what a God, what a God!

“Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,…” — Psalm 106:7a

When I was in seminary, Tom Steller taught us a tool for understanding God’s word called arcing. Because of his deposit of this tool in my life (along with our other teachers, John Piper, Tim Porter, et. al.), the way I read, study, meditate upon, and understand the Bible was forever changed — the Bible comes alive, draws me in, fascinates and astounds me. I can’t not see arcs and propositions and arguments when I read God’s Holy Scripture. What a gift it has been!

And the gift gave yet again this morning.

I was sitting in our living room — Bible in lap, coffee at hand — working through my daily liturgy of catechism, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, Scripture, prayer, adoration, and praise, as I do each morning. And I arrived at the “confession of sin” movement, from theologian, Jeremy Taylor, and my attention was arrested. Here’s what he said —

You have given me a whole life to serve you in, and to advance my hopes of heaven; and this precious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities, being improvident of my time and of my talent, and of your grace and my own advantages, resisting your Spirit and quenching him. I have been a great lover of myself, and yet used many ways to destroy myself. I have pursued my temporal ends with greediness and indirect means. I am revengeful and unthankful, forgetting benefits, but not so soon forgetting injuries; curious and murmuring, a great breaker of promises. I have not loved my neighbor's good, nor advanced it in all things, where I could.

I have been unlike you in all things. I am unmerciful and unjust, a foolish admirer of things below, and careless of heaven and the ways that lead there. But for your name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great. Amen.

Now, this portion of my daily liturgy often wrecks me, as I get confronted with my deep iniquity before a holy God. This morning it was, in particular, those devastating words from Taylor — “You have given me a whole life to serve you in,” and yet, how have I used it?

I have “been improvident of my time and of my talent.” Improvident is an old-fashioned way of saying “thoughtless.” And how often is this true of fallen sinners? That we have been given life — life! — and we are yet thoughtless in the way we use this precious commodity provided to us by our Creator. We don’t use our time and our talents in thought-full ways. Worse still, we are also improvident in regards to God’s “grace and our own advantages, resisting his Spirit and quenching him.”

In a phrase, we have been “unlike God in all things.”
It’s true of us, dear reader, and it’s devastating.

And so we rightly cry out, with access provided to us by the Good News and work of Jesus, Son of God (Hebrews 4:14-16) — “But for your name’s sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great. And amen.”

And now here’s the really important bit in a morning time of communion like this, because while we most assuredly must be confronted by the sinfulness of our sin — our loving Father, and his Son, through the Holy Spirit — DO NOT INTEND for us to stay in the grieving and godly regret caused by such iniquity. That would not be Good News, the kind of news we desperately need.

And so we turn to the “assurance of pardon” provided by the same Holy Spirit who convicts us of that which requires pardon. This morning, that was found in Psalm 106, recounting God’s mercy:

Psalm 106:7-8
7 Our ancestors in Egypt did not grasp
the significance of your wondrous works
or remember your many acts of faithful love;
instead, they rebelled by the sea — the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his power known.

Ok, so here’s where I finally get back to that bit I started with — how arcing forever changed the way I read the Bible. It’s there in verse eight, leaping off the page, a concessive slapping me right in my interpretive face.

“What’s a concessive?” you say.

Well, a concessive is “a clause that stands despite a contrary statement.”

Let me give you an example: “Shamus bought Molly a wonderful Christmas gift, even though he was quite poor.”

Do you see the concessive?

Despite the fact that Shamus was poor, it stands that he still bought Molly a wonderful Christmas gift. The one thing being true in spite of what needed to be overcome. Make sense?

OK, so now look at Psalm 106:7-8.
Do you see the concessive leaping out at us in verse eight?

Even though our ancestors in Egypt didn’t grasp the wondrous work of God’s redemptive, saving act of Deliverance through ten signs and wonders, bringing them into the Promised land; even though they forgot these many acts of his faithful LOVE; even though they rebelled by the sea — the Red Sea; even though all of that is true…And now, here comes the concessive. Here comes that which stands despite all those contrary statements. Ready for it?

“YET he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his power known.”

THAT IS AMAZING, isn’t it!? God doing one thing in spite of another.

Dear friend, this wasn’t just true of our ancestors in Egypt. Because even though we do not always grasp the wondrous work of God’s redemptive, saving act of Deliverance through the signs and wonders of the incarnation, perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; even though we forget there is a Promised Land of a new heavens and new earth awaiting us; even though we lose track of these many acts of his faithful LOVE for us; even though our lives are filled with manifold rebellions; friend, even though all of that is true….And now, here comes the concessive. Here comes that which stands despite all those contrary statements. Ready for it?

“YET he has saved us for his name’s sake, to make his power known.”

THAT IS AMAZING, isn’t it!? God doing one thing in spite of another.

What a God! What a powerful God! To overcome all of that which is opposed to his salvation, doing so without breaking a sweat. He saves us for his name’s sake. He saves us to display that kind of power.

It is my prayer that you will find great comfort in the faithful love of God.
For he does not overcome that which stands in the way of his redemption because he feels obligated to do it.
Brother, sister, there is no one twisting his arm to save us.
He does this because he loves us.

And Happy New Year.