Psalm 18 - In My Own Words.

I have been challenged this semester to learn how to meditate on Scripture. 

The first time I heard this, I imagined myself sitting with my legs crossed and eyes closed thinking really really hard about a verse in the Bible I had read...and I thought that was weird. But I have been corrected in my understanding of meditation. For one, I didn't realize that the Lord commanded this of us in multiple places: 

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." -Joshua 1:8

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." - Psalm 19:14 

 There are many more within Scripture telling us to dwell on, meditate on, think about the Word of God. But how? Well, today I tried one particular method that my professor, Dr. Donald Whitney, taught us in class from his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. 

I read a Psalm and then put the Psalm into my own words. Specifically, I read Psalm 18. The outcome was a beautiful reminder of what the Lord has done in my life in short 3 years, and the pure salvation I have experienced through Him. I wanted to document this to serve as a reminder to me and anyone else who reads it of the powerful redemption of our God, and to serve as an example of how you can spend time dwelling on one passage in Scripture. 

Read Psalm 18 either before, after, or side by side with this entry...it'll make more sense that way! 

Psalm 18

My Lord is my rock. My refuge.

A mighty fortress is our God.

The cords of death encompassed me;

in my sin the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I called for help.

From His temple He heard my voice,

my cry to Him reached His ears.

And He answered me. In power He came,

the foundations trembled and quaked,

because He was angry.

A righteous, powerful anger for His chosen daughter,

crying out for His rescue.

He sent from on high, He took me;

He drew me out of the water that was encompassing me.

He rescued me from my strong enemy,

for satan and sin were too mighty for me.

He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

And now, the Lord deals with me according to my righteousness,

a righteousness not earned through what I do,

but through the sacrifice of His Son.

The perfect sacrifice.

No longer must I pay for my sins sacrifice after sacrifice

after sacrifice to earn my Lord’s forgiveness.

He gave us the perfect, ultimate sacrifice through Christ.

Through Him we are forgiven. (Romans 5:12-21)

Now He deals with me according to the cleanness of my hands.

For by grace, through Christ, I am now blameless before Him

and able to keep myself from guilt.

With the merciful, You show Yourself merciful;

with the blameless, You show Yourself blameless;

with the purified, You show Yourself pure.

I am these things because You have made me so.

For it is You who light my lamp;

the Lord my God lightens my darkness.

This God - His way is perfect;

the Word of the Lord proves true;

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

For who is God, but the Lord?

And who is a rock, except our God--

The God who equips me with strength

and makes my way blameless?

You’ve equipped me; bow, shield, and armor (Ephesians 6:11-18)

to fight this war with sin that  wages against my soul (1 Peter 2:11).

With You, the battle is won.

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,

and exalted be the God of my salvation--

the God who delivered me from my enemy.

I will praise You, O Lord, among this nation and others

and sing Your Name and tell of the 

great salvation You bring to Your people.

Christian and Apollyon

I've heard of the book The Pilgrim's Progress multiple times in my life, but I've never taken the time to sit down and read it. This is no longer true, since it is on my syllabus for my Personal Spiritual Disciplines course I am taking in the fall. So, to get a head start I have begun the book, and am loving it so far. It's a blatant allegory about the life of a Christian and the trials he/she may face.

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I just read a scene that made me want to pump my fist in the air and say, "Heck. Yes." So I thought I would share. :)

Christian (main character) has been on his journey to the City of Zion for quite some time. He has endured trials, climbed the mountain of Difficulty, has been shown truth, and is now descending into the Valley of Humiliation. While there he comes across a beast named Apollyon (Revelation 9:11 -- "the destroyer" or "satan"), who attempts to persuade him to return to his hometown, the City of Destruction, and return under his lordship. Christian refuses multiple times, until finally Apollyon falls into a rage against him, and begins pounding him with flaming darts (Ephesians 6:16).

Fortunately, Christian had been given armor at the top of the mountain of Difficulty (Ephesians 6:10-20), so he was able to shield himself from the darts. Apollyon was not dissuaded, and continually attacked him over and over, until Christian "grew weaker and weaker" (59). Then Apollyon "espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian" and delivered such a blow as to knock Christian's sword from his hand and put him on the ground, so that Christian "began to despair of life" (59). ((Don't worry guys, the fist pump will come soon...)

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Just as Apollyon was getting ready to make his final blow, Christian "nimbly reached out his hand for his Sword, and caught it, saying, 'Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy! When I fall, I shall arise'" (59) and with that gave a deadly thrust which caused Apollyon to stumble backward. Christian seized this opportunity shouting, "Nay, in all these things we are more than Conquerors, through Him that loved us!" (60) and Apollyon spread his wings and quickly fled from Christian. (**insert fist pump and HECK. YES!**)

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Favorite. Christian defeated Apollyon (satan) with the "Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). Here are the scriptures he quoted against Apollyon (the Micah verse is AWESOME).

