“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” – Psalm 43:1-5
As your chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, it’s important that you know your covenant God, and seek to know Him more. Indeed, it’s one thing to know about the triune and living God. It’s one thing to know about Jesus Christ. It’s quite another to truly know Him by faith as your God and Savior, being known by Him in covenant relationship with Him. (John 10) In fact, your life and walk as a Christian must not be static, marked by initial knowledge, but no growth in your love and knowledge of, relationship with, and obedience to Christ. For the more you know Him, the more you will love Him. The more you know Him, the more you will praise Him. The more you know Him, the more you will seek to obey Him. The more you know Him, the more you will hope in Him.
- Remember what Jesus prayed to His Father regarding His children and eternal life that Jesus gives them in John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It’s so true that life consists of communion and fellowship with God, who as Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “created us for Himself, so that our soul is restless unless it finds its rest in Him.”
- As Jesus prepared to give that wonderful call, declaring that true rest that is only found in Him, be blessed by His words in Matthew 11:27 regarding how you can only know the Father by Christ revealing Him to you. “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
- Considering this, Jesus rightly taught Thomas in John 14:7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
- It’s good that you seek to know Christ more, and therefore know God more. After warning you to beware of falling, the Apostle Peter teaches you this as he calls you to engage in ongoing growth “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)
As you seek to know Him more, it’s good for you to remember in your study that you cannot fully know and understand God in His fullness. Indeed, God’s nature reminds you that while you can know Him, you don’t, can’t, and never will fully comprehend Him because He is God and you are not. (Psalm 145:3, Psalm 147:5, Isaiah 37:16, Isaiah 44:6, 1 Corinthians 2:9-16) You are a finite, created being. He is the infinite, uncreated One. (Psalm 39, Psalm 90:2, Romans 11:33, Revelation 22:13) There is much that is mystery about the Trinity. And yet, the Holy Spirit works within you to know that the Creator creature distinction is good. He stirs up awe and wonder within you about His person, being, character, decrees, law, works, and promises, not discouragement because there is mystery and limited understanding. Indeed, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Also, because of His great love for you in Christ, and your love for Him in return, you are glad and thankful for what God has revealed to you about Himself through creation and Scripture. By His grace, you have great, committed zeal to be a good and faithful student of both. Praise God that the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; (Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 1:19-20, Romans 2:14-15, Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) 1.1) Praise Him that He was pleased to give you His Word in writing that gives you that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation, as He reveals Christ to you from cover to cover therein. (John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 1:21, 1 Corinthians 2:13-14, WCF 1.1)
Throughout the Bible, you see the wonderful, growing fruit of the knowledge, relationship, trust, and love that God’s servants have for their Lord. The psalmist of Psalm 43 is a great example. Who did he know his God to be? He first confessed Him to be the “God of my strength”. (v. 2) He knew God to be the divine Judge over all His creation (including unjust men and ungodly nations), his Judge, and his Deliverer. Therefore, as the psalmist, who may have been David, knew that human courts had failed, as he knew he was under divine authority, his plea was for the righteous, divine decree, for the divine judgment of his innocence and their wickedness. The psalmist was weak and destitute of spiritual joy considering his banishment, and yet by grace he found his strength in God.
Do you know your Lord to be the God of your strength? Like the psalmist, all of your strength belongs to God. You have none yourself in order to deliver yourself in times of trouble and affliction. All of your strength comes from Him, and therefore, seek Him for help and be at peace with His providence. For He is able, and according to His will, He will give you help in the right time and deliver you. The living God is your mountain of strength, your refuge. Like the psalmist, note the assurance and comfort that you have in Christ in this verse. It’s not that you hope that He is, but you know that He is your God and the God of your strength. It’s this glorious truth that fuels the remedy of the downcast soul- that being having renewed and rightly placed hope in God.
The psalmist also confessed to know God to be “God my exceeding joy”. Anticipating God’s delivering him and His light and truth leading him back to the sanctuary so the psalmist could once again worship God in His house, the psalmist looked forward to the exceeding joy he would have in God’s presence. Do you know God to be your exceeding joy? This too wonderfully points you to Christ as your Redeemer and exceeding joy both now and forever! Jesus is your exceeding joy now and you praise and worship Him. But, Beloved, this not only points you to the joy that is the climax of your week each Lord’s Day as you do so. It not only points you to the joy you have in private and family worship either. No, your glorification, your being away from the presence of sin, and experiencing pure eternal joy is in view. When Jesus brings you home, you will experience the fullness of joy in His presence and worship Him all the more forever and ever. Praise the Lord!
Someone once asked me, “Pastor, when we are in the presence of Christ, will we have full knowledge of God then? What does the Apostle John mean when he says, “Now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)? The clear answer is that as it hasn’t yet been revealed what we shall be, the glory pertaining to your adoption is reserved for the world to come. We walk by faith and live by hope now. We also know that the Creator creature distinction will remain in Heaven. Though our bodies shall be made like His glorious body, though we shall be filled with life, light, and bliss from Him, though we will have the beatific vision, seeing the beauty of Christ face-to-face, and though there will be much knowledge we will gain, He is and always will be God, and we are not. He will remain infinite and eternal. We will remain finite. There will continue to be much awe and wonder that will fuel our exceeding joy and worship of Him eternally.
Know your God, Beloved. Spend more and more time in prayer and study of the Scriptures today and the days ahead as you seek the Spirit’s work to know, love, and walk more closely with Him. May God bless you in your growth in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.