August 2002 chaplain's corner
The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.
Chaplain's Corner - August 2002
Rev. Rich Hines
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Christ as their own
Lord and Savior, and are serving as correctional chaplains within the United
States.
A common inmate problem is feeling cut off and isolated. It is a fact, that the punishment side of the justice system seems
to give inmates that impression. How? The higher the severity or repetition of
the crime the more time the law prescribes as a sentence for the offender. Of
course, there is another aspect to incarceration - that of protecting society,
which is right. In a sense, incarceration even protects the criminal, from
himself, and hopefully others like him. But the normal way of thinking among
inmates is that jails and prison are the opposite of "God's country."
Some inmates have actually said to me, "God is not at all in a place like
this!"
When you encounter inmates that express these kinds of statements - feelings of
being cut off, being isolated, and being in an ugly, terrible place - a place
where God is not - it's always the right thing to do to turn them to Psalm 139
which speaks of God's omniscience and His omnipresence. That is,
the fact that He knows everything and is present everywhere.
This month, I want to point out these fantastic truths about God from this
wonderful Psalm. In turn, you can use them with the inmates you minister to. So
we see -
PSALM 139 - superscription
"For the chief musician. A Psalm of David."
The Superscriptions of the Psalms are not of human origin, they are part of the
God-breathed text of the Bible. This one, in Psalm 139 tells us two things.
First, the contents of the Psalm are so important,
they must be put to music in the worship of the LORD, by the very best musician
available, "the chief musician." Second, the human writer is
"David", the son of Jesse (King David).
David was an Old Testament believer, a saved man - one that was eventually
going to spend eternity with God. Therefore, we must first take his words as
the testimony of God's trusting child. If the inmate you are speaking to is a true
believer in Christ, then the truths of this Psalm will eventually comfort them
and give them peace.
The facts about God contained in this Psalm are true, even if someone is an
unbeliever, but the spiritual condition of this writer (David, a true believer)
made these truths a comfort to him, rather than a terror. Likewise, they should
eventually be a comfort to all believers in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
For those who are outside of a saving relationship with Christ, the truths of
this Psalm ought not at first comfort, but they ought to warn and drive them to
true repentance and faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. "There is no
peace," says the LORD," for the wicked (i.e. the morally wrong and unforgiven)." (Isaiah 48:22)
If the inmate counselee is still rebelling against God, still "in"
their sin - you should explain from Scripture that their feelings of isolation
should be seen by them as evidence of being out of a right relationship with
God. You should begin your evangelistic approach by pointing out they will
never be right and truly comforted by God, until they repent and turn in faith
to the biblical Christ.
Passages like Psalm 139, are evangelistically
important because every presentation of the gospel today should start with
biblical truths about the Person of God Himself. In our Post-Modern,
pluralistic age we can no longer assume anybody understands who we are talking
about when we use the term "God." Evangelism should also include
scriptural truth about mankind and sin, Christ's person and work, repentance
and saving faith in Christ and something about the new kind of life God will
empower the believer to live.
Now turning to the text of the Psalm, I want you to understand that it has two
parts.
Part 1 - THE BELIEVER'S (David's) REALIZATIONS ABOUT HIS GOD,
in verses 1-18.
Part 2 - THE BELIEVER'S (David's) THOUGHTS ABOUT SINNERS, in verses 19-24
Part 1 - THE BELIEVER'S (David's) REALIZATIONS ABOUT HIS GOD
There are three sections here.
A. God's Omniscience is in verses 1-6.
B. God's Omnipresense is spoken of in verses 7-10.
C. God's Incomparable Intellect (really part of His omniscience) is the subject
of verses 11-18.
GOD'S OMNISCIENCE (He is all-knowing) verses 1-6
1 O LORD, You have searched me and KNOWN me.
2 You KNOW my sitting down and my rising up; You UNDERSTAND my thought afar
off.
3 You COMPREHEND (lit. 'winnow') my path and my lying
down, and ARE ACQUAINTED ( are familiar) WITH ALL my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You KNOW it
altogether.
5 You have hedged (or enclosed) me behind and before, and laid your hand upon
me.
6 Such KNOWLEDGE is too wonderful (too remarkable) for me; it is high, I cannot
attain it.
Note FOUR times the word "KNOW" is used of God, plus there are three
other words or phrases referring to His knowledge; He UNDERSTANDS our thoughts,
He COMPREHENDS by winnowing out our paths and He is well ACQUAINTED with all
our ways - our doings.
