Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

Psalm 51: 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (NIV) Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always make a man better.* Animal sacrifices couldn’t atone for our sins and neither can a broken heart. God required the offerings, but he was not particularly delighted by someone who merely went through the motions. In II Corinthians 7: 10, Paul says godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. And worldly sorrow, as someone observes, is like saying, “I'm sorry I got caught. I'll be more careful next time I sin.”* The word for “broken” denotes something that is in pieces, beaten and stamped thin; crushed and subdued. Is God pleased when we are beaten down? Yes, because it seems that’s what it takes to get us to surrender. Very seldom do we wave the white flag when we’re on the mountaintop or even on middle ground. In Judges 7, we read how Gideon and the hundred...

Psalm 51: 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (NIV) There must be sorrow over sin if there is going to be genuine change of heart.* Is it possible to have salvation without its joy? And doesn’t it seem a little bit wrong to ask God to restore the joy of salvation when he didn’t steal it from us in the first place? David lost the joy of his salvation when he sinned. We know that he committed the Big Ones – adultery and murder - so we think, “Sure. Of course, he lost his joy.” But Jesus said that if we hate and lust we are as guilty before God as David is. (Matthew 5: 21, 22, 27, 28) We are as liable for our joy-robbing sin as David was, but God restores our joy when we repent. David goes on to ask for a willing spirit. It seems that it would take a willing spirit to desire a willing spirit. The problem with our willingness is our ability to maintain our interest in it! There are several translations for this ph...

Psalm 51: 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (NIV) Every heart is contaminated and capable of horrendous wickedness.* Is it possible to have a steadfast spirit without having a pure heart? David seems to imply that it is. Perhaps we take David’s words too literally instead of allowing him his poetic license, but whether one condition exists without the other or not, David knows he is lacking and that it is not within his power to fix what is broken. He asks God to create a pure heart in him, not to make the old one clean.* He acknowledges that if God can create the universe, he certainly has the power to create a new heart. A pure heart is an undivided will; a steadfast spirit that is loyal, constant, and consistent. Surely, a new heart – a pure heart – would revive the constant and consistent spirit that had been languishing around the old heart. According to II Corinthians 5: 17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is...

Psalm 51: 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. (NIV) All our best efforts at morality and spirituality could not expunge our guilt or deflect his wrath.* David is ashamed of his sin and wants to remove it from in front of his own face. He doesn’t really have to ask God to hide his face from it – God can’t look at sin. God’s holiness will not allow him to be in the presence of sin. The psalmist’s iniquity, the same as ours, must be blotted out before God can face us.  This is what God did when Jesus was on the cross, bearing my sins on himself, and erasing them. My sin is so ugly that God cannot stand to look at it – even though it was his only and beloved Son who was wearing it.  While we want God to hide his face from our sins, we seem intent on reminding him of them by never letting go of them ourselves. If God can forgive us, why can’t we forgive ourselves? Why do we think we have to carry around our load of guilt when Jesus a...

Psalm 51: 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. (NIV) God’s goodness is spurred by his nature, not by our worthiness.* We can’t balance out our bad deeds by performing an equal number of good deeds. We must rely on the mercy of God to atone for our offenses. God’s mercy is equal to his unfailing love. His compassion is equal to the erasing of my sins. Mercy, love, and compassion sound like girly emotions until they are applied to God – then they become words of power. It’s good that God isn’t merciful according to what we deserve or in the same measure that we dish it out to others. He is merciful, not according to anything that we can influence, nor because of his strong sense of responsibility, but because of his unfailing love. Unfailing love flows from his heart, and heals my soul, in spite of who I am, he loves, and makes me whole.  I almost can’t believe it’s tr...

Psalm 46: 10 “Be still, and know that I am God.” (NIV) Find time for solitude and rest in your belovedness.* I have always thought of this verse as a cause and effect: if you will be still, you will know that he is God.   But another way to look at it is as a process: Step 1 - Be still. “Stop what you’re doing!” Step 2 - Know that he is God. “Who’s in charge here?” We have such a need to be productive that sometimes we aren’t sure who we are if we’re not doing something.* We really take to heart the old saying, “Pray as if it all depends on God; work as if it all depends on you.” Our busyness defines us and inflates our self-worthiness. But we don’t find God in our crowded calendars. It is possible to know that he is God without being still but there is much to be gained from combining the “getting to know him” with the “being still.” It’s an opportunity to think about his holiness and to dwell on his other attributes and to praise him. He wants ...

Psalm 46: 6 Nations are in an uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. (NIV) In times like these we feel small and alone.* This Psalm was written a long time ago but its message is as current as breaking news. We fear that our world is so much worse today than it has ever been but, as pointed out by the “famous philosopher,” Marilyn Manson: “Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.” * A look in the Old Testament reveals R-rated stories of lust, greed, murder, and genocide. We also see examples of God’s judgment and wrath. But take a closer look and you will also find God’s desire to redeem his creation. Keep reading on into the New Testament and see his promises fulfilled. John reminds us that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus (John 1: 17). Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and prophets (Matthew 5: 17), and that Scripture testifies about him (John 5: 39). We cannot be in...