The All-Surpassing Greatness of God (Psalm 145:3)

"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable" -  Psalm 145:3
 

At this point, after stating his desire and his longing to extol and praise the Lord, David begins to articulate and explain what pulls his heart to such strong affection and worship of God.

 

The first characteristic of God that David mentions, is His greatness. The greatness of God which encompasses all of his attributes is the very reason why God is worthy of praise. His greatness is the characteristic that defines all of His other attributes and what separates His love from our love, His justice from our justice, His willingness from our willingness, His generosity from our generosity. His greatness is His perfection. It is the greatness of God in all of who He is that makes Him worthy and deserving of our devotion and adoration.

 

Everything about God should be seen and understood as superlative and infinitely more perfect and encompassing - especially as it relates to our own traces of such characteristics. The Lord is to be praised in accordance with His nature. The greatness and ultimate perfection and greatness deserves and requires nothing less than the greatest honour and devotion.

 

Ultimately, the outer fringes of God's never-ending and infinite holiness are too vast and effectively too great for us to completely see and understand. On one hand, they can be so clearly perceived and we can be so genuinely amazed by God's holiness and perfection in every way, but at the same time we must keep in mind that the glimpse of God that we can see is at best partial, blurry, and imperfectly informed. It is a glimpse of the truth nonetheless.

 

Do you see that the greatness with which you see God, and the way you stand in awe of Him will directly impact the way you worship and praise Him? David's desire to bless and praise the name of the Lord forever is attached to his desire to maintain a healthy and appropriate view of God's awesome greatness. We must understand that part of the maturing process of a Christian involves maturing in our eyes to see Him clearer each day, accompanied by growing awe. We must never be satisfied with the boundary that we think we see of God's greatness, that boundary does not exist, it is never really there. Without a growing understanding of God's greatness, our worship will plateau and plummet. 

Recounting the Story of Our Move

Well, we are here, we made it!

 

It's been a very busy week and I would have really liked to post something earlier on, but I guess one week is not too bad. The whole experience of packing, moving, and getting here was an adventure in and of itself, and it deserves it's own post. I will write something, hopefully tomorrow, about our first few days here.

 

It all started with the pickup of the truck. We had booked our 17' foot truck (we went for the bigger of the two options we were considering: the 14' and the 17') well in advance over a month ago. We had heard and read stories about people not getting what they had asked for or not getting what they wanted in time so we called and confirmed our order early in the week to make sure we were going to be able to get our 17' truck at 8:30AM so we could start loading ASAP. The lady was very kind and assured us that everything was okay and sent an e-mail confirmation about our order, the pickup location, and the pickup time.

 

Courtney and I went to pick up the truck at 8:20AM on Thursday morning (this was last week...) and after waiting about half an hour in line (I don't mind having to wait in lines too much) we finally got to talk to the rental rep who informed us that they did not have a truck for us. Again, he was also very polite and told us that they only had the 14' if we wanted to switch to that one instead. The customer that had the truck we booked was supposed to return it by 11:30AM that morning. The thing was that we didn't know for sure if they were going to return it in time. He tried calling the customer but no one picked up, he checked all the locations in the area to see if there was a 17' truck in the area that we could borrow - nothing. They only had ONE 20' truck at a different location and that was it. I was already not feeling super excited about having to drive what seemed to me like a HUGE 17-foot truck for 9 hours on the interstate, the idea of having to get a bigger one and having to pay more for gas wasn't too appealing. He did say that we would get a deal on the gas though. We decided that we were going to wait until 11:30 and see whether our truck came in or not. By the time we left, my mom and brothers were already at our place waiting for us so we could start loading. Courtney's parents were on their way.

 

The morning came and went and we got a call at around noon saying that the truck never came but that they did have a 20' that had arrived at their facility that we could take. We needed a truck so we decided to go for it. After another 45 minutes in line and a bit of a stressful morning, we had a truck, got a discount, and we were ready to start loading! It took a couple of hours but we JUST managed to fit all of our stuff into the bigger truck and had everything piled pretty much to the top - it would not have fit on the 17-footer!