The Hebrew word for "know" and "knowledge" in all the
verses where it appears in this Psalm, (verses 1,2,4,6,14,23)
is "yada'." It means: (1) to know by
observing and reflecting (thinking), and (2) to know by experiencing.
God knows us through and through. He knows everything perfectly. Nothing can
ever be taught Him. He knows everything. We could never hide anything from Him.
He knows everything. He knows all the believers individual problems, and He is
well acquainted with everything they go through. He wants, in His love to
minister to us that are His by faith in Christ.
Next, we come to the section that speaks about GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE (at all
times, He is everywhere present in His creation, yet not contained in any of
it) in verses 7-10
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from YOUR PRESENCE (from
the idea of God's face)?
Where can we go from God's Spirit, where God's Spirit isn't already there?
Where can we get away from God's face, and eyes? From the sight of God we
cannot be hidden. Remember, He knows everything (verses1-6). But that is not
all - from the immediate, actual, constant presence of God we cannot be
withdrawn. So we can tell the inmate or any person, that no
where geographically in all God's creation is any nearer to Him, or farther
from Him. He is always right there where they are!
The tragedy in our experience is so often we are the same as Jacob, who upon
wakening, said in Gen 29:16 "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did
not know it!" I believe we have to, in some degree, forget the Lord's
presence when we consider a temptation and then yield to it. To sin, a believer
has to turn into a practical atheist at that moment, because God is there - and
we somehow forget His presence.
So there is nowhere, where God is more present than He is somewhere else. This
biblical teaching that God is everywhere present at the same time really flies
in the face of religion, doesn't it? We like to build cathedrals and special
chapels and create an aura of artistic beauty - as if to say, "Now God can
come and dwell here." The truth is: He is in the most beautiful mountain
scene, or beautiful building and He is also in the most stinking prison hole -
all at the same time. Wow - what a truth!
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from YOUR PRESENCE?
8 If I ascend into heaven, (meaning high in the sky) YOU ARE THERE; if I make
my bed in hell (Literally Sheol, the pit, the grave)
behold, YOU ARE THERE.
What a contrast! Buried down deep in the ground or lifted up high in the sky,
God is always there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea,
10 EVEN THERE YOUR HAND shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
Remember, the writer David, is a true believer. The emphasis in verse 10 is
therefore a statement of the comfort God's constant presence brings to God's trusting
child. By contrast, when a person is in sin and rebellion against God, the idea
that we're in His presence shouldn't at first comfort us, but rather terrify
us.
In regards to this omnipresence of God, Charles Spurgeon said: "We must
be, whether we will it or not, as near to God as our soul is to our body. This
makes it dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty to His face, and
commit acts of treason at the very foot of His throne. GO FROM HIM, OR FLEE
FROM HIM WE CANNOT: NEITHER BY PATIENT TRAVEL NOR HASTY FLIGHT CAN WE WITHDRAW
FROM THE ALL-SURROUNDING DEITY ... OUR PRESENCE IS EVER IN HIS PRESENCE."
Spurgeon certainly had a special gift with communicating God's truth didn't he?
The last part of the quote (CAPITALIZED) is exactly what the word of God
teaches in Psalm 139:7-10. God is omnipresent.
Next, we see the believer David was given words in verses 11-18 that show us
more about God's omniscience in the area of HIS INCOMPARABLE INTELLECT - verses
11-18
First, it is HIS AWARENESS OF EVERYTHING (Omniscience) - verses 11,12
11 If I say, (obviously to myself, in my mind) "Surely the darkness shall
fall on (or cover - the idea is to hide) me," even the night shall be
light about me;
12 indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the
day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.
Among people that forget God or don't know Him, and don't give God a thought,
they want to do their evil under the cover of darkness to hide it from the eyes
of other men. But if anyone knows any of these truths about God whether they
were a true follower of Jesus Christ or not, they also know they could never
hide under the cover of darkness, because they know He is aware of all their
doings. But here again in verse 12, David as a true believer, was comforted by
this truth. A believer can BE IN THE DARKEST DUNGEON,
but before God they are in the light. He sees all their problems.
Next in verses 13-16, he talks about God's omniscience working to construct a
human being. This is HIS CREATIVE GENIUS - connected to verse 12, "the
darkness cannot hide" from God - it is dark in the womb.-
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered (or,
wove - to entwine, as a screen) me in my mother's womb.
