I Can Because I AM - Part 1

Psalm 113:4-9

“The Lord is exalted above all the nations.
His glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God –
The One enthroned on high,
Who stoops down to look
On the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the needy from the garbage pile
In order to seat them with nobles
With the nobles of His people.
He gives the childless woman a household,
Making her the joyful mother of children.
Hallelujah!


I’d like to write a book on verses 7-9 of this psalm. In my own paraphrase, those verses share with us how God lifts the needy out of the dirt. How he gives children to the childless. How he raises the poor to be seated with nobles and are we surprised that the writer finishes those thoughts with a “Hallelujah!” We all need to hear those wonderful promises of God’s protection, blessing and deliverance. The children of God would do well and would find great peace and growing faith to be daily reminded of God’s promises.

But this passage is one of those rich banquets in the bible that promises a feast and not just desert. Behind, beneath and all around the sweetness of those verses are truths that, when digested bring complete satisfaction and greater appreciation for these truths. God does not seem to be content to just pat you on the back and assure you that you are cared for. No, he wants your mind convinced and your heart standing rock-solid on the faithfulness of your God. He wants you to know how he will save you, why he will save you and who he is that he can save you. And when those truths are fully known (as fully as we can know, at least) it will not be some flimsy faith with which you leave. A spring in your step will not be impeded with the first obstacle your foot finds.

When He wrote to his friend Timothy while sitting in a dark, damp jail, Paul may have had doubts. Don’t hold it against him! John the Baptist did, too, and Jesus said he was the best man who ever lived! No, it’s not impossible that in that lonely cell Paul may have questioned God’s promises. But even if he did there is one thing he did not doubt: the Promiser. He said, “I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.”

There may be days when you will doubt that deliverance is on its way. You may see the fire and find it impossible to believe that you will come out unburnt. The needy laying in the dirt may doubt that they will ever rise out of it. The childless woman may be sitting in her empty nursery one day too many. But in those moments when the words promised to us seem to get dimmer and dimmer and everything we thought we knew is now clouded in confusion I pray that we can still say:

“I may not know what tomorrow holds.
I may not know why I must suffer.
I may not know when deliverance will finally come.
I may not see where my next step will lead me.
But I DO know in whom I have believed!”

Who is this God of ours that He can make such outlandish promises to us? Zephaniah said, “He will save!”

Tell that to the lost. See if doubt doesn’t somehow seep through.

“He will rejoice over you with joy!”

Tell that to those living with the guilt of their past. It’d be nice to believe, but the pain is just a little stronger than the hope of those words.

“He will calm all your fears!”

Tell that to the father of four whose job security is shaky. Or the grandmother whose children are away from the Lord. Or the unloved orphan. Or the new widow.

… or just about any of us from time to time.

When words are hard to believe, God does not come at us with a rebuke. “He knows how we are formed, he remembers we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:14) It is no shock to him that you may doubt His words. We are dust and he is spirit. We are earth-bound and he is infinite in size and scope.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

And we think that once we become a Christian every one of these heavenly words will be automatically taken with %100 assurance? Of course these promises are wonderful and we’d LOVE to believe, but our human minds aren’t able to believe at times. If a man in tattered and dirty clothes came to me and said, “Ma’am, I’m going to give you a billion dollars,” I’ve gotta admit I wouldn’t believe him. Not only because his clothing goes against what my mind usually associates with wealth, but a billion dollars is slightly out of my range of believability.

The only way for this man to convince me of his promise is to convince me that he is a man who is able to do what he says. He could show me his bank account, his home, his education. He could introduce me to people he has given to before. He could bring me to the buildings and parks and other projects he has created. And eventually I would believe. NOT because I trust the words “I’m going to give you a billion dollars,” but because I now trust the person who said those words.

I mentioned briefly about John the Baptist. I think it’s a good time to bring him up again. John the Baptist lived his life for Jesus … in an extreme kind of way. Matthew said he wore clothes of camel hair, lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and honey. Have you heard of these kinds of people? They’re the kind that finds one thing in life that totally consumes them to the point that they care about nothing else. His life is so radically devoted to God that when his ministry begins he doesn’t have to go out and search for people to preach to – they come to him! This man was actually prophesied about hundreds of years before he was around. Jesus said that Isaiah spoke about John the Baptist.

And yet, even John the Baptist had his moments of doubt. He was eventually arrested for his faith and imprisoned. He heard from his own disciples that Jesus was in Galilee so he sent them with a question for Jesus: “Are you really the Messiah we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Mat 11:13).

Jesus was well aware of what a far-fetched claim that was to our feeble minds, so he didn’t say, “Look. I said it. That settles it. It’s your job as a Christian and my prophet to believe what I say so what’s wrong with you? You should be praying more or something. I don’t know but you’ve obviously neglected reading your bible this week, haven’t you? What a disappointment you are!”

No, no, no. There is no rebuke. Jesus is always more than ready to back up his claims. Not with inspirational platitudes that may satisfy for a moment but dries up when the heat comes back. No, he gives evidence as to who he is that he can make such a claim. He said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor.”

In essence, Jesus said:

If it’s hard to believe what I’ve said then take a look at what I’ve DONE!

And this is his way in our main scriptures, Psalm 113. Before he tries to convince you that he is your protector, your redeemer and the lifter of your head he reminds you of who is he that he can make such a claim:

“The Lord is exalted over the nations, his glory above the heavens.”

And we will do the same. Before we delve into the promises of verses 7-9, we’re going to establish from scripture just who God is and what He has done to prove that what he says will come about. The next section will be about the “omnis” – God’s omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.

If we are convinced that God can do anything he wants it will be a small thing to trust anything and everything that comes out of His mouth.