 

We spent that night in New Hamburg and got up early the next morning to start driving. My parents and brother met us in the morning and we started the caravan to Kentucky. Departure time - 3:30AM.

 

The truck ended up being quite fun and easy to drive and we made it to the border with no problems. It was the shortest crossing time we'd had so we were just hoping that the inspection and the actual crossing was going to go well. And it did... except for the fact that I wasn't able to open the lock we decided to put in the truck that morning. I didn't have the code for it and even after frantically texting Courtney's dad for it, we still weren't able to open. We as in myself and the other 3 border-patrol officers. In the end they ended up cutting the lock, were very polite and kind, and let us go through no problem!

 

After a few stops to get gas, some coffees, and a quick lunch stop, we finally got to what would be our new apartment at around 3:30PM (12 hours later - a record long drive!). By then, we are all quite tired and the idea of unloading things was not too appealing. However, we knew that it wouldn't be as nice not to have a bed to sleep in, and we would have to go buy another lock for the truck if we didn't unload before it got dark. We ended up giving the unloading a go and with the help of our neighbors (about 5 of them) we were completely unloaded in an hour!

 

Our next-door neighbours are a married couple from Indiana and they were moving in when we got here. He is starting his M.Div. as well at Southern and they had one little guy who is turning 1 this month. It was great to see and meet our neighbours the first day and get a sense of how nice the community around here was going to be.

 

After talking to our neighbours about their move too, we found out that they had the exact same problem with the truck as us. They ordered a certain size for a certain time, and when they got there it wasn't available. They ended up going with the bigger truck, and much like us, they wouldn't have been able to fit their stuff if they had gotten the truck they wanted, when they wanted it. The way the trucks ended up working out reminded us again of the Lord's sovereignty and favour in our move. Also the fact that although both Thursday and Friday were supposed to be rain-days in Mississauga and Louisville, and we didn't get rained on at all, really encouraged us and gave more reason to thank God for a safe and smooth trip :).

We're Moving Next Week! - Update

We are now starting our last weekend in Mississauga before the big move. These past couple of weeks have been wonderful - wonderfully relaxing and wonderfully busy. We've been able to enjoy one week of relaxation at the cottage with Courtney's family and one week of rest and relaxation at Blue Mountain with my family. Also, now that we are both done work, there's been a lot of "TO DO's" that need to be checked off and of course some packing that needs to get started.

We've been able to enjoy great times with our families and friends and have been very, very encouraged and blessed by all the support and help we have received from so many of our friends. A lot of people have been wondering where we are at with the moving process and if we are "all set for the move". I thought it might be fun to write a little post with some updates with how we are doing, where we are at with our "TO DO's" and what still needs to get done. So, if you're interested, enjoy!

 

THINGS IN LOUISVILLE:

Most of the things that need to be set up in Louisville are set up. We have our courses picked, everything school related is on track, we only need to buy our books - 24 books for me and 16 for Courtney (we'll be sharing 13 of them though so it's really only 27 we need to get...) *gulp*. Once we get to Louisville we'll be importing our car, getting a Kentucky license plate, applying for a Kentucky Driver's License (which requires a written and a road test...) and Kentucky Driver's Insurance. We also need to get our renter's insurance and our internet set up. Finally, we'll be looking to get new cell phone numbers as soon as possible.

 

TRAVELING THINGS:

Most of our traveling documents are also ready. I had to apply for an urgent passport renewal earlier this week since it expires next year. Because we are applying for a 3-year visa, our passports cannot expire prior to the expected date of our return to Canada (Spring 2016). We will be going and having our visa interview on Monday (you can be praying for that...) which will make the actual trip down next Thursday a lot smoother when we have our truck full and don't have to stop at the border for the interview. We also have our moving truck booked and will have some help for our loading day (next Thursday).

 

FINANCIAL THINGS:

It is actually unbelievable to me what God has chosen to provide for us financially. I would have NEVER thought that we would be leaving for Louisville in the financial situation we are in. We by no means have extra money that we don't know what do with, but instead the Lord has chosen to provide for our daily and short-term needs financially and with the faith that we need to continue to look to Him for what will need tomorrow. For example, we were very happy when we received notice that we had both received a scholarship for $1600 for our first year of studies! I also received an offer of employment for a job on campus that I'll be starting in 2 weeks! Things like these have kept our spirits up and our eyes on the Lord. Our family and friends have also been a huge, huge blessing in this area by offering meals, giving gifts, and just encouraging us in trusting and looking to the Lord for our needs.

