In his book Ordering Your Private World Gordon MacDonald, who is now an 81-years-old pastor and spiritual father to many, shares his story about the day he hit the wall. At that time he was a young pastor in a sizeable church. His father had been a pastor, and his grandfather had been one. Pastor Gordon enjoyed the advantages that had come to him: natural giftedness, good connections, and fast start. But ironically, the more the church was thriving, the more he felt empty and impoverished. One Saturday morning, he finally collapsed. He cried for hours without knowing why. But thankfully, he didn’t let the day just pass by. He stopped, stepped back, pondered what was going on, what was wrong, what was missing. Later he called that day something of a conversion experience. That was the day he saw all too clearly where he was headed if something did not change in his private world. It was the day he started the search for inner orderliness. Pastor Gordon says that this process continues until this day.
The Final Words of Blessing
Today’s scripture, psalm 134 is the last of the fifteen Songs of the Ascents. It is a psalm of blessing. It is a psalm sung by the pilgrims who finally finished their pilgrim journey and safely arrived in Jerusalem. So psalm 134 is like the blessing and advice our grandparents give to us on how to live a blessed life. The structure of the psalm is simple and clear: “call to worship” (vv. 1-2) and “benediction” (v. 3). “Bless God and be blessed by God” is the main theme.
Then, what is a blessing according to the Bible? In the Old Testament the Hebrew word most often translated “bless” is barak, which can mean to praise, congratulate, or salute. In the New Testament, according to the Key-Word Study Bible, “The Greek word translated blessed is makarioi which means to be fully satisfied.” So if we put those meanings together, to bless God means to praise God, worship God, exalt God, be satisfied in God. And to be blessed by God means to live a life that God blesses and praises.
God’s Greatest Blessing
To many, God’s blessing means to have a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, and quick and easy death and no suffering. But that’s not necessarily God’s blessing. It’s called the American Dream.
The Bible says that God’s blessing is anything that makes us fully satisfied in him. Anything that makes us seek the things above. Anything that draws us closer to God. And often it is the struggles and trials and crises in life. Nice families, financial wealth, and good health are all wonderful gifts from God. But they are not his greatest blessing.
God’s greatest blessing is God himself, God’s presence. In Exodus 32 the Israelites made the golden calf while Moses was away. They said to Aaron, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us.” We can paraphrase what they said in today’s language this way: “We don’t care about what kinds of gods you make. If we could just have a good job, a good family, good friends, a fun retirement, and if we could get to heaven safely – if we could have that, we’d be satisfied even without God.” The Israelites didn’t care about God’s presence if they could have those gifts on the way and enter the Promised Land. But Moses was different. When Moses interceded for his people, God said, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you” (33:3). Moses replied, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” God said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then, Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” Moses was neither satisfied with security on the way nor the Promised Land at the end. All he wanted was to taste and see God’s presence and to be fully satisfied in him.
Two Stories
In his sermon, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” Pastor John Piper shares two different stories with us. The first story goes like this. In his church two of the faithful church members, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, who went to Cameroon as missionaries, had both been killed because of a car accident. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. As people read this story in the paper, they said, “What a tragedy!” But Pastor John said, “No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.” Then, he tells us the second story, what a tragedy is. He reads to us from Reader’s Digest: “Bob and Penny… took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their thirty foot trawler, playing softball and collecting shells.”[1] Pastor John concludes in this way[2]:
When you don’t believe in heaven to come and you are not content in the glory of Christ now, you will seek the kind of retirement that the world seeks. But what a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure (!) while living in the midst of the Last Days of infinite consequence for millions of people who need Christ. What a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of the King who finished his last mile so differently!
The Life God Blesses
God’s blessing is more than the golden calf. God’s blessing is more than the American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells. And God’s blessing is more than just getting to heaven, or safely arriving in the Promised Land. God’s greatest blessing is to be fully satisfied in him and his presence now. Catherine of Siena said, “All the way to heaven is heaven.” The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” What is the final purpose? What is the main thing about us? Where are we going, and what will we do when we get there? The answer is “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Bless God. Glorify God. Enjoy God. Be satisfied in God.
At one Christian Conference a Chinese pastor who had spent 18 years in prison for his faith gave his testimony. The authorities in the camp put him to the hardest and dirtiest work – emptying the human waste cesspool, because they knew he was a pastor and a Christian. But they didn’t know in those years how he actually enjoyed working there. In the labor camp all the prisoners were under strict surveillance 24/7 and no one could be alone. But when the pastor worked in the cesspool, he could enjoy the solitude. He could be alone and could pray and sing to the Lord as loudly as he needed. The guards kept a long way off because of the strong stench. One of his most favorite was “In the Garden.” He always liked this hymn, but he didn’t realize the real meaning of this hymn until he worked in the cesspool. There, he knew and discovered a wonderful fellowship with Jesus. Again and again he sang this hymn and felt Christ’s real presence with him:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear;
The Son of God discloses.
And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
And he tells me I am his own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
The pastor said, “Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the Lord’s presence. He never left me or forsook me. And so I survived and the cesspool became my private garden.”[3] These are the words of a person whose life God has chosen to bless. Many of us remember the final words of John Wesley: “The best of all, indeed, is that God is with us.” We don’t have to wait until we get to the end of our pilgrim journey. So, come now, bless God, and God bless you! Amen.
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[1] John Piper, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/boasting-only-in-the-cross/excerpts/dont-waste-your-life
[2] John Piper, Rethinking Retirement (Crossway Books, 2008), 27.
[3] Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses (Thomas Nelson, 1997), 225-26.
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