Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing what has been on your heart and for taking time to think carefully about what Jesus has done. Your understanding of propitiation is right and important. It means that God's righteous anger against sin is fully satisfied because Jesus took the penalty in our place. This is not like pagan ideas where people try to bribe or calm an angry deity. God Himself, in love, provided the sacrifice. His justice and His mercy meet at the cross. Romans 3:25 says God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through His blood, received by faith. First John 2:2 and 4:10 say He is the propitiation for our sins, and that love is shown in this, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son. Expiation speaks of sin being removed and guilt being taken away, and propitiation speaks specifically of God's wrath being turned away because the price has been fully paid.
It makes sense that Psalm 55:2 speaks to you right now. To be troubled in your thoughts and distraught, to feel restless and overwhelmed, is a very human place, and God invites you to bring that exact distress to Him. The psalms often work by repeating or contrasting thoughts rather than rhyming sounds, and that honest repetition shows us that people from the earliest times have felt the same heaviness you feel. God is not distant from it. He hears and He answers.
Part of the comfort is remembering how different His thoughts are from ours. Scripture says His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. That is not a rebuke but a mercy. We do what seems best and hope it is right, but He knows the end from the beginning. When He acts, He knows it is right. When you cannot see how things fit together or why distress lingers, you can rest in the One who sees the whole path and whose wisdom is far above ours. Exalting our own understanding will only lead to more anxiety, but trusting His higher wisdom brings peace.
He also knows you intimately. The psalmist says God understands our thoughts far off, which means He knows them at their very origin, before we even form them. He is acquainted with all our ways, our sitting down and rising up, our path and our resting place. And His thoughts toward you are precious and countless, more than the sand, and they are good and not evil. Even when your own thoughts trouble you, His thoughts toward you remain steady, loving, and kind because of what Jesus has done to make you clean before Him.
When your heart is overwhelmed, as David's was when he was driven from his home and pursued by enemies, the prayer God gives us is, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. That rock is the Lord Himself. Truly our soul can wait upon God, for from Him comes salvation. He alone is our rock and defense. Coming to the end of ourselves can become the beginning of His work in us, as we turn from focusing on the problem to focusing on Him in prayer.
It is also good to pray as the psalmist did, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. The person who prays that way is someone who knows he does not fully know himself and wants God to reveal what is true and to lead in the right way. God will do that gently and truthfully.
Let us pray together. Father, thank You for loving us and for providing Jesus to bear our sin and to turn away Your righteous wrath so that we can be forgiven and brought near to You through faith in His blood. Thank You that You hear us when our thoughts trouble us and we are distraught. You know our thoughts before we think them and Your thoughts toward us are precious and good. When our hearts are overwhelmed, lead us to the rock that is higher than we are. Be our salvation and our defense. Search us, know us, and lead us in Your way. Give comfort, strength, and rescue as You see best, for Your ways are higher than ours. In Jesus name, Amen.
It makes sense that Psalm 55:2 speaks to you right now. To be troubled in your thoughts and distraught, to feel restless and overwhelmed, is a very human place, and God invites you to bring that exact distress to Him. The psalms often work by repeating or contrasting thoughts rather than rhyming sounds, and that honest repetition shows us that people from the earliest times have felt the same heaviness you feel. God is not distant from it. He hears and He answers.
Part of the comfort is remembering how different His thoughts are from ours. Scripture says His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. That is not a rebuke but a mercy. We do what seems best and hope it is right, but He knows the end from the beginning. When He acts, He knows it is right. When you cannot see how things fit together or why distress lingers, you can rest in the One who sees the whole path and whose wisdom is far above ours. Exalting our own understanding will only lead to more anxiety, but trusting His higher wisdom brings peace.
He also knows you intimately. The psalmist says God understands our thoughts far off, which means He knows them at their very origin, before we even form them. He is acquainted with all our ways, our sitting down and rising up, our path and our resting place. And His thoughts toward you are precious and countless, more than the sand, and they are good and not evil. Even when your own thoughts trouble you, His thoughts toward you remain steady, loving, and kind because of what Jesus has done to make you clean before Him.
When your heart is overwhelmed, as David's was when he was driven from his home and pursued by enemies, the prayer God gives us is, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. That rock is the Lord Himself. Truly our soul can wait upon God, for from Him comes salvation. He alone is our rock and defense. Coming to the end of ourselves can become the beginning of His work in us, as we turn from focusing on the problem to focusing on Him in prayer.
It is also good to pray as the psalmist did, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. The person who prays that way is someone who knows he does not fully know himself and wants God to reveal what is true and to lead in the right way. God will do that gently and truthfully.
Let us pray together. Father, thank You for loving us and for providing Jesus to bear our sin and to turn away Your righteous wrath so that we can be forgiven and brought near to You through faith in His blood. Thank You that You hear us when our thoughts trouble us and we are distraught. You know our thoughts before we think them and Your thoughts toward us are precious and good. When our hearts are overwhelmed, lead us to the rock that is higher than we are. Be our salvation and our defense. Search us, know us, and lead us in Your way. Give comfort, strength, and rescue as You see best, for Your ways are higher than ours. In Jesus name, Amen.
