TLIC Psalms. July 23. That They May Know.

Read Psalm 83:14-18.  ¹⁴As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, ¹⁵so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane! ¹⁶Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. ¹⁷Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, ¹⁸that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

Sadly, we know that many will not come to God in humble repentance without the consuming fire, or terrifying hurricane. How many adults have turned to God without some sort of crisis to compel them to consider Christ? Asaph is not praying for shame, and disgrace for his enemies as an end in themselves, but rather as the means of them seeking his name and knowing that the Lord is Most High over all the earth.  

This is the ultimate victory over our enemies – their conversion. Whoever believes on Jesus will not perish in disgrace, but have everlasting life.

What caused you to seek Christ? Was it the fire? The hurricane? The shame? The disgrace? The threat of perishing? If so, good. Why? Because God is good. His forced submission is still grace. Like a child forced out of the street or compelled to stop biting, so too is God’s allowance of evil to bring about the good that comes from a broken spirit. He will pursue us with his tempest, and he will fill us with shame, if that’s what it takes for us to acknowledge him.

To live is Christ is to trust everything the Lord allows. The mountain top and the valley. The glory and the shame. Life and death. Everything is his pursuit of our hearts. Everything is for our good and his glory.

You: Did God use the fire and hurricane to draw you to himself?

You in Christ: How does knowing that we are in Christ allow us to trust everything God allows?

Christ in you: Pray for the conversion of others today. Ask God to use you in other’s lives to reveal his Son.

Pray: Jesus, you drew me to yourself in mercy and grace, even the grace of the fire and the flood. Use me to speak truth in love to others so that they too may seek your name, the only name that saves. Amen.