Birds and Altars

 

Psalm 84 has always been so beautiful to me. I love how the Psalmist writes about our hearts being set on pilgrimage and how the Lord takes us from strength to strength, but this week I have been studying the first four verses. 

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”

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The Psalmist seems to be envious of the birds who have made God’s house their home and dwelling place. He longs to be in the Lord’s presence stating in verse 10, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

I imagine him writing these beautiful and poetic words in adoration of our God when he notices the birds and the altars. 

‭‭The sparrow is a bird that is known as small, common, and insignificant, but Jesus makes mention of the sparrow in chapter 10 of Matthew...

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

I love that the sparrow finds a home in God’s house, His presence. I also love that the same Hebrew word for “home” is used for “families” in Psalm 68:6, “God sets the lonely in families...”

Just like the small sparrow, the lost and lonely find a home and family in God’s presence, the place where they belong. Home, where God’s children learn they are not insignificant to the One who created them and there is a family of God who will walk with them through any valley, yes, even the valley of weeping (verse 6). 

The swallow is known as a restless bird always darting back and forth, but even the swallow finds rest in God’s presence. The swallow builds her nest for future generations in His presence near His altar. To me, the nest implies a place of security, safety, shelter, and also vulnerability. We do not have to hide our weaknesses and imperfections in His presence. We can live with our hearts wide open and exposed to His grace and mercy. Restless and anxious hearts become settled and full of peace in His presence. He is a safe place for the weary and broken. 

I’m so thankful our God is in the details and nothing escapes His notice. He sees you and you are precious to Him. Yes, His eye is on the sparrow and He most certainly watches over you too, friend. May we long to live in His presence like the birds and this Psalmist. 

We have the amazing honor to continually dwell in His presence and also be carriers of His presence to the world. 

Yes, Lord, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”

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And he did so

 

Four words jumped off the pages of my Bible into my heart this morning, 

“And he did so”

 In Luke 6, Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when He noticed a man whose right hand was withered.

Jesus knew the critical thoughts of the religious leaders and that they were watching Him closely in order to accuse Him, but He went to the man anyway. Jesus wasn’t swayed by His critics.

Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” 

And he did so,

And his hand was restored as whole as the other.

”Stretch out your hand” would have been a simple command for most people, but I’m sure it was much different for this man.

He was stretching out more than his withered hand, he was stretching out his weakness, brokenness, shame, and disappointment. To openly display what he had often kept hidden must have been such a vulnerable moment for him, but he did it. Standing in front of Jesus as well as the criticizing religious leaders, he stretched out his brokenness along with his faith.

He did not allow pride, shame or his own understanding to hinder what Jesus wanted to do in his life. This man could have thought “I’m not going to stretch out my hand in front of all these people, that’s foolish. What difference will it make?” But he simply obeyed the words of Jesus and he was made whole. 

Faith and obedience often sound like,

 “ok, Jesus, this doesn’t make sense to me, but at your Word I will obey because I trust you.” 

Isn’t that what simple child like faith looks like?  In the previous chapter of Luke, we read about Peter also responding in simple faith and obedience. 

Jesus told Peter to “launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter responded by saying, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your Word, I will let down the net.”

Peter also was willing to obey His Word even though it didn’t make sense to him. What happened when Peter simply obeyed? The boats were filled with fish to the point of almost sinking! 

Jesus, You are worthy of our trust. Your are worthy of our obedience. Thank you for Your compassion that beckons us to come out of hiding from places of brokenness and shame. Thank You for inviting us to stretch out our faith in You by obeying Your Word. 

Learning to Slip Away lest we Drift Away

 

To drift means to be carried slowly by a current, to carelessly pass by. 

To drift away means to lose personal contact over time.

We were hanging out with friends in the lake once when I noticed how far we had drifted from the dock. The drift happens slowly to the point we don’t even realize we have drifted away from our starting point. 

Slipping away is intentional. 

Jesus was continually surrounded by large multitudes who wanted to hear Him, touch Him, and receive healing from Him. He never became overwhelmed by the crowds, but always looked upon them with compassion because they were like sheep without a Shepherd. The crowds were lost, aimless, helpless and scattered, yet Jesus did not see them as hopeless. When He looked at them, He saw a huge harvest. 

Jesus also knew how to withdraw from the crowds into the lonely places to pray. He knew how to slip away and spend time with His Father. Luke 5:15-16 says that “great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” 

He modeled this slipping away to pray so that we may learn and do the same. Mark 3:13-14 says that Jesus called and appointed the 12 and they came to him. He appointed them that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. 

We are to be with Him in the secret place so that He may send us out. We are His sheep and we go in and out and find pasture. We enter into His presence and become filled with all His fullness, then we are sent out and poured out only to return back to the secret place. 

When we neglect spending time alone with our Father, we allow doubt to enter and give our feelings reign over our spirits instead of truth. We must learn to slip away with Him lest we drift away from truth. Jesus IS Truth. When we spend time with Him, we are soaking in Truth. Hebrews 2:1-4 says “ So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.“

Remember

My boys and I are reading through the book of Mark and we were reading chapter 8 when verse 4 jumped out to me. Jesus had compassion on the multitude because they had been with Him for three days and He wanted to feed them. His disciples answered

 “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?”

I read that question and immediately thought about another question from Psalm 78:19:

“Yes, they spoke against God: they said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” 

Did the disciples forget who they were walking with? They were walking with Jesus, God in the flesh, the Bread of Life. The same One who sent manna from heaven to feed their ancestors. The same One who made water burst forth from a rock. The Bread of Life and Living Water was walking with them. 

In the Old Testament the children of Israel ate angels’ food and were well filled. 

How quickly the disciples forgot all the wonders God did for their ancestors. How quickly they forgot how He fed the five thousand to the full with twelve baskets of leftovers. Surely they believed He could and would do it again for the four thousand. If He multiplied the fives loaves, surely He could multiply the seven loaves. 

So, back to the question from Psalm 78:19... Can He prepare a table in the wilderness? The dry, lonely, and barren wilderness? Yes! He absolutely can! He is a good and faithful Father and He takes care of His children. He is faithful even if we are faithless. He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies and yes He will prepare a table for us in the wilderness as well. Not only will He prepare a table in the wilderness, but at times we are in the wilderness because He has led us there. He leads us to desert places to be alone with us, to show us His vision, to speak comfort to us, to reveal His power. 

Hosea 2:14-15 says:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.”

He sets tables in the wilderness and makes valleys of trouble become doors of hope. That’s our God!

The disciples were on a journey learning to trust their God fully. Jesus proved to be trustworthy every. single. time. Even when Jesus told them their friend Lazarus’ sickness would not end in death, yet Lazarus died. What they saw looked like the total opposite of what they heard until Jesus called their friend to come out of the tomb! He is trustworthy!  We can believe Him! If He says it, we will believe it! 

Our walk with Him is much like the disciples, learning to trust Him in everything. Sometimes we quickly forget who we are walking with too. We forget that we walk with the Lion of Judah, our Protector. We forget that we walk with our Healer, Provider, and Savior. We forget we walk with the One who death bows to, nothing is impossible for Him.  In every circumstance whether it’s sickness, poverty, or even death, may we remember who we are walking with and may our response continually be:

“I trust you Jesus.” 

“Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgements of His mouth... He remembers His covenant forever, the Word which He commanded, for a thousand generations.” 

Psalm 105:5, 8

We can remember who we walk with and trust Him fully because He will never forget us nor leave us and He will remember His covenant with us forever. 

There’s a song called “Remember” that prompts us to remember who we are walking with:

How quickly we forget the God
Who lives in every day
How easy to lose sight that You
Reside in the mundane
How quickly we forget the power
That's running through our veins
The kind of power that empties graves

And oh my soul
Remember who you're talking to
The only one who death bows to
That's the God who walks with you

And oh my soul
You know that if He did it then
He can do it all again
His power can still raise the dead
Don't tell me that He's finished yet

Lest we not forget the voice
That's holding back the waves
Was once the voice that told the skies
To pour them into place
Let us join the endless song of everlasting praise
The only God who empties graves

Oh my soul
Remember who you're talking to
The only one who death bows to
That's the God who walks with you

And oh my soul
You know that if He did it then
He can do it all again
His power can still raise the dead
Don't tell me that He's finished yet

If You broke through the oceans
You can break through these chains
If Your word made the mountains
It can move them all the same
If death fell before You
And it's still on its face
Then the power that raised You
Is about to move again

Wholeness

I don’t know her name, but she’s pretty amazing to me. She was an outcast, a nobody, deemed hopeless by society. Suffering and loneliness were her only companions and she knew them well. Did anyone ever look into her eyes to see the pain of her soul? When she did come out of hiding, people most likely turned away because to be near her would be risking defilement for themselves.   

This nameless woman that hid in the shadows of shame is known as the woman with the issue of blood. I mentioned that she is amazing to me and I say that because after twelve long years of suffering, she still had hope. 

The Bible tells us that she had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all she had and only grew worse, but then she heard about Jesus. I can imagine hope along with faith suddenly stirring and rising up in her as she heard about this Man who walked in power and love. 

In Matthew 9:21-22 this woman received exactly what she had believed God for, wholeness. 

“For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” 

The word “well” in the Greek is the word “sozo” meaning wholeness. 

She was believing for more than physical healing. She was believing on Jesus to redeem and restore, to save, heal and deliver, to make her whole. 

Jesus saw her and said “be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” 

In one verse she believed and in the very next verse, she received. 

I love that this woman refused to be led by past disappointments because she believed Jesus was greater than all she had experienced. She took action, she didn’t just stand on the sidelines watching with hope as Jesus passed by. No, she realized Hope was a person, so she let go of despair and fear to reach for Jesus, the only One who could make her whole.

She grabbed the hem of His garment while her bold faith and beautiful desperation grabbed the full attention of Jesus. What joy must have stirred in His heart as He looked into her eyes. 

Although we don’t know her name, Jesus knew her name, yet He called her “daughter.”

Not only was she healed, restored and made whole, she also received her true identity as daughter. 

She was transformed into a new woman that day. No longer alone, no longer forgotten, no longer despised, no longer bound in shame and despair. She received a new identity and knew she was healed, loved, delivered, free and finally whole all because of Jesus.