace, and give Him all the glory. Trust God with both your successes and failures, and be further conformed to the character of Christ. (Numbers 20)
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 