Read The Word

"We know we are not fighting people."

WHEN WE read the Psalms, there are certain things we must know. First, that the Holy Spirit was WITH these psalmists but not IN them (John 14:17). They did not have His Presence forever inside them. Whereas He works IN us to pull down strongholds in the mind and the heart (2 Corinthians 10:4), they were slaves to sin, to use a King James Version phrase. This accounts for all the pleas for Jehovah, for that is the name they used, to destroy men they considered their enemy. We know we are not fighting people. This is stated in Ephesians 6:12. But they did not know that. Revelation is progressive. It is only fully seen in looking behind at past events. For instance, there are many prophesies of Jesus’ coming to earth, yet when He stood amongst them, Israel did not recognize Him nor understand what was happening. The church of Acts, however, knew the significance.

“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” (Acts 2:22-24 KJV)

We can make this same statement of John’s Revelation. Though many try to completely interpret it, this cannot actually be done. It will be understood only when its events have happened. But from it, today, we glean hope and understand that the God of Peace will end things peacefully because that is who He is. Peace is His nature (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Returning to the psalms, we must see the God of Peace in its words and overlook men’s declared war against each other. We must also understand the Old Covenant Law has been fulfilled (Romans 8:4). Though the New Covenant has rules of behavior, they are not required to gain salvation. Salvation is a free gift, given to us because Jesus shed His blood to take covenant with us (Ephesians 2:8). We lay our lives at His feet, willingly accepting His gift, and His Spirit comes to live inside us where He, the Holy Spirit, begins what is a forever work. Not just one work, one-and-done, but our spirit man remade or born again, a popular term, He then aids us in growing up, in becoming loving representatives of Christ. Christ, being all three members of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. THEY are CHRIST.

Psalm 119 is a good place to read and speak the truths of Scripture as New Covenant truth. We don’t need to declare words of unrest, anxiety, and depression. Jesus has delivered us from all of the oppression of the enemy (Acts 10:38). The Holy Spirit is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). We do see there that God is good and does only good (Psalm 119:68). This is a powerful truth which James also speaks to us (James 1:17). We find it in Romans 8:28 as well. God always works for our good. There is no evil in Him (James 1:13).

There is an important verse in Psalm 119 which I want to bring to you. I love to repeat verse 165, which tells me that because God’s Word is in my heart, I will never be offended. The King James Version says “the law,” but we are not under the law. However, God has not changed. He is love and has bid us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, a command which includes our enemies (John 13:34;Matthew 5:44). We are neither to give offense nor to take offense.

“Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:” (2 Corinthians 6:3 KJV)

Now, sometimes people are offended, but that is sin working in them and should not be a result of sin displaying itself through us. We are to submit our will to God and walk in the Spirit, in meekness and self-control. When we walk righteously, or in Him, displaying His ways, we have favor in everything we do.

We actually should be the opposite of many of the words of the psalmists, King David’s included. They became frustrated and lashed out, begging God for vengeance, a human mindset. We are to pray for all men (1 Timothy 2:1).

We can’t be offended by any modern translators either. They are simply interpreting the Hebrew and cannot leave words out. It is not their fault that verse says what it says. Instead, we know how it looks in the Light of the New Testament and when it doesn’t “match”, we MOVE ON. There is a historical aspect to God’s Word which He values and wants us to see. Understanding how the Hebrew language works is yet another important understanding we must have.

All Hebrews letters correlate to numbers, and all numbers have specific meanings. One of the greatest examples is in the parable of the Sower, that Jesus spoke. Where He says the Seed placed in good soil grows thirty, sixty, and hundredfold, those numbers are pictures of Jesus which those trained in the Law, who spoke Hebrew on a daily basis, would have known. They did not, however, understand them, or they would have seen who He was. They can be a picture of God’s desire to bless us financially but that is actually not their intended purpose. The Seed sown is, instead, the revelation of the Father. We are familiar with God as Father. They were not. This is why when Jesus called Him that, they were angry and confused. “How can He say that?” The capitalization here is mine, out of respect for Him. To them, He was just a man with a strange “aura” to use a modern term.

It isn’t an aura. It is the Presence of God, the Holy Spirit upon Him. The Spirit wrote the psalms, just as He spoke to the prophets. They were also men who had the Spirit WITH them and not IN them. They also could not fully see what their words declared, many of which, especially those of the prophet Isaiah, have not yet come to pass, and this should sit in our thinking because those words were spoken to him through the Spirit thousands of years ago. God is faithful. Every word spoken by Him fulfills all it is sent to do. No word He speaks is void of power to be accomplished but will be accomplished (Isaiah 55:11).

All His Words bring peace. We must read the Word in the eyes of the Spirit. He is our Teacher, who brings what is said to our remembrance and gives revelation of it, so that we’re not tripped up by the human mindset of those whose lives it shares with us.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

“May God himself—the God who restores peace—heal you, so that your character, mind and body will be kept pure until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 Remedy)

Image by Bianca Van Dijk from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com