You Alone Are God (Psalm 86:1-17)

You Alone Are God

 

Psalm 86:1-17

 

Today we are going to think about one of David’s prayers. This psalm begins with David’s desperate supplication, “Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.” When I was studying in the seminary, I had a course named Introduction to the Old Testaments. At the first class, the professor asked us what our favorite book was in the Old Testaments, and why. My answer to the question was 1 and 2 Samuel. 1 and 2 Samuel is mainly a biography of King David. But it is also a biography of God, the God of David. David’s life was deeply soaked with God. From his first to his last, from his lowest humility to his highest glory, from his ugliest sins to his dazzling beauties, every moment of his life was imbued with living God. So David was like a clean mirror reflecting God’s face vividly. By reading David, I read God. That’s why I mentioned 1 and 2 Samuel as my favorite book in the Old Testaments.

 

Now with David’s prayer to God in Psalm 86, however, I would like to compare David more to a mould or a cast than to a mirror. He cries to God, “Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.” He cries like an empty tray waiting to be filled. As a poor and needy soul, he comes to God and prays earnestly for God’s help and God’s comfort. I believe this is the clearest picture of what is happening between God and me. God is full. I am empty. Then God fills me with His life, His joy, and His glory. In this way, God moulds me into his image. In fact, this is the story of God’s creation, and the story of God’s recreation. The creation story begins with the description of how the earth was before creation. Genesis 1:2a says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface.” Before God’s work of creation, the earth was dark, empty, and formless. Then, God worked on the lifeless dark land, and filled it with light and lives, every space of it the sky, and the water, and the land. This is also the same for the story of recreation. Jesus became a man, and emptied himself (Philippians 2:7a). But God was pleased with His Son, and had all His fullness dwell in him (Colossians 1:19). Through his emptiness and God’s fullness dwelling in him, Jesus became a visible and the exact same image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).

 

Jesus came to us, not to fill us but to empty us. In other words, I may say “to clean us.” Some people came to Jesus and asked the Lord, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Then Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day, they will fast” (Mark 2:18-20). Jesus said that his disciples would fast when the bridegroom, namely, Jesus their Lord, would be taken away.  As for the spiritual purpose of fasting, it is said that “fasting is intentionally emptying oneself to be receptive to something else.” But actually Jesus’ disciples didn’t empty themselves intentionally by not eating. They were emptied by force when they lost their Lord. When Jesus was with them, they enjoyed such a wonderful and joyful coupling with the Lord, tasting the heavenly life, joy, and glory in Him. And then, all of a sudden, the Lord left them, leaving behind a huge bottomless hole at the center of their heart. They became empty, I mean, became receptive. When Jesus said, “they will fast,” the fasting may not necessarily mean “skipping meals.” I believe Jesus is talking about the disciples’ emptiness without Jesus their Lord and their receptiveness toward whatever God gives them in the name of Jesus Christ. With their emptiness and receptiveness carved by the hand of Jesus Christ, God can fill them and mould the image of God in them, the exactly same image as Jesus in life, joy, and glory.

 

Let’s go back to David’s prayer and think about what he was praying for. I would like to mention three prayer topics that David brings before God. He prays, “Guard my life; save your servant” (v. 2). He prays, “Bring joy to your servant” (v. 4). And he also prays, “Teach me your way, and I will walk in your truth” (v. 11). David is praying for his life, his joy, and the way and purpose of his life. We can see how fundamental issues he had in his life. David dragged his entire life before God. It was truly an unbearably heavy matter. If we turn his prayers downside up, we can see how miserable his life would be without God. No life, no light, and no joy. It was totally empty and dark, and so miserable as that much. In her book, “God Does His Best Work with Empty,” the author Nancy Guthrie says, “It’s amazing how heavy the weight of emptiness can feel, how much room it can take up in our souls, how much pain can be caused by something that isn’t even there.” This is true. David looked inside himself poor and needy, and couldn’t find anything there except deep, dark, and gloomy emptiness that was vast enough to hold the whole universe. He knew God alone could fill the emptiness. So he prayed to God so that God may fill him.

 

Based on David’s prayer, I would like to talk about three elements that fill our emptiness. They are life in God, joy from God, and joy to God. David prays, “Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trust in you.” David put his life in God’s hand, believing that God would save and protect it. David was a warrior even when he was a young boy, keeping his father’s sheep from wild beasts such as lions and bears (1Samuel 17:34-35). But he was also famous for God’s being with him. One of Saul’s servants recommended David to the king, saying, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him” (1Samuel 16:18). David was a brave warrior, and the Lord was with him. I don’t know how he became famous for God’s being with him. David says to God, “I am devoted to you!” “I trust in you!” and “I call to you all day long.” These sayings of David suggest how earnestly and constantly he entrusted his life to God’s care and protection. And as much as his devotion, God also committed Himself to David’s life. Like David kept his sheep from the wild beasts, God kept David from all kinds of dangers. In fact, God was David’s guard, keeping him day and night without sleeping. Believing this, David, for his life, always came to God instead of relying on things in the world. In order to stay alive to God, he refused to find a shelter in the world. David’s life reminds us of St. Paul’s testimony: “Why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day – I mean that, brothers – just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord” (1Corinthians 15:30-31). When Paul says, “I die every day,” he doesn’t mean that he is committing suicide every day. He means that he gives up his life support from the world in order to stay alive in God. With this new powerful true life in God, he became a brave warrior like David. David calls God “my God.” It is because his life is in God’s hand. Whoever or whatever I rely on for my life, it is “my god.” And David didn’t tolerate any gods before him other than the Lord. For his life, he confessed faithfully, “You alone are God.”