This pictures God weaving together the bones, blood vessels, nerves and muscles
all according to His perfect plan.
Then the believer continues - under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; (this is talking
about his body) marvelous (extraordinary in power) are Your works, and that my
soul knows very well.
15 My frame was (lit. bones were) not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought (put together) in the lowest
parts of the earth (a poetic way of speaking of his mother's womb).
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all
were written, the days fashioned (technically, a potter's word - formed
according to a plan) for me, when as yet there were none of them.
What a thought! It is too high for us to fully comprehend. This says God had it
all planned out; not only our physical being, but all our days were fashioned
by God. This word "fashioned" means God formed everything for us
according to His preconceived plan.
The last part of GOD'S INCOMPARABLE INTELLECT here shows - HIS LOVE FOR HIS
CHILDREN DISPLAYED IN THE MULTITUDE OF HIS INDIVIDUAL THOUGHTS TOWARD THEM -
verses 17,18.
17 How precious also are YOUR THOUGHTS TO ME, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them they would be MORE IN NUMBER THAN THE SAND; when I
awake, I am still with You.
Think of adding up all of God's favorable thoughts to just one of His trusting
children. According to verse 18, the sum is more than the sands of the sea!
The clear implication of the last phrase "when I awake, I am still with You," is that while the believer slept and was
unconscious, he may have stopped thinking about his God, but God never stopped
thinking about him. God's never slept and His thoughts towards the believer to
bless him and prepare a place for him to be with Him forever,
never stopped coming. As soon as the believer David awoke, he realized God's
presence again.
Speaking of the reality of God's presence and knowledge, then connects to Part
2 -
THE BELIEVER'S (David's) THOUGHTS ABOUT SINNERS - verses 19-24
First, ABOUT GOD'S ENEMIES - in verses 19-22
19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you
bloodthirsty men.
Here there are other attributes of God - not stated outright, but implied. Specifically His holiness and justice. As the Holy, Holy,
Holy God, He has the right to judge sin. His righteousness is also behind His judgement. He is the righteous Judge who renders perfect
justice.
"Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men."
By this he means: get away from me you murderous enemies of God, who disobey
His commands. Stop giving me wrong thoughts about God.
20 For they (the wicked ones of verse 19) speak against You
wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain.
To take God's name in vain is not only to use one of the names of God as a
curse word, it is also in any way to misrepresent Him. So David continues:
21 Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Here the sin and the sinner are not divided. A true follower of the Lord must
hate sin. It's not so much that David says he hates them for who they are,
rather he hates what they do, especially when the blaspheme God by taking His
name in vain. God's enemies are the believer's enemies.
Any unsaved person is in reality the enemy of God. They remain His enemy until
they make peace with God through the blood of Christ's cross, until they come
to God on His terms - not their own.
The believer says "get away from me" to God's enemies. We must not
let ourselves be influenced by unbelievers - who are in reality God's enemies.
Teach the inmates that, because jails and prisons are extremely much more
dangerous spiritually, than they even are physically. There is nothing in any
jail or prison - apart from biblical truth, that will give them any genuine
reality. The rest of what's there is full of lies.
Far too many chaplains have been compromised by man-made ideas that are in
opposition to the word of an All-Knowing God. If chaplains get influenced by
the lies of unbelievers - how can the inmates they are there to help have any
model of opposing the ideas that oppose God?
In closing the Psalm, David turns from discussing the sins of God's blasphemous
enemies to thinking ABOUT HIS OWN SINS - in verses 23,24.
This is that he might realize them and repent from them. He says:
23 Search me, O God, and know (by personal involvement and observation) my
heart; try me, and know my anxieties (anxious thoughts);
24 And see if there is any wicked way (idolatrous way or painful way) in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
We should take "wicked way" as an idolatrous way, because David has
been talking about the true God's attributes and any sinful and wrong thought
or opinion about God is therefore that wicked way. By the way, whenever we have
a wrong thought about God it eventually allows our flesh to yield to all forms
of temptation and sin.
So he says "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my
anxious thoughts; and see if there is any idolatrous way in me, and lead me in
the way everlasting."
What a Psalm! What a blessing for a believer to be reminded of the truth of
God's nature and works. What a challenge to someone who is not yet trusting
completely and only in Christ's death for their eternal salvation.
I hope this Chaplain's Corner helps with this real practical problem you will
encounter from time to time in your ministry. May our Lord truly bless you in
your ministry for Him.
Rev. Rich Hines
Minister To Chaplains -