Before I started to write this post I sat down in my chair turned on my computer and opened the program into which I type these Psalm entries. It’s a process in which I have engaged numerous times not only for these Psalm entries but also for any other type of writing or record keeping. I’ve done it so much that I don’t even think about it anymore. In fact, sitting in the chair and typing on this program right now I have to force myself to think about these basic requirements otherwise they will never cross my mind. But now that I am thinking about them, I realize they are pretty good illustrations for understanding a couple of types of faith.
Nothing here is going to be new, but that doesn’t change whether they are true. Sometimes it is those true things which we have heard our whole lives that we need to hear again, and of which we really need to take note.
The first step of faith I took today was that the chair would hold me. Even though I had a bunch of M & Ms today, I knew it wasn’t so much that had exceeded the weight limit of the chair. Upon seeing the chair, I quickly recalled sitting in it in the past and took a calculated, albeit unconscious
My faith in the chair and the computer are very much like the faith I have when I trust in Christ and the set of beliefs called Christianity. I look at them and decide, sometimes consciously and sometimes implicitly, that he and they will hold the full weight of my life. I might have actually looked at a number of different types of chairs (or in this case, belief systems) before I settle on Christianity, but when I do, I place my faith in it because it is strong enough to handle the full weight of my questions and concerns in life. I also have faith in Christ and Christianity because I know that without them I can’t adequately do the work I want to. Sure, I could sit on the ground and try to do everything that a chair, a computer, a program, and the internet could do, but I’m pretty sure it would take my entire life and even then I don’t think I would be able to complete the task.
So there are these two types of faith in Christ and Christianity: the faith that he and the beliefs will support the full weight of my questions and the faith that he and the beliefs will do for us what we can’t do on our own. But as I consider these two, I believe there is another type of faith that is missing and is very important, maybe even more so than the other two when faith is considered as a daily activity.
The psalmist writes in Psalm 119:145 that he calls to the Lord with all his heart. He continues to say in the next few verses that he wakes before the dawn and in the middle of the night to meditate on God’s words. The reason, we find, that he is motivated to do so is that he is being pursued by wicked men. And furthermore, these wicked men are drawing near to him in their pursuit. They are coming close to achieving their goal which is the destruction of the psalmist.
While it is impossible for us to know what caused this conflict, we do know it was keeping him up at night. We also know that he felt the pressure of inevitable suffering, a thing I would surmise was part of the reason he could not sleep. But another reason why he could not sleep was that he continued to pray for God’s assurances that he would be saved. In verses 145 and 146 it seems that he even says some of the things we say in times of trouble, which is to promise God that we will obey him and keep all of God’s rules if only God will save us. But then we read verse 151.
The psalmist says that even though he feels the pressure coming from the proximity of the wicked, he knows God is near. Notice the difference (while some translations don’t state the difference, but the Hebrew is quite clear on this point), the wicked are drawing near (150), but God is near (151). Even though the psalmist may not feel it; even though he may not see it; even though he can’t sleep at night, he knows, he has faith that God is with him. This is the third type of faith that was missing and that we must have as a believer.
Faith in the truth of Christ’s claims and the truth of the claims of scripture is important, and we can certainly grow in our knowledge of both. Faith that Christ alone saves us from our sins is of utmost importance, and we can certainly increase our reliance on the truth of Christ’s redemptive work as well. But these types of faith are only the start of our walk with Christ. Our faith in God’s real presence and that he is nearer to us than any enemy is the daily faith we need to have. This third sort of faith must be an active faith and it is a faith we cannot do without once we start along life’s path. And it is a faith that will someday be rewarded when we, like Thomas, are shown the nail prints in his hands.