"But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me." -Micah 7:7-8

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." -Romans 8:35, 37

Praise God that He has equipped us with the means to resist and defeat our foe, the devil. We have the power through His Spirit and His Word to conquer daily that which has already been conquered through the death of Christ. This is why it is IMPERATIVE that we KNOW the truth that we claim to believe, why we have no excuse to not commit scripture to memory and have a relationship with His living and active Word (Hebrews 4:12). Otherwise, how do we expect to battle satan when he strikes? Note I said "when", not "if". What a great reminder for us all to daily arm ourselves with the Word of God.

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." --1 Peter 5:8-11 

The Purity Principle

I'm currently reading a book called The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn for one of my classes in the fall. It is a great, brief book about fighting the temptation of sexual sin and how to go about that fight. It's a quick read, and though he has his cheesy one-liners at times, it has some SOLID points about ways to prevent falling into sexual temptation, or how to fight back if you're already in the midst of this sin. Two things have stood out to me so far from this book.

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In one of the chapters he references Psalm 119:33-37 (specifically verse 37) as a way to battle any type of sexual temptation, and I love the verses so much that now I'm committing them to memory.

"33Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. 34Give me understanding that I may keep Your law and observe it with my whole heart. 

35Lead me in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. 36Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! 

37Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways." 

He suggests printing out verse 37 and putting in on the top of your TV and computer as a reminder to dwell on the truth and life that comes with the Lord, not the worthless images the world constantly throws at us. Alcorn states, "Lust is fed by whatever we've deposited in our brains that it can get its claws on. What's in our brains is what we've allowed in through our senses. The images and words in our minds must come either from specific things our eyes have seen and our ears have heard or an imaginative conglomerate of such input" (42). If we think the TV shows or movies we are watching, or the images we see on the Internet, are not having an effect on our minds, thoughts, and ability to fight sexual temptation--we are sadly mistaken.

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This truth goes hand in hand with the next part of the book that put a pretty heavy conviction on me. ((Disclaimer-the next sentence is a little provocative, but has a good point!))

Alcorn-- "Suppose I said, 'There's a great-looking girl down the street. Let's go look through her window and watch her undress, then pose for us naked, from the waist up. Then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex--let's listen and watch the windows steam up!' 

You'd be shocked. You'd think, What a pervert!

But suppose instead I said, 'Hey, come on over. Let's watch Titanic.'

Christians recommend this movie, church youth groups view it together, and many have shown it in their homes. Yet the movie contains precisely the scenes I described" (61).

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He continues, "How does something shocking and shameful somehow become acceptable because we watch it through a television instead of a window? In terms of the lasting effects on our minds and morals, what's the difference?...Every day Christians across the country, including many church leaders, watch people undress through the window of television. We peek on people committing fornication and adultery, which our God calls an abomination. We've become voyeurs, Peeping Toms, entertained by sin" (62). 

Whew. Like I said, convicting. Mitchell's response to this when I read it aloud was, "Okay, so what does this do to our movie collection?" A grand question. Thus begins my process of weeding out some of the movies we have allowed into our home that aren't necessarily edifying for our minds. We have both been cautious of the type of media we allow to enter our minds, but this was a quick wake up call that we've still been compromising on things with the justification of "it's not that bad". I believe wholeheartedly that our minds are satan's number one target in regard to sin. We are called to wage war against the flesh using the divine power of His Word (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) and resisting satan, who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:6-10).

And ladies, this goes for you just as much as it does the men reading this blog. For too long we have believed the lie that sexual temptation is just a "man's sin". Bull. We need to fight for purity just as much as they do--we need to turn our eyes when a provocative scene comes on the TV just as much as they do. We may not be as visually stimulated as men are, but we are still just as susceptible to sexual sin. So, do not read this as something your husband or boyfriend or brother needs to read. YOU read it. Ask the Lord where you need His sanctifying hand to intervene in your life. Fight for purity, sisters, in every area of your life. 

  

I hope this serves you the way it has served me. Ask yourself, "What TV shows, movies, books, internet sites, do I need to cut from my life? Am I dwelling on the ways of the Lord, or the worthless things of this world?" Perhaps these questions will spark a needed change in certain areas of your life.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." -Philippians 4:8

For more reading on this topic:

1. "Finding Freedom In a Sex Obsessed World" - Neil Anderson

2. "Who I am in Christ" - Neil Anderson

3. "Radical Womanhood" - Carolyn McCulley

4. "Girls Gone Wise" - Mary Kassian

5. "Lies Women Believe" - Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Just a few scriptures as references as well (I encourage you to look up others on your own, this is the number one way we can fight the lies of satan...the Word of God!):

Jonah 2:8

Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

Proverbs 5:20-23, 5:15-19

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

1 Thessalonians 4: 3-8

Galatians 6:7-9