Isaiah 55:1-9, Psalm 63:1-8, Luke 13:1-9
Psalm 63
David spent a good chunk of his life hiding out in the Desert of Judah. Before he became king he was escaping from his predecessor, King Saul. At the time he wrote Psalm 63 he was avoiding his own son Absalom who had taken over as king. In this psalm David contrasts his life as king in Jerusalem, worshipping God in His temple on Mount Zion, with his life as a refugee, in fear of his life, humiliated, where God seems far away (see 2 Samuel 15-17).
Our readings provide a further contrast between Psalm 63 and Isaiah 55 which are like two sides of the same coin – in the first, David expresses his longing for God, which turns into the joy of expectation. In the second, Isaiah speaks of God’s desire for his people to come to him and take the blessings he has prepared for them. It is likely that when isaiah was speaking God’s people were in exile in Babylon, far away from Jerusalem, with little hope, and living among those who did not know God.
God invites us to come to him now
God offers good things – water, corn, wine, milk, all the good food going – and it’s for free. But the big deal is life. As Jesus put it, life in all its fulness (John 10:10). The life God offers is not only free of charge (Isaiah 55:1) but better than anything else we might try to find for ourselves. It’s ours for the asking. Come to me, God says and you can have it.! Come and get it!
The other side of the coin is the psalmist, in trouble, but earnestly seeking God. Things couldn’t be worse for him but he knows that God can meet his needs, however bleak the situation seems at the moment. He’s been close to God before. People who haven’t been close don’t know what they are missing.
If spiritual weariness and dryness aren’t your recent experience, what about boredom, tiredness, uncertainty or disappointment. Any of these emotions affecting you? Maybe you’re wondering why God has allowed certain things to happen or you wonder if God hears your prayers. Life, or our experience of it, often disappoints. It’s common for us to feel subject to adverse forces beyond our control.
Remember the past
It is common to move away from God when things get rough. It doesn’t make sense but it is often what we do. It is easy to assume that God does not speak to us when we are in difficulties. But he really does want to help us out in trouble because he has long-term plans for us (Isaiah 55:5). The difficult times are part of growing up. The psalmist points to remembering and taking note of God’s past involvement in his life. Our past experiences with God will strengthen us in times of need and give us hope for the future.
Look for new experiences of God in the future
We may not understand why things happen to us, because we are so limited in comparison to God, whose thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8,9). So we have to trust him in faith that he will resolve things in his good way and time. The psalmist ended up exchanging despair for joy, rejoicing in God and singing his praises.
“Just as clearly as you recognize your stomach’s call for dinner-time, you will undergo seasons when you feel empty – spiritually, mentally, physically. Everything you’d brought along to take care of this – your churchgoing, your do-gooding, your read-through-the-Bible plan – it’s all starting to feel dry and unappetizing. You’re worn out and famished, even in the midst of doing exactly what God has called and led you to do during this period of life.
“I’m not telling you to hold back from living day to day with faithfulness and devotion. But there are times when nothing will satisfy – no matter how hard you try to manufacture fullness – until God starts raining down “bread from heaven for you” (16:4). Oh yes, God accounted for this when He sent you the opposite direction into that wilderness. He knew your supply would run dry. So not every feeling of emptiness is the result of your doing something wrong. Not every growl in your spiritual stomach comes from being faithless or from doing things in the wrong order. Sometimes it’s just a test to see what (to see Who) you’re really counting on to keep you satisfied, an opportunity for Him to show you His supernatural, miraculous power in your emptiness.” -Priscilla Shirir
Repentance
If individuals are to enjoy the salvation that God offers through Isaiah, they must seek the Lord, and turn to him in repentance (verse 6). Similarly, Jesus reminds his hearers of the priority of repentance (Luke 13:3,5) to avoid coming judgement. True repentance involves seeking God earnestly (see Psalm 63:1). As someone has said, it is not a casual ‘sorry’ any more than God’s forgiveness is a casual ‘not at all!’
You could say that repentance has 3 steps. “Accepting responsibility for your own attitudes and choices is the first step to a healed life. (Christains call this ‘repentance’).” -Living Wisdom. Turning from the bad choices is step two. Keeping that going so as to live well instead of badly is step three and is accomplished by replacing bad with God and good. Fill your mind, your mouth and your time with good things, the things of God (Philippians 4:8,9).
These three steps come after a prior step, as Matthew Skinner explains:
“The word translated as “repent” is, at its root, about thinking and perception. It refers to a wholesale change in how a person understands something. It implies an utter reconfiguration of your perspective on reality and meaning, including (in the New Testament) a reorientation of yourself toward God. Your behavior might change as a result of this new perception, certainly; but repentance first involves seeing things differently and coming to a new understanding of what God makes possible.
“Jesus, then, is promising an alternate perspective on the cycles of violence, pain, and meaninglessness. To miss out on this way of seeing – to neglect to “repent” – is to miss out on other dimensions of our existence. It is to pass by one’s purpose.
“Jesus’ summons to repent is not escapism or a minimization of life’s hardships. It means coming to discover God as the source of sustenance, belonging, meaning, and hope in this difficult life and into future existence. Repentance names the change that occurs within us when God meets us and reshapes our understanding.
“Repentance results from an encounter with God. This is why, elsewhere in Luke’s
Gospel, Jesus associates a person’s “repentance” with the essentially passive experience of being found and reclaimed by someone who seeks you intently.” -Matthew L. Skinner, Odyssey Networks
Many people in New Zealand and around the world need this re-orientation to God’s way of seeing things – God’s perspective – and then the 3 steps to godly living. These many people are living unhealthy lives and costing our society because of it.
For example: It was announced on Thursday that the Government has allocated $100,000 to make use of social media to improve youth mental health. It turns out that this is part of a $62 million package to improve the mental health of youth unveiled last year by Prime Minister John Key
Through this programme, nurses and trained youth workers have been added to lower-decile schools to support youth with mental health issues. The Positive Behaviour School Wide programme was also rolled out in all secondary schools. Phobic Trust has created a smart phone app called a mood diary allowing young people to input and monitor their mood and anxiety levels daily. The ap enables them to get instant round-the-clock support if and when they need it. Youthline’s interactive text counselling services, first launched in 2004 will also be expanded and the Government is also supporting Zeal, an organisation tackling binge drinking.
$62 million to replace Bible in Schools and avoid trusting in God. It’s very expensive without God. But God gives all the good things free – no hidden costs, no aftertaste, no hangover and no side effects.
We need to recognise that God’s ways and thoughts are far above ours (Isaiah 55:8,9) and what seems ordinary to us may offend a holy God. At the same time God’s wonderful way of salvation is far greater than we could ever have conceived. His word (v 11) along with his promises in verses 3, 5 and 12 is sure and will bring transformation. Instead of desolation, symbolised by thorns and briars (signs of the curse in Genesis 3:18) will come joy and delight, symbolised by the pine and myrtle (verse 13).
Isaiah 55 was written in the context of the exiles summoned back to be restored as the people of God. If we feel like exiles, out in the cold, abandoned, in a dry, arid place, let’s find hope from these wonderful Old Testament readings, which assure us that God satisfies needs, both material and spiritual, and is really there, waiting for us to seek him and call upon him. The desert experience is about to end.