THROUGH GODS EYES

Lord in Jesus precious name we give this time to you now and ask as we come to you

and open our hearts to you that you would speak to us through your Spirit In Jesus

name amen

When we look to David and the psalms we can sometimes think that it was okay for David

because he was a King and because he always seemed to have things go his way.

When in fact quite the opposite is true, and in the Psalms at that time Kings like David

could have anything they so desired, they ruled and reigned and they could have almost

anything in their kingdom, they could also have the women they desired, they could have

men killed at their command, they could have anyone who stood in their way destroyed.

But that was not quite the same story with David, here we see a man chosen by God,

anointed by God, hand picked by God.....wow....david is not only rich on earth with

earthly possessions , but rich also in heaven because he has God on his side. !!

BUT, we see time and time again because David was Gods chosen, David had to answer to God

!!!

David could not do as other Kings of that time did !!

David could not follow the ways of Kings and have anything he so desired !!

Why ? because Davids life was Gods!!

We see this when David had a man killed in order to have the mans wife !!

We see this when David cast his eyes on Bathsheba...

The penalty for this was the loss of their son.

In fact it is said that David and bathsheba had many sons , one of which was solomon, whom

the Lord named Jedidiah, which means loved by the Lord.

You see although God forgave David and restored to him a clean heart there was still a

consequence paid for Davids sin

So what is this ? here we see David being chased by his enemies !!

We see David being hunted down !! being disliked by many !!

He seems to not be able to do as other Kings do !! why not I wonder !!

When we cast our eyes to God and he shines on us and we give our lifes over to Him,

and He having called us first to Himself calls us His children wow...

BUT....THEN...as time goes on we see that we cannot do as some do ...we cannot do as

others do ... soemtimes it may even be that we cannot do as other Christians seem to do ?

Not only that but life does'nt seem to be much easier ? in fact sometimes life can seem

harder ? surely what is this all about ?

You see when we give our lifes over to God ....we give our lifes over to God !!

David was chosen by God and David was Gods child....which meant that David was following

God his Father, David was answerable to God and God was responsible for David.

Other Kings may have done as they wished, but David was Gods child..

ITS NOT FAIRRRRRR !!!HOW COME THEY CAN DO THOSE THINGS AND I CAN'T DAD ?

Here in Psalms we see a man after Gods own heart and although Davids life was not easy,

He continued to praise his maker.

Now psalms 9 and 10 were beleieved to

be written as a poem and were combined together as one but we read them in the psalms

as separate, Indeed we looked in the last study at Psalm 9 and we looked at this as a

separate psalm but in fact it combines with psalm 10.

Now we are going to look at psalms 10 to 13 and we see that psalm 10 begins with a

question !!

O Lord why do you stand so far away ? Why do you hide when I am in trouble ?

And lets go to Psalm 13.

Psalm 13 (New International Version)

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"

and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,

for he has been good to me.

Now reading from Psalm 10 - 13 David asks many questions and in his heart he knows

that God has rescued him many times , many times David has been saved from his enemies.

Many times David has been saved from the sword and from peril and has carried on in

his walk with His God.

Many times when David was faced with death and despair God saved him from situation

after siituation and rescued David from that pit of despair and raised him up.

And David knew that God would get him through, but still he asks the question...when ?

How long Lord ? how long ?

We tend ourselves to look on days and time and we grow weary and burdoned and we

can get clogged down in troubles and situations and we can struggle and pray and cry

out to God and yet it seems sometimes as if God is far away.

Just when we seem to need God, just when we need Him the most it can seem as if God

is far away, but many times it can be that we have gone away from God and many times

we in fact have lost sight of Him.

We can start to focus on the problems and the problems become our god and we place

our problems center stage in our lifes and God can be pushed aside and then we cry

out to God and say " WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU "

In fact He never left us and He is far bigger . far greater, than any poroblem.

The Amplified translation says in verse 3 of psalm 13.

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

He alone can give light to our eyes and make us see again through the dark times.

Who were Davids enemies ? were the enemies flesh and blood ? were his enemies

men ?........ yes, but ........no

What force lay behind the men that chased and made Davids life like this ?

What enemy was David really fighting against ?

Was this really a battle won with sword and spear or was this a spiritual battle ?

Did David look for trouble ? did David search out these things ?

Did David ask to have Saul chasing him ? did David want absalom to rebel against him ?

These psalms were written at a time when David was being persued by enemies.

By Saul who was driven by jealousy and rage and merely saw David as a threat.

And by absalom who indeed was Davids own son, you see through these psalms that we

read we hear david cry out to God for justice because he is being persued and men seek

to take his life.

Here we have David not much to look at , not really a sight to behold, not looked upon

as being the man anyone would have chosen !! indeed he was the last person to come before

Samuel.

Now lets go back to 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Now Jesse had eight sons, but only seven came to the feast. The youngest was not yet

grown to manhood, and he kept his father's sheep in the fields outside the city.

