PSALM THREE

I AWAKED! 
 
  Three times in his psalms the singer dwells on waking up in the
morning.  The references are in Psalm 3, Psalm 17 and Psalm 139.  As
there is a progressive unfolding of the goodness and purpose of God in
these three statements, it would be as well to take time and consider
them. 
  In Psalm three he sings, "I awaked for the Lord sustained me." 
Remember, you woke this morning by the Grace of God.  The Psalmist was
in great trouble.  His own son Absalom had rebelled against him.  He
was fleeing for his life, not knowing who his enemy was, nor where he
was.  Any friend of his could be a friend of Absalom's.  Yet he says,
"I laid me down and slept."  The fact that he went to sleep in these
circumstances proves his faith in God.  The sleepless night is no real
testimony to our trust in the Almighty.  You cannot trust and worry at
the same time.  To awake right you must sleep right.  So he awoke in
the morning because the Lord had sustained him.  If you are in God's
hands, you are in the safest place.  If you are in God's hands, you are
in the place where all will be provided.  Your nearest and dearest can
let you down - but YAWE never fails. 
  A phrase which some people are always quoting is, "Today is the
tomorrow you worried about yesterday."  But this is so glib; saying it
gives very little comfort in real trouble.  What the psalmist was
saying was, "I didn't worry because I knew GOD was there.  This idea is
reinforced by what he sings in PSALM 139:  "When I awake, I am still
with Thee!"  In that context he is singing about the ALL-SEEING Jawe. 
He has seen us from our beginnings.  He knows every detail of our
lives.  He is our constant observer.  The supreme discovery in life is
to find out that God knows us so well - we escape from ourselves into
God.  The ultimate word of Greek Philosophy was - "Man know thyself!" 
The Bible urges us to KNOW GOD.  It is so impossible for man to know
himself.  We are so adept at hiding from ourselves.  But God knows us,
and He tells us what we are.  We call that experience, Holy Ghost
Conviction.  
  The Christian Bible tells us that perfection will be ours when we
know as we are known.  Every time we wake up to life's reality - God is
there.  The tragedy is that most of the time we are running away from
reality.  The modern world spends massive sums of money to provide
people with the means of running away from reality.  When will we wake
up to the fact that there is no satisfaction in THINGS. 
  The third reference to waking is in Psalm 17, where the psalmist
sings, "I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness."  In the
context he says, "Lord deliver me from the men of this world - whose
reward is in this life."  He wanted to be right and see God's face.  He
knew he would be satisfied when he awoke in God's likeness. 
  I remember when a boy at school I was very amused to hear the
teacher, when telling the story of a certain battle which involved the
Babylonians, saying, "They woke up in the morning and found themselves
dead."  It seemed so stupid to me.  Surely everyone knew that when you
are dead you can't wake up to anything.  I realise now that the dear
old teacher was trying to tell us something.  He was trying to impress
on us the truth that when you are dead you are NOT done for.  There is
life after death.  What an awakening that will be.  The psalmist sings,
"My satisfaction will be to be like you in that day when I awake in
eternity." 
  We awoke this morning by the Grace of God.  We shall awake in that
morning, to His likeness, by the mercy of God.  The New Testament
message is that we do not yet know what we shall be, but we know that
when we see Christ we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 
If this seems like a dream to you, it is because you have not yet
awakened to the Truth.  God has revealed that it is His purpose that we
should awake in His likeness.  We are so made that we will never find
full satisfaction until we find it in that fulfilment.



Copyright (c) 1995, Hedley Palmer. All rights reserved.



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