SPIRITUAL THINGS:
Spiritually, these past couple of weeks have been great because of all the "time" we have. I haven't had this much time to spend in the Word in and prayer in a long time and although there have been many hours that could have been better spent lately, I've really been enjoying spending time in the Psalms and in prayer every morning. Whether it is packing, running errands, or spending time with friends and family, our eyes and minds have been on the leading of the Lord. These past couple of weeks have been very exciting and busy, but there has also been significant times of sadness and tears as the date of the move gets closer and closer.

Aside from this, we have began our packing (as you can see in the picture) and we're making good progress on it. I'm feeling very, very excited about the move, about starting school and about starting this new chapter in our lives. I am going to miss our family so much, our friends, our church, our small group, our city, our ministry here, and everything that is so familiar. At the same time the Lord has so much more refining to do in us and for the next couple of years this work will be done in unfamiliar territory away from our church, family, and friends - and it will be AWESOME.  

The Daily Devotion of Joyful Worship (Psalm 145:2)

"Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever" - Psalm 145:2
 

After summarizing his heart and summarizing the Psalm, David decides to reword his first verse and repeat it. "I will extol you my God and King, and bless your name forever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever" (Psalm 145:1-2). This second verse seems to focus on and emphasize the frequency and the permanence of the adoration. David has such a strong desire and derives so much pleasure from it that it is his desire to continue in it every day for the rest of his life.

There are very few things that we resolve or that we desire to do every day. Some of the things we do daily such as brushing our teeth, having lunch and checking e-mails, we do every day but there was never a resolve to do so. They are simply things that either out of necessity or simple habit have become part of our days. The worship of the Lord is not such. The extoling of God cannot become routine like brushing our teeth, it is not something that is simply done and produces a checked box. It is a sacrifice that is experienced at first very dimly and faintly. The next time it might be just as dim and nearly empty, but it grows. The praising of God in the heart is an act that grows in brightness, in vividness, in clarity, in authenticity, and in intensity.

It is this growing pleasure and understanding of the appropriateness and necessity of daily, devotional adoration to God that produces its daily resolve. It is the growing sweetness and enjoyment of the presence of God that produces the desire to day "tomorrow again!". It is tomorrow's time in prayer that allows you to taste the sweetness again and gives you a little bit more understanding as to what the prayer is all about. It is devotion that produces more devotion and the dim light that produces a little more brightness the next time.

David's resolve and desire to bless the name of the Lord went beyond any circumstances that he might face in the future. He understands that worship is not dependent on anything other than the unchanging recipient of the adoration and praise, God Himself.

What is it about God that draws men to such devotion? What is it about God that calls man to enjoy prayer and adoration regardless of pain, joy, suffering, exhaustion and gladness? Surely it must be something great and not found in anyone or anything else. What else can require and receive such affection and fidelity? David will answer these questions for us in the verses to come.   

The Ultimate Joy and Purpose of Man (Psalm 145:1)

"I will extol you my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever" - Psalm 145:1

A few weeks ago I began a study of Psalm 145 out of a desire to maintain and grow in awe of God. It was Dr. Paul David Tripp who led me to this Psalm as rich text and source of admiration and wonder. Over the past couple of weeks I have been meditating on this Psalm, verse by verse, word by word, and allowing my mind and heart to soak in this song of joy and awe of God.

 

This Psalm is one of the acrostic Psalms - each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is characteristic of Hebrew poetry, but it also serves to memorize the text. This poetic psalm was likely one that was memorized by most Jews and they used the acrostic to help their memory. This is not an uncontrolled and thoughtless pouring out of thoughts and feelings in a matter of seconds resulting in the Psalm written. Rather, it is likely that it was carefully worded, ordered, and thought through to maintain the integrity of the acrostic while keeping a logical flow. 

