How To Improve Your Memory - Psalm 6:2,6 Pt.12 Series

The Power of Holy Memory: Transforming Faith Through Reflection

Summary: Your physical eyes also play a role in seeing God by seeing His glory reflected in the goodness of what He made (“check your mirrors”). Emblems are not really seen unless they are interpreted.

Sanctify your memory by…

1. Making much of experiences of God’s presence (celebrate!)

2. Taking advantage of night time (insomnia = a summons).

3. Fill your day with reminders

This will enable you to receive greater comfort from God.

Review

This is week 12 of a study of Psalm 63. So far we have learned 4 ways to love God more.

1) Resolve – resolving to prefer God above anything else.

2) Desire – hungering and thirsting for God.

3) Earnestly seeking God – pressing hard after Him.

4) Seeing God.

In David’s lifetime he had seen God doing some amazing, awesome works of power – deliverance from armies and a giant and wild animals - but when he really longed for an experience of God’s power and glory, he wanted to go to the place where the presence of God is most powerfully revealed: the sanctuary. That is where David saw God, and it is where you and I can see God. You go to the place where God’s presence is most powerfully revealed, the gathered church, and you can see God like David did.

I do not mean you see His full glory – no one can see God that way. Seeing, in this context, means experiencing what is wonderful about an attribute of God. Your eyes are opened to what is astonishing and encouraging and comforting about a certain attribute so that it actually has the effect of astonishing or encouraging or comforting your soul. That is what it means to see God.

And when that happens it causes transformation because it strengthens faith. When you try to tell your soul that the pleasure of fellowship with God is preferable to the pleasure of sin, you will be able to make a plausible argument. You can point your soul to the experience you had of seeing God, and your soul will be convinced at the moment of temptation – fellowship with God really is better. I would actually rather have that than sin right now. And when your soul is convinced like that, that is faith.

We also talked last time about the three kinds of worship:

1. Joy in seeing God

2. Longing for that joy

3. Repentance over indifference.

If your soul is moved in one of those three ways, that is true worship. If your soul is not moved at all, it is not worship.

I want to say a few more things about seeing God before we move on to our next point.

Seeing God as in a mirror

The way to see the invisible God is by having the eyes of your heart opened to God’s goodness through faith. But that is not to say that your physical eyes play no role at all; they play a crucial role. A lot of seeing God has to do with the way you use your physical eyes.

Ps.19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God

If you look up at the sky with your physical eyes, you may or may not see the glory of God. Just because you physically see the stars doesn’t mean you are seeing God’s glory. However, you can not see the glory of God displayed in the heavens without using your physical eyes. If you look at the creation the right way you can see God’s glory with your physical eyes.

2 Cor.3:18 and 1 Cor.13:12 both talk about seeing God as in a mirror. When you look at a reflective surface, what you see depends on how you look. If you focus your eyes on the glass of a window, you just see the glass. But if you focus on the reflection you can see what is being reflected. It is the same way with a computer screen. Suppose you are working on your computer and behind you is a glorious sunset, and you have a choice – you can either focus your eyes on the words on your screen, or you can focus on the reflection of the sunset. If you are focusing on the words, you can not really pay attention to the sunset. And if you focus on the sunset you can not really pay attention to the words.

Everything God made in this world is like that computer screen. The things in this world are like the words on the screen; and the glory of God is like the sunset. The world can only see the words on the screen. But a Christian, if she focuses the right way, can see the glory of Christ.