Tucked away in the book of James is the verse ‘He gives us more grace.’ (James 4:6)

So often, we want to be in control of our lives, planning, organising and growing in independence. We start by faith, trusting in God’s grace, but like the Galatian church, we often carry on in our own strength, thinking we can manage quite adequately without God. Grace is reckless, unearned and dangerous; we feel immensely vulnerable when we live by grace, rather than by the conventional rules of society (‘you scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.’)

Grace, like manna, is not something we receive just the once and then can manage without it. The God of all grace, a God who gives us ‘grace upon grace’, ‘gifts of grace beyond our imagination’ (Jn 1:16) wants us to live in daily dependence on Him and then pass on the grace we receive to others.

So often, we are not gracious. We are irritable, nit-picking, focussing on the speck of dust in other people’s eyes without seeing the plank in our own. So often, we are bigoted, prejudiced, racist and just plain unkind to others, without ever seeing the incongruity in how we live compared to our Saviour. God wants us to be saturated in grace till it becomes our default reaction. Only then can we reflect God’s nature to a world which desperately needs grace. Grace-made people are not perfect. But they are people who know and rely on the love of God (1 Jn 4:16), rather than on their own resources. Grace-made people are works in progress, but they are people who live by faith and not by sight and who are learning to lean on God and not on their own understanding. (2 Cor 5:7, Prov 3:5) Grace-made people are those who are looking for opportunities to pass on blessing to others.

The way of grace is often difficult, but it’s a way of immense blessing and joy.

In our series ‘Battles & Blessings’, we looked today at some of the blessings mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 3. In that chapter, Paul talks about the ‘administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you’ (Eph 3:2), about becoming a servant of the gospel by the ‘gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power’ (Eph 3:7), about the ‘boundless riches of Christ’ (Eph 3:8), about the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10), about ‘the freedom and the confidence’ we have in approaching God (Eph 3:12) and about the sheer extravagance of God’s love (Eph 3:17-18). The theme of God’s lavish grace is very evident in al lhe writes, and in the Voice version, it says ‘I became a servant and preacher of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace as He exercised His amazing power over me. ⁸ I cannot think of anyone more unworthy to this cause than I, the least of the least of the saints. But here I am, a grace-made man, privileged to be an echo of His voice and a preacher to all the nations of the riches of the Anointed One, riches that no one ever imagined.’ (Eph 3:7-8, The Voice).

There’s nothing wrong with being self-made in the business world or working hard, but we have to understand the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, where we are saved not by our hard work and effort but by faith through grace. (Eph 2:8-9) God’s ways of doing things are completely different to our ways of doing things. (Is 55:8-9). He has chosen to save us through the message of the cross, which seems like foolishness to us. (1 Cor 1:23) He has chosen ‘the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Cor 1:27) He is interested not simply in this world but in shaping us to become like Him throughout eternity. Ultimately, independence is not the goal in a life of faith; instead, we are to grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus, learning always to lean and depend on God. (2 Pet 3:18, Prov 3:5-6)

Grace is scandalous and outrageous, because it doesn’t seem ‘fair’ to a world where tit-for-tat and quid-pro-quo rule. Jesus told parables about grace which offended those who listened: the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), where a son who treated his father with contempt is welcomed back with open arms and lavish gifts, much to the dismay of the dutiful older son, and the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matt 20:8-16), where those who work for only an hour or so are paid the same as those who have worked all day! Philip Yancey talks about ‘the atrocious mathematics of the gospel’ (‘What’s So Amazing About Grace?’, P 59) where it makes no sense of a shepherd to leave his ninety-nine sheep to search for one missing sheep or to pour out perfume worth a month’s wages on washing Jesus’s feet… but these examples show us something of God’s extravagant, lavish love.

To be grace-made means to revel in the grace we receive from God, but we are called also to pass this grace on. That will impact our whole lives, for we are called to live, love, forgive, serve and give in ways that will reflect God’s nature to others (Matt 5:16) Grace-made people need to be gracious and graceful, so that a world starved of love and grace can learn something of the true nature of God.

We are brought up in a society which places great value on understanding. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but it can be limiting in our spiritual journey if we place understanding at the top of our list of essential requirements. We are finite beings. God is infinite. We dwell in time and space. God isn’t limited like that. So it is inevitable that there are questions to which we cannot comprehend the answers and aspects of life which we cannot at present understand.

Jesus said to his disciples as he washed their feet, ‘You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ (Jn 13:7) Many of our difficulties in life come because we do not understand God’s ways and are tempted to judge him by our own understanding. As we wrestle with difficult questions – why God allows natural disasters, why he does not put an instant end to suffering, why the wicked seem to flourish and the righteous flounder – we often feel as though God has forsaken us forever and struggle to understand the timescales of the unknown, which leave us asking ‘How long?’ (Ps 13:1-2) and ‘Why?’ (Ps 74:1, 10-11) Asaph’s comment ‘none of us knows how long this will be’ (Ps 74:9) reminds us that it can be the ‘not knowing’ and the ‘not understanding’ which leave us flat on our faces unable to carry on in faith.

Prov 3:5-6 reminds us that it’s dangerous to lean on our understanding, for it has precarious foundations. Despite what we are taught at school about the need to understand to progress in life, we have to be able to embrace not understanding in order to make spiritual progress. Anselm said we believe in order to understand, not the other way around.

Faith accepts God’s evaluations – that he is good and loving, acting always in our best interests and working in righteousness, justice and integrity – rather than our own. It’s time to progress from the temper tantrusm of the toddler who howls the place down because a parent does not grant instant gratification of a desire to a mature confidence in God as our loving Father, who will not give us more than we can bear and who works for the good in every situation, even if we don’t understand. (1 Cor 10:13, Rom 8:28)

At the start of our series on historical psalms, we looked at some of the points of studying history. There are many reasons why history continues to be so useful to us. History provides us with yet more evidence of who God is and what He is capable of. The historical psalms help us (as 2 Tim 3:16-17 reminds us) in different ways.