When Eliab, the eldest son of Jesse, came, Samuel thought, "Surely this must be the man

whom God has chosen." For Eliab was a tall, handsome young man, and Samuel was pleased

with his appearance. But God said, "This is not the man. You are judging by the

outward appearance; I am looking at the heart."

Jesse replied, "I have one more, but I did not bring him to the feast. David is my

youngest, and he is now in the field caring for my sheep."

You see God choose David and anointed him to be the future King.

God saw into David's heart and saw him as the future King , the anointed one. and

He choose David,

We too are chosen, we too are a royal priesthood , a holy nation , belonging to God.

Who are called out of darkness into His glorious light. ( HE gives light to ours eyes )

David was chosen by God and yet we see he is pursued by his enenmies.

Now at this time David was also pursued by absalom his own son

Absalom was said to be a good looking man,

from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no defect in him."

2 SAMUEL 14:25

You see everyone wanted to be like absalom.....!!! you could say he was idolised....

You could say ..." he was an idol "

His appearance was great, everything he said seemed to be good, he seemed to have lots

of followers !!! indeed we see this in absaloms rebellion when he fought against his own

father and used his fathers own men to try to defeat him.

Absalom was admired and strong, he had the gift of the gab, he knew how to smooth

talk, he knew how to conjour up followers, he knew how to get opinion on his side.

He had wealth being the son of david, he had plenty of material possesions,

He seemed to have everything like the rich young ruler that he was ....

but as we read in the new testament " the rich young ruler lacked one thing "

So did the Church that said " I have all I need " in revelations.

You see, Absalom although seeming to have everything in the worlds eyes had nothing.

He was spiritaully poor and in Gods eyes he had nothing to offer.

And being the son of david made no difference to God, for God looks at the heart.

And Absalom loved himself.

And indeed absalom met his fate hanging from a tree.

" What do you have if you gain the whole world but loose your soul ? " Mark 8:36

And david lived on.

What do we build our foundations on ? what are our lifes built on ?

Have we riches in Gods eyes ? or are our riches on earthly things ?

What do we store up in our barns ?

Here we have a man called David,.... a man after Gods own heart a man who

Wrote Psalms 59 while being Pursued by saul.

Wrote Psalms 56 while imprisoned in gath

Wrote Psalms 3 while feeling from absalom

Wrote psalm 63 while hiding in thew wilderness of Judah

A man who spared sauls life when he could have killed him

A man who sought God in all things even though he could have walked away on many

occasions david continues to seek God and ask for help and continues to cry out to God.

Even after loosing his own son Absalom who had rebelled against him , even after

Absalom himself had killed another of davids own sons Amnon.

Here we have a man called david who sought after God and looked upon troubles as

he looked upon the philistine giant and destroyed him.

Because His God was bigger and greater than any giant.

Here we have a man who was sought after by Saul who wanted to take his life , a man

who played the harp for saul to soothe saul when he was tormented by evil spirits.

!!!!!

You see here we are not just looking at the men but the forces at work behind these men.

For we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities of the

unseen world, we do not fight against flesh and blood, we do not fight against men or

indeed against woamen but we fight against the forces that govern these lifes.

For the goverment is upon Gods shoulders and the goverment of our lifes are upon His

shoulders and as we place this goverment upon Him so He rules and reigns in our lifes.

And as we fight we do not fight against these people but against the realms in the

spiritual places, and as we have looked and seen before in previous studies, there are

some things we have no authority and power to stand up against but there are many

things we do have authority to do and we can speak in Jesus name against those demons

that have power in others lifes.

We may not be able to speak against principalities and powers that commend nations and

goverments or bind satan himself BUT we can come against those lesser principalities and

powers that govern individual lifes and indeed that may even have certain poweers in our

lifes!!

These are the powers we can come up against because these lower ranking demoms have

no place or authority either in our lifes or in the lifes of those aorund that seek to

destroy us or indeed destroy the lifes of those around us.

These are they powers that would hide behind people and this is where we can see

deliverance and freedom from the enemy.

This is where we can receive healing and freedom form oppression, this is where we can

find deliverance from bondage and sickness. this is why even now in this day of unbelief

and hard heartedness we can see healing and deliverance and freedom and see the blind

spiritually receive their sight.

This is why now in this day we can indeed see people freed from bondage and receive

healing and let no one say " the gifts are not for today "

And if you do.... let God show you the error of your words.

You see here in these Psalms we see a man who is pursued by many and is looked upon as

what we would term in this day and age as " a looser "

A man defeated , a man who seemed at times to be nothing in the worlds eyes, simply a

a shepherd.

Simply a small boy with a sling.

Indeed it was only God that saw David as the man to be the future King.

Here in these psalms we see many men who looked " good " in the worlds eyes.

Many who seemed to have Gods favour ...why ? because they were wealthy ?