 

This first line of the Psalm both introduces and summarizes the heart of David. He writes this line as the thesis and intent of his song. To extol the Lord, and to bless His name forever and ever - that is his desire, and it is out of that longing and with that pursuit that he pens the text. There is a resolve in his heart, a strong desire that he would continue to delight in the Lord in adoration for the rest of his days. 

David refers to God as a king, as his king. David was probably writing this line during his reign as king in Israel. Nevertheless, he is quick to see his own kingship and dominion over the nation as nothing more than his service and devotion to the real King and Ruler of Israel and the entire universe.

 

To extol God is to praise His name highly. It is to see the majesty of God and to rightly respond in worship and adoration. This cannot be done unless one sees God first, and so, worship begins with the setting of our eyes on God, looking to Him, and beginning to understand who this being is. Meditation and quiet reflection then becomes necessary to rightly respond to God. Responding to an idea, or thought, or memory of who God might be will not result in any praise or adoration of the real King.

 

In the last part of the verse, David shows the devotion with which he wishes to continue to praise God - "forever and ever". This is something so great for David that he wants to follow this pattern on a daily basis. In the next verses, he will begin to unfold why anyone would desire such a devotion and why any being would be worthy of such adoration.

 

The Journey to Finding an Apartment in Louisville - The Decision

I previously wrote about our trip down to Kentucky a few weeks ago. After looking at a few apartments, Courtney and I needed to decide between two different options. For more details on the two options, you can read my post here.

 

We decided we would spend a week in intentional prayer and see where the Lord would lead us and hopefully one of us would feel inclined to change our minds on the apartment we would apply for. For myself, there were a series of events over the two weeks following our trip that have taught me a lot about making important decisions, about trusting the Lord in prayer, about trusting the leading of the Holy Spirit, and about the beauty of a life not lived for myself. Here are the situations that acted as definitive steps on our way to our decision.

 

PRAYING – NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS:

The very first thing that I believe lead to peace and clarity in our decision is a prayer we prayed together the first night we got back home. Just before we fell asleep we closed our eyes and we prayed, “God, we look to you for wisdom and guidance in this decision. Please allow our hearts and minds to be open to what you will lead us to, give us strength to be honest with each other about where we feel you are leading us individually, and give us sensitivity to not ignore your leading”. As soon as I said “Amen” I automatically sensed “you should apply to the first apartment”. It was real, it was there, but it was just a feeling, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

 

THE WORD – ELIJAH’s UNCOMFORTABLE JOURNEY:

We started a series at Harvest looking at the life of Elijah starting in Chapter 17. The first Sunday after we got back Robbie preached on 1 Kings 17:8-16 on a message titled “Walking in the Will of God”. One of the points Robbie made was that the will of God involves the test of believing. Both Elijah and the widow were tested in their faith for the Lord. Robbie made the point that contributing to the kingdom of God is always better than contributing to the kingdom of self. Spiritual maturity involves growing in generous giving, sacrificial giving, cheerful giving, and faithful giving.

 

COUNSEL – LIVES LIVED FOR THE LORD

It was at around this time that I began looking into Christian biographies. One of the biographies I heard our first week back was the biography of Charles Simeon. I saw and heard about this man with whom the Lord walked for many years. I saw the faith that the Lord gave him to endure trials, to not avoid suffering, and to remain faithful in the calling he sensed for his life. He endured so much suffering, so much disease, so many deaths in his family, so much discouragement, so much affliction, so much discomfort, so much alienation, so much hatred, and so much loneliness. When asked, after 49 hard years of ministry he was asked by one of his friends how he had surmounted persecution and outlasted all the great prejudice against him. He answered, “My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake”. That line stuck with me. We indeed must not mind a little suffering, and we must certainly not mind a good dose of discomfort. I was inspired to have such a loose grip on material possessions and on personal comfort and instead to have a strong vision and desire for the gospel, for ministry, for sacrifice.