 

David also prayed to God, “Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul!” When we look up God, God turns his face to us, and his merciful face satisfies our souls. Why are we unhappy? It is because of our sins. With hidden sins in us, we fear God and hate to see his face. Disconnected from God, the source of true joy and satisfaction, we drink alcohol or whatever we can grab in order to forget our shames and the painful emptiness. But even with his ugliest sins, David didn’t become a stranger to God. Instead, he lifted up his soul before God, expecting God’s mercy. He says, “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.” David was persistent in demanding God’s mercy even when he was not worthy to be forgiven. A sinner’s only joy is God’s forgiveness. There is no other way to the peace and joy of our souls. My soul may be tainted with shames and pains. But I have no choice. I just lift it up before God and wait for God’s forgiveness out of his abundant love. In fact, it is God who really wants to be our joy even when we are the ugliest sinners. He waits for us like the father does for the prodigal son in Luke 15, standing outside all day long to see if his son would change his mind and come back home. The father has already prepared the best robe, ring, and sandals, and the fatten calf in order to welcome the son. Truly, truly, God is our joy. Psalm 37:4, David says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” We may think we would be happy if God gives our heart’s desires. But it is not. God himself is our supreme joy. When we delight in Him, he dwells in us, and fills our hearts with marvelous joys overflowing day and night and ever and ever. With this joy, David confessed to God, “You alone are God.”

 

Again, David prays to God, “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth.” Not only having God as his supreme joy, David wanted to please God by learning God’s way and walking in God’s truth. He desired to be a joy to God by imitating God’s way. God’s way and God’s truth is the meaning and purpose of our lives. David calls not just “the way” and “the truth,” but “your way” and “your truth.” In judging what is right or wrong and what is true or false, David denied his own judgment, and acknowledged God’s judgment even when it looked very unfair. King Saul tried to kill him out of jealousy, but David didn’t use the good opportunities to revenge himself and to remove his political rival. He obeyed God’s way by respecting God’s anointed king. God sometimes humbled David down almost to death and sometimes exalted him up high, but in the middle of all these tumults, David kept asking God about God’s way and God’s truth. God was pleased with David. With regard to David as such, Samuel called him “a man after God’s own heart” (1Samuel 13:14). David was truly God’s joy because it was David’s heartful desire to please God not after his own heart but after God’s heart. We are happy not only when somebody makes me happy but also when I make happy somebody whom I love and respect. And St. Paul says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). Paul is saying that he cannot do both at the same time, and he must choose one or the other. David also prays, “Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart.” Only God is worthy of our fear with an undivided heart and our praise with all our heart. With such obedience and worship to God, David became a joy to God. With such obedience and worship, David confessed to God, “You alone are God.”

 

David had another problem, not in himself, not with God, but with his enemies. There were people who were arrogant and attacking David, a band of ruthless men seeking David’s life. David calls them “men without regard for you.” More literal translation of this phrase is “They do not set you before them.” When David was rejoicing God’s grace upon his soul, he soon became a highly noticeable target of those who were so arrogant and ruthless as to ignore the living God. Still David, instead of wrestling with such people, came to God and prayed for His help. “Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.” Compared to his ungodly, arrogant, ruthless enemies, David’s prayer is humble and gentle before God. Even he doesn’t want revenge. He just prays, “Give me a sign of your goodness that my enemies may see it and be put to shame.” God’s goodness toward me is the final solution of every problem we have in the world. The world invites us to compete with them for human glories. But David remained faithfully in his humble position as God’s servant. His only desire was that God may give him a sign of God’s goodness so that he may praise the name of God even in front of his enemies. This is the godly solution and victory for us and against our enemies in the world. “Sign” is a miracle that only God can do. This is like Jesus’ resurrection that shuts up the mouth of all his enemies. With such a sign of God’s goodness, we can silence the world and bring peace and comfort to our hearts.

 

David was the last son of his father, and his job was keeping his father’s flock in the field. His life should be empty and miserable. But it was not. He was full because he sought God’s filling with a single heart, with all his heart. He didn’t allow anything to occupy his emptiness. Only with God’s goodness, he filled even the deepest corner of his soul. Truly his life was a miraculous sign of God’s goodness. Through his devotion to God, he moulded God’s image in his emptiness. In the same way, each of us is an empty vessel prepared by our Lord Jesus to contain the life, joy, and glory of God. We will see in the last day how God has filled this vessel. Let us be cleaned by Jesus’ blood and filled with the Holy Spirit until the living God and God alone is formed in us.