For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

Psalm 32:6-7 

God makes Himself available most of the time. There are times, however, when He hides Himself for His Own reasons. David was aware of this truth. He realized that on the foundation of the forgiveness of sins, ‘everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time, when You may be found.’ Isaiah hits some of the same notes when he writes, ‘Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.’ There he calls to the wicked and unrighteous to return to the LORD for mercy and pardon. What is interesting for our purpose is that both David and Isaiah refer to God allowing us to access Him with the understanding that there will come a time when He will not be so immediately available. This is a hard concept for us to embrace. We like to think of God as being ever available. The idea that he would withdraw Himself or be somehow inaccessible is disconcerting. Job complained that he could not find God. ‘Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.’ His consolation was, ‘But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.’ Even when God seemed to hide Himself, Job continued to express faith in Him. What can we gain from these thoughts? The short answer is, that we who believe seek the LORD now while He may be found. Christ is available today. He may be found now. Therefore, because He has purchased our pardon, because He does intercede for us, we can and should call upon Him. 

God of Grace and Glory, 
we rejoice that You do give us access to You. 
We praise You that we can seek You, 
while You may be found. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

Psalm 32:6-7 

Christ is the hiding place of His redeemed. In all his hardships, and in spite of all his failings, David had hope in Christ. He said, ’From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.’ We could hardly conceive of a clearer expression of the evangelical truth of what Christ means to a believer than this. The people of God come from the weak, the foolish, the nothings, and nobodies of the world. They are not the high and the mighty. They are accurately depicted as the wandering sheep, easy prey for the predators of the world. Christ has been, is, and shall ever be the refuge of His redeemed. They resort to Him at every turn. Thus David is a representative believer. In many instances he articulates our experience. Therefore when we read his remarks we say, Amen. We do pray in the time when God may be found. He does keep us from the flood of waters. He is our hiding place. He does preserve us from trouble. He surrounds us with songs of deliverance. Christ is our hope for time and for eternity. We have no other in whom we have such faith and upon whom we can rely. Therefore his words become our words. These are the expressions not just of David but also of us. We go forth daily depending on Christ to lead us, to guide us, to help us, and to preserve us. He surrounds us with songs of deliverance.    

O God, our Shield and our Defender, 
We rejoice that You know all the dangers that beset us. 
We praise You that You are our refuge, 
where we may continually hide.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah   
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah  

Psalm 32: 3-5  

David was a notable sinner. In his lifetime he broke the law of God in various rather spectacular ways. God records those in his biography, thus presenting him to us, ‘warts and all.’ David was also a notable repenter. He had a heart for God. He failed often and repented often. He endured the hard experience of continuing in sin long enough to be thoroughly miserable. Our text reflects that miserable condition. As long as he continued in sin, his ‘vitality was turned into the drought of summer.’ We know this condition firsthand. Continuation in the practice of evil, or attempting to ignore the fact that we have done evil is soul-desiccating. It produces its own special brand of misery in a believer. The only remedy is confession. The only relief is forgiveness. David confessed and God forgave his sin. We may sin as spectacularly as he did. Certainly we have the potential. When we do sin, we will experience the misery that denial of or continuation of sin brings. What will reverse that misery? John has the answer. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ In that same passage, John specifies that it is ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son (that) cleanses us from all sin.’ Herein lies forgiveness. Herein lies the path to the rejoicing of the soul that forgiveness brings. There is a way back for us through Christ.   

Our Kind and Forgiving God, 
we rejoice that You are acquainted with all our ways. 
We praise You that You stand ready to forgive 
our many offenses. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  

Psalm 32:1  

David had a sophisticated understanding of evangelical truth. Our text is a reflection of that understanding. If he understood imputation of iniquity, conversely he also understood imputed righteousness. The Scripture refers to imputed righteousness as early as Genesis 15, where it says of Abraham, ‘and he believed in the LORD and He accounted it to him for righteousness.’ Thus the ancients understood imputed righteousness from early days. David says that a person is blessed whose transgression is forgiven. What do we know about this? We know that Christ has borne our iniquities. They were imputed to him. God has imputed His righteousness to us. Thus we are blessed because our transgression is forgiven and our sin is covered. Christ is the reason for this grand transaction. It is because of Him that God no longer imputes sin to us. David looked to Christ as the One Who resolved his sin issue. He looked forward to Christ by faith. We also look to Christ. David had never seen Christ, nor have we. Chronologically, He looked forward to Him. We look backward to Him. David believed by faith as do we. He enjoyed forgiveness of sins upon the merits of Christ , we stand upon the merits of Christ. In this, both the ancient saints and we are one in Christ. The gospel message is for any who will receive it that Christ is the answer to our sin problem. We desire this forgiveness for all who will have it. 

Our Gracious and Loving God, 
we rejoice that You forgive. 
We praise You that Your forgiveness rests 
upon the righteousness of Christ.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!  

Psalm 27:14  

Few things try us as much as waiting. Often we cry,  ‘How long, O Lord, how long?’ We have sought the Lord’s face. We have prayed with fervency and at times with tears. We have faith and have exercised it. Yet, at times, the skies have been as brass and the earth as iron. We have come to the end of ourselves and to the limit of our ability to believe. How shall we go on? Our text gives us the answer. It sets forth the twofold encouragement to wait on Jehovah. The second carries with it an intensifier, ‘Wait, I say.’ In between are two other remarks. The first is an encouragement to us to, ‘Be of good courage.’ The second tells us what God will do. It promises, ‘He shall strengthen your heart.’ It does not promise we shall wait less. It makes no promise that God will intervene sooner. It rather bolsters us to endure the waiting in faith and in confidence that God will do well for us. What is the foundation for this confidence? Christ is. Believers have always looked to Christ. The ancient saints had greater evangelical knowledge than we give them credit for having. They looked to the coming Promised One. God strengthened their hearts with sights of Christ and the promise of Christ. We have not seen Him, yet we also believe. We wait for Him and He will come.   

Our Great and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You are as good as Your Word. 
We praise You that You will do for us, 
all that we need. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning