Defending a Lion

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

            For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

                                                            Psalm 107:1 (NASB)

“Who is wise?  Let him give heed to these things,

             And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.”

                                                            Psalm 107:43 (NASB)

The two verses quoted above are the first verse and the last verse of Psalm 107.  I just sat down and picked this Psalm at random to read tonight.  What I began to realize is that Psalm 107 is God’s own defense for His goodness, something that is challenged too often in today’s society.  I like the quote by Charles Spurgeon that I heard recently concerning apologetics (defending our beliefs):

            “Defend God?  I’d sooner defend a lion!”

I’m getting more and more surprised by reading Scripture and realizing that many of the major questions that today’s society throw at Christians about the God they defend seem to have been addressed at one point or another in Scripture.  Why does God let bad things happen to good people?  Read The Book of Job chapters 38 through 42.  Is God really good?  Read Psalm 107. 

Another thing that surprised me today was the amount of attention I was given by a Hindu and a Janist as I began to explain who the Christian God is.  I told them that the God I worship created everything.  It is because of Him that you and I can breathe.  He provides the sun, the rain and everything necessary for life.  He is perfect with respect to power.  He isn’t just powerful, but He is power (the source of it).  The God I worship is perfect in respect to knowledge.  All truth comes from Him, spiritual or otherwise.  He is perfect with respect to love.  He isn’t just a loving being, He is love itself and without Him we would be incapable of the emotion or action.

I told them that God was everywhere.  He isn’t simply everywhere you go, but there is nowhere that you can go that is outside His presence.  Not even time contains Him.  All points of time (past, present and future) are in His presence.  He isn’t a God made with human hands and no temple made by human hands can contain Him.  That’s the God I serve.  That’s what He’s revealed about Himself to mankind through His Word and through the creation that testifies to His existence and glory. 

Like I said, I had their attention. 

I’m learning that our God is nothing to be ashamed of.  Sounds kind of weird, but it’s taken awhile to embody that belief rather than just say it.  This is the kind of God that we worship and whose Word is the bedrock of truth.  Regardless of religious or cultural background, to hear that such a being exists provides a hope that can’t easily be ignored.  To hear that the same lovingkindness that God attests to in Psalm 107 is the same love that compelled Him to send His Son to the earth as a sacrifice for us is to hear a message worth listening to.  This Word we have has power to do infinitely more than we ever could.  This Word is Jesus Christ.  Sharing Scripture is sharing Jesus Christ.  This is what I’m learning.  In the classroom I learned it by concept, but in ministry I learning of its power firsthand.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:12-13 (NASB)

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