KOPP DISCLOSURE: Scratching the Surface of the Psalms #63

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

Scratching the Surface of the Psalms

#63

“I Can Get Satisfaction”

O.K., it’s time for another survey.

What’s the best rock band of all time?

If you picked the Cowsills, Partridge Family, Donnie and Marie, the Monkees, Paul Revere and Raiders, or Britney Spears, you’re probably responsible for putting Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur next to no brainers like Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King and Santana in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I know every hall of fame has been lowering their standards in recent years; but, c’mon, how can you not say blasphemy when Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur are in and Mountain, Jethro Tull, Ted Nugent, Warren Zevon, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, Beck, Bad Company, Procol Harum, and ELP are not?

The next thing you know the Girl Scouts of America will be competing with the Boy Scouts of America for members.

If this keeps up, we’ll have people running for P that are socialists with more concerns about cow flatulence than the unborn.

If we’re not careful, they’ll be letting men use women’s restrooms at Starbucks and our grandchildren will have to have escorts for potty breaks because men will be able to share the facilities with little girls and women will be able to share the facilities with little boys and little girls and little boys will be told there are no gender distinctions to defy what they can see for themselves.

Well, at least we don’t have to worry about the White Sox making it to the World Series.

Some things in the universe are still normal.

Pero some things really seem to be getting out of hand or coming from the pit of hell or from the ozone layer of reality and common sense.

I mean, really, a lot of supposedly smart people are making some really stupid decisions with their two feet planted firmly in the air.

No wonder the Stones’ first big hit in 1965 was I Can’t Get No Satisfaction with Richards on the riffs and Jagger preening.

Praise God who satisfies everyone that trusts Him!

While everyone knows there’s shelf life to satisfactions attached to fragile things like positions, plaudits, popularity, prosperity and people, David’s Psalm 63 reminds us that God has always provided sustaining, enduring, overcoming and triumphant satisfaction to everyone trusting Him.

We praise God with David for His present satisfactions: “God, You’re my God! I can’t get enough of You! I’m thirsty for You! I’m hungry for You! I’m desperate for You! And You always satisfy my deepest needs when I worship You in the sanctuary and when I praise You with joyful songs!"

We praise God with David for His past satisfactions: “When I’m on my bed and thinking of You, O God, I recall how You’ve always come through for me sooner or later, usually sooner than later, and definitely in the end. Whenever I’ve stayed close to You, everything’s worked out.”

Having seen how God has worked so redemptively in our lives in the past and how God continues to work so redemptively in our lives here and now, we praise God with David for His future satisfactions: “Lord, we’re shouting out our certain victories in advance because of Your love for us. Just as You’ve always taken care of us, we know You’ll always take care of us. We’re not even afraid of people that want to hurt us. You’ve already marked them for doom. We spread the joy of being in Your family.”

That’s why we pray with such confidence at the table: “O Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world. Your mercy is upon us. By grace through faith in Jesus, every sin of the past, present, and even future are forgiven, not held against us, and our slates are wiped clean. O Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world. Your mercy is upon us. By grace through faith in Jesus, we are forgiven; and because we are forgiven, we know we face the future unafraid in anticipation of paradise that comes the first nano-second after the last breath.”

Certainly, there are people that sing along with the Stones and get no satisfaction in life.

They are the ones that distance themselves from God.

They are the ones that commit the only unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’s witness to Jesus as Lord and Savior of all by grace through faith.

Blasphemy is saying anything that is not true about Jesus by the book; and the most blatantly blasphemous thing that can be said about Jesus is that He doesn’t include everyone in His positively redemptive plans in time and forever by grace through faith.

That’s the sad and wrong and damning choice for people that get no satisfaction in time and forever because they reject the only One that can provide past, present, and future satisfaction.

Christians get satisfaction as a gift from God by trusting God and holding on to Him now and always.

Jesus put it this way, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to be right with God, because they will be satisfied.”

The problems in our world seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity; and I’m not talking about the simple disappointments of wondering why our favorite rock band isn’t in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or why the White Sox may never get into another World Series before Jesus returns.

I’m talking about all of the violence and hate and greed and…

Anybody needing a catalogue of what’s not going right in our world is an ostrich; which, by the way, makes a really good target for the evil forces that are up to no good in our lives.

Yet, there is an answer.

There is an antidote.

Jesus.

Yet, He cannot be the answer and cannot be the antidote if we keep Him out and don’t let Him in.

Yes, I’m talking about our lives, marriages, families, churches, courtrooms, classrooms, commerce, entertainment, and everything with everyone else.

He’s not going to be the answer or antidote if He’s not in the conversation.

Again, we must let Him in.

He knocks at the doors of our resistance.

We must let Him in.

When we let Him in, He saves.

Let me put it/Him another way.

G.K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried…The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

Is there really anyone so blind and deaf not to see and hear that we’re losing our world, country, churches, families, schools, and just about everything else to conspirators with darkness and its author?

Is there really anyone that can’t see and hear that we need to change directions – repent – turn to Jesus – before it’s too late?

Is there really anyone that doesn’t know by now that keeping God in Jesus by the book as enlightened by the Holy Spirit that never contradicts Jesus by the book out of our lives is why these are such perilous times?

Apparently so.

That’s why Jesus is counting on people that know Him to make Him known as the only way to heal what’s ailing and destined to die without Him.

I guess that’s why some people refer to the Church as His salvation army.

In today’s war for souls, there’s only One that is God enough to lead us to victory.

Jesus.

It’s always been that way.

Past.

Present.

Future.

That’s our gospel as echoed in Psalm 63.

Satisfaction has a Savior.

Jesus.