Taking every thought captive

Christians are a singing people because they are a believing people:

Then they believed his word;
They sang his praise (Psalm 106:12)

A professional singer may be able to sing oratorios with technical perfection without believing a word that is sung. But such singing is not praise. Praise can only be produced by believers.

That is not to decry effort on the part of believers to sing well, tunefully, accurately, and according to the music. John Wesley’s advice to those who would week to sing his hymns is surely appropriate. How can we praise God “according to his excellent greatness” (Ps 150:2) if we do not seek to do it with excellence ourselves? Sloppy praise is a contradiction in terms.

But true praise is never a performance, nor simply emotion and feelings. It is an expression of belief, not feeling. It therefore must have content, expressed coherently and with meaning. Christians do not chant meaningless mantras interminably; they sing Almighty God’s praises.

Such an awesome task demands that we consider carefully and creatively how we may express the inexpressible. To resort to meaningless mumbo jumbo is not an option—it is not worthy of the one whose glory we seek to express in our praises. What kind of a response is it to mumble meaninglessly when he has spoken clearly and meaningfully?

And yet believing praise will not be dispassionate and devoid of emotion or feeling. Psalm 106 takes the Exodus as its focal point for meditation. Who could say the song of Moses and the people of Israel in Ex 15 was devoid of emotion or feeling?

Praise involves a delicate balance and blend of excellence in word and music, and heartfelt expression of godly emotion and feeling. No wonder the psalmists prays that the word of his mount and the meditation of his heart may be acceptable in God’s sight (Ps 19:14).

In this evening’s service, our visiting preacher spoke from Psalm 32. He confessed to having been recently “converted” to the Psalms. It got me to thinking why I, and so many other Christians, find the Psalms so helpful. I’m convinced that it has a great deal to do with the fact that they show us life as it is — warts and all. In the Psalms we see the disappointments, trials and troublesome times — the times that the world often tries to gloss over or edit out.

But the Psalms show us not just the warts of life, for life is more than warts. The Psalms are framed from the standpoint of faith, and set against the backdrop of eternal reality. As our preacher this evening reminded us, they are best understood in the light of the New Testament, where they are so often quoted by the Lord Jesus and his apostles.

The Psalms are prayers we can all pray at some time in our lives, and praises that we can all sing. Not every trouble is solved, but there is a resolution to every problem. The psalmists may be left in trouble, but they are never left without hope. All our hope on God is founded, just as we place our faith in him. Life may be difficult, but it is not hopeless (unless we live it without God).

The Psalms also are examples of how godly men pray, examples that help us pray and praise as we ought. Even if the psalmists’ trouble or situation is not ours we can certainly learn from these godly men at prayer and praise. The Psalms give us models for our own prayer and praise.

So let’s pray as they did. Life has its warts, but Christian believers can pray in the midst of the warts. The psalmists show us how.

Psalm 32 begins, as 119, with a double-barrelled blessing. Part of that blessing is the blessing of covered sin (32:1) which is only possible if we do not cover up our sin ourselves (32:5). it is only possible when we confess our sin (32:5).

The irony of not confessing sin, that is trying to cover it up and hoping it won’t be notices, is that it is ever before me, and before God. No matter how hard I may try to bury it in my own mind, it is like a cork. However many times I try to sink it, it floats! “My sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3).

The sin of Achan (Jos 7) illustrates the folly of trying to cover our sin. However well Achan hid his sinful deed from other people, God himself saw it. How true it is: “whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Pr 28:13)

Confessed sin is covered sin. And not only is it covered, but it is taken away “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). When God covers sin he removes all trace of it. That is the essence of forgiveness — taking away. These two ideas are also linked in Ps 85:2. God has done this by his Son, as John the Baptizer declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) Indeed, it was the very reason Christ came, “You know, he appeared to take away sins.” (1Jn 3:5)

“Learn to set spiritual riches over against temporal poverty. Balance all your present troubles with your spiritual privileges. Indeed if God has denied your soul the robe of righteousness to clothe it, the hidden manna to feed it, the heavenly mansion to receive it, you might well be pensive.”

John Flavel, Keeping the Heart. A Puritan’s View of how to Maintain Your love for God, Christian Heritage, 1999, ISBN: 1-85792-504-1, p. 88

How modern the concerns of seventeenth century man. He was concerned for clothes on his back, food in his stomach, and a roof over his head. These Gentile concerns (see Mat 6) are shown most vividly in contemporary British TV—cooking galore, makeover shows (whether looking good naked or clothes!), and DIY, house moving shows on every channel it seems, pretty much daily.

The trouble lies not in these temporal concerns, but when they become goals in life: to look good, to eat well, and to have an impressive house. “Life is more than food and the body more than clothing” (Mat 6:25). Our problem is that we become anxious about these things, and we seek them. And in seeking them we no longer seek God first (cf Mat 6:33). Our home becomes our priority, not God’s kingdom, the place we will spend eternity if we have been born again. Our clothes become a priority, instead of Christ’s robe of righteousness, our garments of salvation.

But unlike some religions where the choice is either … or, the Bible presents a different scenario. We seek God first, we put him first, “and all these things will be added to you” (Mat 6:33). It is not particularly spiritual not to bother with food, clothes and shelter, either for ourselves or to provide for our families. What is unspiritual is to elevate these daily necessities to the level of God, which is what we do when we do not seek God first. If he is toppled from his position of authority in our lives we are merely doing what caused Satan’s fall. He wanted to be higher than God (see Is 14, Ezk 28), and it led to his downfall. If we seek to emulate him, we can expect no less. The fact is “God knows [we] need them all” (Mat 6:32).

Is our greater attention to food, clothes and shelter than to God not an assertion of our own independence from God. If we pray for daily bread, then we need not concern ourselves with it. If we truly depend on God, then what he provides ought to be sufficient. If we believe “my grace is sufficient for you” (2Co 12:9) then we dare not complain about the size of the portion on our plates, or the style of the clothes on our backs.

Such an attitude does not come naturally—it must be learned. Even spiritual giants like the Apostle Paul had to learn this; it does not come naturally.

“I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Php 4:12)

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” (Php 4:11)

“There is great gain in godliness with contentment.” (1Tm 6:6)

We must do as Flavel says and “learn to set spiritual riches over against temporal poverty.”