Because they had good health ? because they seemed to have everything ?

Because they seemed to be favoured ? because they seemed to have everything ?

Is'nt this a bit like the world we live in now ?

Do you really think things have changed since Davids time ?

People are still the same even now...nothing changes !! the heart of man will always

be the same whatever generation you look too.

Mans heart never changes, throughout all of history mens hearts have been the same.

Theres nothing new under the sun !! it may be presented in a different way and a

different style but it all comes from mans heart, theres noithing new, each generation

thinks it has found something new but its merely the same thing, over and over again.

We seem to look at people in our society who have wealth and fame and we like

to idolise these people and I have been guilty of that very thing in my younger days.

We have all travelled along that path in one way or another and we seem to think

that these who are idols have some thing special as if they are favoured by God.

We look to pop idols and the rich and famous or those who seem to have wealth or

great material Possessions, we look to those who seem to say the right things and have

a special gift or have material wealth and seem to have the right looks or seem to

have everything going for them and we look up to them as some kind of figurehead to be

an example to us

We idolise these people as if they are special and favoured of God ( of course they must

be...must'nt they ? ) as if God has blessed them and their lifes.

And then we look to those who are less fortunate and have nothing and we sometimes can

see this as some kind of judgement as if these people deserve what they have.

We see these people sometimes as being less favoured as if God see's them as less!!.

It can almost be like job and his comforters who looked upon job as if job had deserved

his fate, as if he had done something wrong to bring this thing upon himself.

As if God had punished someone for the wrongs they have done and that is why they are

in this situation.

We have countless shows on our tvs about the rich and famous, and those seking to be

the next star, those seeking to be the next famous person , those who may have the X

factor.

Those who seem as Absalom to be favoured and have that following and we can tend to

follow on like sheep.

And when these people succeed..we may say " well done "

BUT are we following Absalom ? or are we following David ?

Are we following the attitudes of the world or the beatitudes of God ?

Here in the psalms we have the same thing over and ove again , where we see those who are

rich and famous, those who seek material wealth and the treasures of this life.

And we see those who are thought of as less ... like david the shepherd brought in as the

last person to come before samuel, the least, the chosen one and we see

that God chose David.

For God does not look at the worldly possessions or the physical appearance or a persons

stature or standing , but God looks to the heart.

God turns worldly values upside down and those who are rich in God may be wealthy and

prosperous as well because they do not hold onto what God has given them but seek to use

what God has given them to help those less fortunate in the worlds eyes.

And so you can have a rich wealthy Christian who prospers by giving all back to God.

And you may have a poor Christian who is poor in material wealth but rich in Godly wealth.

And you may also have a poor rich person and a poor rich Church and a poor yet rich person.

Whatever circumstance or situation we may find ourselves in, whether in need or in plenty,

we have our Father who protects and guides us and He is responsible for us and we are

answerable to Him alone.

Someone I knew used to always say, " the devil looks after his own "

Why is it that some seem to prosper ? why is it that some seem to always get what they

want ?

Why is it that some always seem to be in the right place at the right time ?

Why is it that some seem to have everything they want while others go hungry ?

Why is it that some seem to walk into prosperity while others walk into poverty ?

Where is the justice ?

You see everyone is and will be answerable to God !!

Everyone will have to stand before the throne of God and give account.

I wonder what the rich and famous now who laugh and scorn at what they call "religion"

will say when their time is up ?

What did they do with their wealth and time ? what did they do in their flesh ?

It won't be " how many records did you sell " ?

Or "how many houses and cars did you accumulate in your lifetime"

Or " What percentage of your great wealth did you give to good causes to gain exemption

from tax "

Or " How many yachts did you entertain your guests on "

Those very people who laugh away now and seem to have everything and treat others as

nothing in their hearts like Absalom will be accountable .

Better to have a David heart now and eternal riches than a tormented saul heart or a

short lived success of Absalom.

Could it be that we are looking through the wrong eyes ?

Could those who are poor now find the Kingdom of heaven and indeed be rich ?

Could those who are rich now find it hard to get that camel loaded with wealth

through that needle ?

Could those who seek peace now be rewarded ?

Could the poor in spirit find the Kingdom and be rich in God eyes ?

Here in psalm 13 David cries out to God and says " how long Lord ? "

" HOW LONG LORD ?

How long before you act ?

Lets pray

Lord God in Jesus name we look to you and ask that ours eyes be opened and our

hearts be enlightened, that you would help us to see through your eyes Lord and

not through the eyes of the world.

That we would see through each trial and each tribulation that you are moulding

us and shaping us and equipping us and transforming us, that through each step of

life when that thing that we have feared has come upon us , we would look only to

you abd see through your eyes.

Each time Lord the storm comes and the enemy attacks that we would see a craftsman

at work in the structure of our journey and the pathway in which we walk.

Lord God let your will be done in our lifes in Jesus name amen