 

SACRIFICE – NOT MY KINGOM BUT HIS KINGDOM

One of the things Courtney and I both knew would probably have to happen if we were to choose the second apartment, is that we would probably have to stop our sponsorship of our two little kids through Compassion Canada. By choosing to stop the sponsorship of Yulianis and Lincon, we would essentially have the $100/month that we would need to make things work at the second apartment. After days of prayer, hearing about Elijah, hearing about, a pool and a nice balcony didn’t seem as desirable as a ministering to people that might have never heard about Jesus. It didn’t seem adequate or right for us to stop sending money to our two sponsor kids who are being fed with the Gospel , with love, and with daily necessities in Colombia through Compassion Canada so that we could enjoy what would be a more comfortable and glamorous place. I began to see that this decision was not about us, but like everything else in our lives, it was about the Lord.

 

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT – WHEN I ABIDED MOST IN CHRIST

Despite all of these things, for most of the two weeks after we got back, I really wanted to live in the second apartment and was kind of hoping that Courtney would change her mind. At work, I would be thinking about how nice it would be to have a pool to relax in during the hot summer, and to read and to study. I thought about how nice it would be to have the nice patio. I thought about how hard it would be to have such a tiny kitchen. I just thought about how nice it would be to live in the second apartment. This is what I thought about, most of the time. However, this is not what I thought after a deep time of prayer, this is not what I thought after worshiping the Lord and hearing his Word preached on Sunday, this is not what I thought after spending time learning about the life of Charles Simeon. When I felt like I was leaning the least on my own understanding, when I felt like was trusting the most in the Lord, when I felt like I was acknowledging most his purposes and his desires, I thought about how great it would be to live in the first apartment.

 

When I thought about all these things, it seemed clear to me that if the Holy Spirit does in fact lead the people of God, this is very likely the way He does that. We ended up applying to the first apartment after being convinced that this was the right thing for us to do at this point.

The Journey to finding an Apartment in Louisville - The Options

It is about time to write of the journey that the Lord has taken us on in finding, applying for, and finalizing the details of where we will be living once we move to Louisville. This little piece of the journey has been, for me, one of the most encouraging and blessed parts of our journey so far. I have learned much about myself, about my wife, and about our God and how He is looking to work in our lives even now, manifesting his guidance through the Holy Spirit and His unchanging Word.

Prior to going down to Louisville a couple of weeks ago, we wanted to narrow down the search of apartments we had found online to a number that we might be able to actually go on see during the weekend (maybe 3 or 4) without overwhelming ourselves. After filtering our findings more by the budget that we had and by location (close to campus) we ended up with one apartment. We were going to go down and just look at the one apartment.

That seemed fine up until the night before we were leaving. All of a sudden we started having our doubts - "Are we REALLY going to drive 9 hours to look at ONE apartment?". In a bit of a panic, we loosened up our criteria and came up with a list of 4 that we would go see. That weekend we went and looked at the four apartments on our second list and left to come back home with a big decision on our hands.

 

OPTION #1:

 

 

The first apartment (the only one we were originally going to see) is in an older complex in a very quiet and green neighbourhood. There are lots of trees around, nice paths and a little park in the complex (all things that attracted Courtney to this option right off the bat). It is a 20 minute walk from campus and would be a good option if we were to have different class and work schedules. It is relatively inexpensive, as it is only available for low-income families. The 2-bedroom option we were looking at would be enough space for us, although the kitchen is tiny (one-person-in-the-kitchen-at-a-time kind of kitchen). We walked around and saw some of the immigrant families and kids that lived in the complex, which reminds us of the community where we live now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPTION #2:

The second apartment we were considering is a newer complex about 13 minutes away from campus in good traffic. This one caught my attention right off the bat. The grounds were wonderfully kept, the buildings looked newer, and the person who helped us and showed us around was very likeable, helpful, and courteous. It also had a really nice pool! The model apartment that we looked was VERY nice and we were both very impressed. It had a really nice kitchen, great walkout patio, nice windows, and great space. The price of this second option was a little higher (by almost $100/month) than the first option, but it still seemed manageable and worth the consideration.

 

 

There was much to consider, much thinking to be done, and much prayer to do. Courtney was leaning more towards the first option while I was very happy to apply for the second apartment. Overall, our trip ended up being productive and now we just needed to make a decision.