1. They give us information about the past in a condensed form (often very helpful to have the ‘important’ bits highlighted for us, as any student revising for exams will testify!)
2. They caution us to remind us of past disobedience (which hopefully prevents us from making the same mistakes again!)
3. They instruct us as to how to live to please God (in obedience and thanksgiving, remembering God’s character and actions.)
4. They are powerful teaching aids for the next generation. ‘Often in the Old Testament, when a child asks a father about a particular memorial, stone, feast, or location, the parents must be ready to explain the significance of the past event and provide the relevant application to them so as to live appropriately in response. Thus, the relaying of the past should prompt the parents to present Israel’s history to the next generation so as to instruct them walk in the ways of God and warn them to flee from the ways of sin.’ (Geoffrey R. Kirkland) I am passionate about passing on truths of God to the next generation so that they too may know and praise God for themselves.
5. They prompt us to worship and adore God. ‘The same God of old remains exactly the same God today because He is immutable. The God of creation is the same God of the Patriarchs. The God who loved Jacob is the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt by parting the Red Sea miraculously. The God who split the Red Sea preserved an entire nation of people for 40 years in the hot, dry, troublesome wilderness. This same God who led His people dwelt among them in the Tabernacle and remained faithful even when they sinned — incessantly.’ (Geoffrey R. Kirkland) History is not an end in itself. Worshipping God is part of the aim of mankind: ‘man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever’, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it.) The historical psalms aren’t there to simply teach us about the past. They are there to inspire us to worship a God whose faithfulness, power, sovereignty and love are the solid foundations for a blessed life.

I think God’s goodness is the one thing we so easily doubt when misfortune knocks at our door. Spurgeon once said of John Bunyan, “Prick that man anywhere and his blood runs bibline.” He meant that Bunyan’s thinking and life were both inextricably shaped by the Bible, and this is why it is so important for us to be soaked in the Scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus. (2 Tim 3:15) When adversity calls and we are knocked over by life’s hurricanes – illness, bereavement, financial desperation, persecution, rejection and so on – we need to have a solid foundation if we are to continue in faith and hope.

Ps 135 and Ps 136 provide us with a core of Biblical truth to hold us up in those times of testing. It can be hard to believe that God is good when tragedy hits us. Perhaps that is why the Bible repeats this fact so many times. I have many favourite Bible verses, but I think Ps 119:68 is up near the top of my list (‘You are good, and what You do is good.’) If we grasp this fact and hold on to God’s goodness and the fact that His love is unfailing and lasts forever, we will find the strength and courage to continue when the dark night of the soul comes upon us and we enter the cold season of winter. God is good. We may not understand what He does; we may doubt His love and kindness to us, but the psalms affirm again and again this repeated refrain. Greater even than a trust in God’s sovereignty and power is the security that comes from being in a loving relationship with God. God ‘will have compassion on his servants.’ (Ps 135:14) He ‘has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.’ (Ps 135:4; see also 1 Pet 2:9-10) His faithful, steadfast, covenantal love (which means ‘he remembered us in our low estate’ Ps 136:23 and which is celebrated throughout that psalm in the refrain ‘his love endures for ever’) is the foundation of all confidence and hope. Paul reminds us, ‘For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ (Romans 15:4) If we want to remain positive through life’s trials and faithful to the end, we need to be soaked in the Scriptures which tell us who God is so that when the doubts come, we are able to maintain confidence and hope.

[Some songs I have found helpful in affirming God’s character in all seasons are: ‘Even If’ (Kutless), ‘When the Tears Fall’ (Tim Hughes), and ‘Weep With Me‘ (Rend Collective). Click on the title to listen to the song.]

In concluding our Bible studies on the historical psalms, tonight we looked at Psalms 135 and 136, understanding that these psalms combine a rich vein of thanksgiving with historical facts about God as creator (Ps 135:6-7, Ps 136:5-9) and redeemer. Both psalms refer again to the exodus, that all-defining moment of Israel’s history (Ps 135:8-9, Ps 136:10-16), but also look to God’s continued help throughout the wilderness wanderings (Ps 135:10-12, Ps 136:17-20). These historical references help to root us in God’s character. Both psalms are calls to praise and both remind us unequivocally of reasons to praise and give thanks (‘for the Lord is good’ Ps 135:3, ‘give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.’ Ps 136:1) Ps 136 is unique in its repeated refrain (‘His love endures forever’, which features in every one of the 26 verses) and whilst we may find such repetition tedious at times, it is a fact that we need to be reminded constantly of God’s love and goodness, because we tend to doubt these so much (and have an enemy whose favourite tactic is casting doubt on God’s goodness, a tactic which has had much success since Eve first believed it…)

Both psalms, therefore, root us in the immutable nature of God. The God who made promises to Israel also made good on those promises, leading His people into a rich inheritance (since He is good, His gifts are also good as Deut 1:25 testifies; see also Ps 84:11, James 1:17). He is far superior to any man-made gods we care to come up with (Ps 135:15-18; see also Is 44:1-20), for He is the God who spoke creation into being and who does whatever pleases Him (Ps 135:6; see also Ps 115:3). Because God does not change (Mal 3:6), we can trust Him to be good to us and to fulfil His promises. Just as He led Israel through the wilderness, He will lead us; just as He freed them from their enemies; He will free us. Our response, therefore, should be the same as theirs, to give thanks and praise to the God who is good and whose love endures forever.