Suffering and waiting are part of the Christian life. Recently a friend and I have been commiserating over not having what we’ve been praying for, for so long. It’s been a long road of waiting and heartache. Sometimes, you just wonder: Why? Why am I waiting, O Lord? What lesson am I not understanding? Why must more heartache come? How much longer will I feel this way?

You’ve got to admit it. This guy had moxie. Anyone who takes on God directly—to his face, up close and personal—is either foolish, oblivious, blasphemous—or supremely confident of his position. Or perhaps he’s nuts.

Here was another conversation between friends. Moses talked with God with a greater familiarity than most.

The happy music and conversation in the background was oblivious to the painful desperation of one man. He sat alone at the bar. He raised his hands to his anguished and weary face. Tears filled his eyes. He bowed his head and with a whispering intensity, struggled through a simple, heartfelt prayer. “Dear Father in heaven. I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. Show me the way God.”

When we are blessed by the Lord, as commanded by Him, when we receive His blessing, His word, His promises, when we practice praise and the Lord Himself is our ruler, then the earth shall yield her increase and our own God shall bless us. 

A perfect example of God’s faithfulness and ultimate victory in the end is Jerusalem. As Psalm 48 says – this city will become “the joy of the whole earth”.

In Psalm 48 we see the ultimate heavenly city and the warfare surrounding it, but also the physical city of Jerusalem and the warfare of destruction that has always been around it and continues to this day. Ultimately these two realities and two stories will converge into a beautiful tapestry of God’s faithfulness and presence seen on earth.

I am a morning person, so I know that those who are not may want to throw things at me as I teach through the first three verses of this Psalm…