David's Cry: Part 1

King David leaps and dances before the Ark of the Lord.

I would like to share, probably in five parts, some of what I shared with our youth group last week, and our fellowship on Sunday, about the need for proper balance and perspective in our view of God and His relationship with us. (See the note below about listening to it if you are interested.)

Proper balance and perspective in our view of God is, I believe, imperative if we are to walk out our unique place as His children, soldiers, and ambassadors in these days in which the Kingdom (or reign, or rule, or dominion) of God is breaking in around us, over us, and through us . . . but is clearly still not here in fullness, and won’t be until He comes back. Until it does, we are called to carry this good news of the Kingdom, to walk in its power, to share in His joy and the freedom of our salvation, and to bear His image, as citizens of one Kingdom in, and at war with, another.

Without proper perspective and balance in our view of God and our relationship with Him we can fall in to error and be crippled in our walk. If, for example, all we know is God’s grace, then we run the risk of taking that grace for granted, or not having reverence for God, and becoming like those Paul had to address who ended up using that grace and forgiveness as a license to sin. On the other hand, if all we know is His Kingship and Lordship and His holy attributes as God, we run the risk of living in fear of Him, feeling we need to always perform for Him, and maybe never feeling like we are safe with Him. We might, even, run from Him and not recognize the relationship with Him that is possible.

It is crucial that we have a balanced and Biblical understanding of God and our relationship with Him. To illustrate that to the youth, I had them break in to five groups and each describe a different aspect of the building we were in where our fellowship meets. One group described the outside, one the inside, one the activities that went on there, one how they felt there, and one the people who met and led there. I then showed them how any one or two or even three of those gave a partial picture and feel and sense of the building and what it embodied to someone who hadn’t seen it before, but it was only in the bringing together of all five that we got a true and full picture of the building and fellowship and what it meant.

Likewise, if we only know one aspect, or maybe two, of God then we have a partial, but not a full picture of Him and our relationship with Him. Granted we will never fully grasp God, but there is a verse which, I believe, captures the major essence of Him and our relationship with Him. It comes from David, a man after God’s own heart. With such a compliment given to him by God—one we would probably all love to have God attribute to us—I believe it bears studying how David saw God and related to God. The passage I refer to is from Psalm 89. Verse 20 makes it clear God is talking about David, and in verse 26 the Lord says of David, “"He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.' ' "

There is, in that one line, a beautiful and balanced picture of God and our relationship with Him, from a man after God’s own heart. My plan is to break each part of it down over the next three posts, and then to wrap it all together in a last one. I hope you enjoy it, and are blessed by it.

May you be deeply aware, today, of His love for you and nearness to you.
Erick

Note: If you would like to hear the teaching I gave on this whole subject, which will have, by far, more detail than this blog series, it should be up in a few days on our fellowship’s web page. You can click on the “About Me” link above, and scroll down to the link “Some Recent Teachings I Have Given (mp3)”. It will be called, “Kingdom of Heaven 15" and dated May 22, 2011.