The Works of God

Dr. Reinders was right – our “Christian liturgy is replete with songs and prayers full of the promises of what God will do.”  Maybe those old hymn writers knew something about suffering and providence worth remembering and even clinging to today.

For example:

Now Thank We All Our God:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

And there are some old verses in familiar hymns I think we should bring back!

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

With might of ours can naught be done, soon were our loss effected;
But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.
Ask ye, who is this? Jesus Christ it is.
Of Sabbath Lord, and there’s none other God;
He holds the field forever.

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I’m watching thousands of geese head north as I write this.  It is an amazing sight; their flight pattern is distinct and beautiful and very complicated as I watch individual birds within the mass. I went outside and could hear multitudes of birds twittering, singing and honking.  It is good for my soul.

A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, p. 110.

God created all things.

This truth no one, who bows to the testimony of Holy Writ, will question; nor would any such be prepared to argue that the work of creation was an accidental work.

God first formed the purpose to create, and then put forth the creative act in fulfillment of that purpose.

All real Christians will readily adopt the words of the Psalmist and say, “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom has Thou made them all.”

Will any who endorse what we have just said, deny that God purposed to govern the world which He created?

Surely the creation of the world was not the end of God’s purpose concerning it.

Surely He did not determine simply to create the world and place man in it, and then leave both to their fortunes.

It must be apparent that God has some great end or ends in view, worthy of His infinite perfections, and that He is now governing the world so as to accomplish these ends – “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations” (Ps 33:11).

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I enjoy conferences for the new content I will hear explaining old truths, and for the old content I usually discover.

I bought A.W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God at the Children Desiring God conference this past weekend.  Though it is not yet more than 100 years old (it was first published in 1930), I can say with confidence that Pink brings a helpful, God-centered wisdom that will last well into the future!

A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, p. 15

Without a doubt a world crisis is at hand, and everywhere men are alarmed. But God is not! He is never taken by surprise.

It is no unexpected emergency which now confronts Him, for He is the One who “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). Hence, though the world is panic-stricken, the word to the believer is, “Fear not”! “All things” are subject to His immediate control: “all things” are moving in accord with His eternal purpose, and therefore, “all things” are “working together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”

It must be so, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). Yet how little is this realized today even by the people of God! Many suppose that He is little more than a far-distant Spectator, taking no immediate hand in the affairs of earth.

It is true that man has a will, but so also has God. It is true that man is endowed with power, but God is all-powerful. It is true that, speaking generally, the material world is regulated by law, but behind that law is the law-Giver and the law-Administrator. Man is but the creature.

God is the Creator, and endless ages before man first saw the light “the Mighty God” (Isa. 9:6) existed, and ere the world was founded, made His plans; and being infinite in power and man only finite, His purpose and plan cannot be withstood or thwarted by the creatures of His own hands.

 

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All the paths of the Lord are loving and faithful. Psalm 25:10

All does not mean “all – except the paths I am walking in now,” or “nearly all – except this especially difficult and painful path.” All must mean all.

So, your path with its unexplained sorrow or turmoil, and mine with its sharp flints and briers- and both our paths, with their unexplained perplexity, their sheer mystery – they are His paths, on which He will show himself loving and faithful.  Nothing else; nothing less.

Amy Carmichael, You Are My Hiding Place, p. 98

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If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.

“His soul shall dwell at ease.” In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvelous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our Refuge” — nothing can come through that shelter.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, June 2 meditation.

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D.A. Carson, on God and prayer in the midst of suffering:

The degree of our peace of mind is tied to our prayer life (Phil. 4:6-7). This is not because prayer is psychologically soothing, but because we address a prayer-answering God, a personal God, a responding God, a sovereign God whom we can trust with the outcomes of life’s confusions. And we learn, with time, that if God in this or that instance does not choose to take away the suffering, or utterly remove the evil, he does send grace and power. The result is praise; and that, of course, is itself enjoyable, in exactly the same way that lovers enjoy giving each other compliments.

I cannot tell you how many times I have visited some senior saint who is going through serious suffering, perhaps terminal illness, only to come away feeling that it was I who benefited from exposure to a believer who was already living in the felt presence of God.

D.A. Carson, How Long, Oh Lord? p. 217-218.

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D.A. Carson included this poem by Augustus Toplady (writer of Rock of Ages) in his book, How Long, O Lord?

A sovereign protector I have,

Unseen, yet for ever at hand,

Unchangeably faithful to save,

Almighty to rule and command.

He smiles and my comforts abound;

His grace as the dew shall descend,

And walls of salvation surround

The soul he delights to defend.

Kind Author and ground of my hope,

Thee, Thee, for my God I avow;

My glad Ebenezer set up

And own Thou hast helped me till now.

I muse on the years that are past

Wherein my defence Thou hast proved;

Nor wilt Thou relinquish at last

A sinner so signally loved.

Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,

Thou Shepherd and Guardian of Thine,

My all to Thy covenant care

I sleeping and waking resign.

If Thou are my Shield and my Sun,

The night is no darkness to me;

And, fast as my moments roll on,

They bring me but nearer to Thee.

D.A. Carson, p. 218

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A reminder that we should never despair, no matter the circumstance!

From Charles H. Spurgeon in his sermon, Hope in Hopeless Cases, preached in 1868:

The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, was so extensive as to touch the confines both of Heaven and Hell. We see Him at one moment discoursing with Moses and Elijah in His Glory, as though at Heaven’s gates, and lo, in a few hours we see Him confronting a foul spirit, as though defying the infernal pit. There is a long journey from Patriarchs to demons, from Prophets to dumb devils, yet mercy prompts Him and power supports Him so that He is equally glorious in either place!

. . . Our Lord’s transfiguration did not disqualify Him for casting out devils, nor did it make Him feel too sublime and spiritual to grapple with human ills. And so, at this hour, the glories of Heaven do not take Him off from the miseries of earth, nor do they make Him forget the cries and tears of the feeble ones who are seeking Him in this valley of tears. . .

I say again, it is infernal impertinence that has dared to suggest the idea of despair to a sinner! Christ unable to save? It can never be! Christ outdone by Satan and by sin? Impossible! A sinner with too many diseases for the Great Physician to heal? I tell you that if all the diseases of men were met in you, and if all the sins of men were heaped on you, and if blasphemy and murder and fornication and adultery—and every sin that is possible or imaginable had all been committed by you—the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, could cleanse you from all that! If you will but trust my Master—and He is worthy to be trusted and deserves your confidence—if you will but trust Him, He will save you even now!

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