Psalm 63:4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
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Review: Seeking a Full Cup
We all know the phrase from the 23rd psalm that David used to describe the sensation that comes from having been in the presence of God. He said, “my cup runneth over.” We all have a cup. That cup is the appetites that God built into your soul. You body has appetites and your soul has appetites. When you body’s appetites go unfulfilled – you don’t get food, you don’t get water, you don’t get sleep, you don’t get activity – it’s miserable.
It’s the same way with the soul. When the appetites of your soul go unmet, and your cup is empty, it’s really miserable. Your soul has a powerful appetite for encouragement, strength, hope, contentment, rest, fullness, joy, confidence, assurance, renewal, motivation, passion, comfort, etc. When you have those things your cup is full. When you don’t, it’s empty. Having a full cup is the most wonderful thing there is.
And beyond that, God commands us to seek a full cup, because He is glorified when our satisfaction comes from Him. (Or to use John Piper’s words, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”) God designed you with appetites so that you would seek to fulfill them, and then He commanded that you seek fulfillment in Him.
Isa.55:2 listen to me, and eat what is good
Pr.9:5 Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
Ps.37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD.
In v.1 of Ps.63 David’s cup is empty.
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
In v.5 describes a full cup.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods
David knew all about having an empty cup and he knew all about having a full cup. And he teaches us at least 7 different ways to get that full cup of v.5.
1. The first step toward getting that in your life is by resolving to prefer God. (v.4)
2. Another step is to learn to hunger and thirst for it. (v.1)
3. Another important step is to behold the glory of God (v.2)
4. A fourth step is praise and worship (vv.3,4,5,7)
5. A fifth step is to meditate on God (v.6)
6. A sixth step is to trust in His great and precious promises and rest in Him as your refuge (v.7)
7. Another step is to cling to Him and press hard after Him (v.8)
Those are seven things I see in this psalm that teach us how to arrive in v.5 – totally satisfied in God. And the order isn’t really important. When I call them “steps” I don’t mean that you have to do #3 before #4 but not until you’ve done #2… These are all things that we should be striving to do all the time. However there is one that stands out as an important starting place and a foundation for all the others, and that one is in v.4. So let’s take a peek at v.4.
Resolve
Therefore I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
Here is he talking about what he is going to do in the future – from the time of writing until the day he dies. No one knows what will actually happen in the future. So when you see a statement like this, the point isn’t that he is looking into a crystal ball and telling God what is going to for sure happen. Nor is he bragging about how successful he is going to be in his future walk with God. He is simply making a statement of intention, or resolve. He is saying, “It is my intention to praise you until the day I die. I herby resolve to do that.”
Resolve is a crucial first step, but not the only step
Most Christians have kind of a love/hate relationship with resolutions. Are resolutions helpful or not? Is it a good thing to make resolutions about what you intend to do in the future or not? Does a resolution have the power to bring about sanctification and transformation in your heart?
If I have struggled with an explosive temper or some sinful habit, and January 1 comes and I make a resolution to change… Does that actually do anything to bring about spiritual change?
When you look at your track record with past resolutions, you might be inclined to think, “No, they don’t do a bit of good. They are worthless.” But then on the other hand, think about this – times in your life when you have made a change, didn’t that start in most cases with a decision to change? If you’re not even willing to resolve to change, you will never even take the first step. So you have to have resolution.
Here’s why I think people have a love/hate relationship with resolutions: They expect the resolution itself to do the entire job. And when it doesn’t (and it never does), they are disillusioned. Resolve, by itself, is not powerful enough to bring about change. So when you make a resolution, but then you don’t also do the other things that are also necessary, and so you fail – you think, “Making resolutions is worthless.” But that’s not true.
That’s like saying, “I want to go to the store” – then you get into your car, turn the key, start up the engine, sit there in the garage for an hour.” Then you go back in the house and say, “Turning the key does nothing. It’s a complete waste of time.” Turning the key is not bad – it accomplishes everything it’s supposed to accomplish. And you’re not going to get to the store if you skip that step. It’s just that that step alone is not enough. Resolve is the first step to change, but it’s not enough by itself. It has to be followed by the other six steps we are going to study. But don’t ever think that resolve is not important. I want to show you from Scripture that it is.
Argument from Scripture that Resolve is important
And one place I can show you that is right here in v.4. He is making a resolution about the rest of his life – that’s the significance of the phrase “as long as I live.”
Resolutions are Not Claims or Predictions
That’s not prediction; it’s resolve. And there are lots of other passages I could show you as well. More than 200 times in the Psalms alone the psalmist says, “I will…” Listen to David in Ps.101.
Psalm 101:2-4 I will walk in the way of a blameless life-- when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. 4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.
Is that prideful, to claim that you are going to do be so righteous? Isn’t that boasting? It would be boasting if his purpose were to claim that he will succeed in all this. But that’s not his purpose. His purpose is not to make a claim but to simply state the resolve of his heart. Those statements in Ps.101 are not claims. They are statements of resolve.
You read David’s psalms and no sooner do you read something like, “I will walk with blameless heart for the rest of my life” than you read in the next psalm, “Oh Lord, forgive me, wash away my sin and cleanse me from my evil…” David knew that a statement of resolve, by itself, is not enough to insure that you won’t fail in the future. But that shouldn’t keep us from making resolutions.
Listen to the psalmist in Ps.119:
8 I will obey your decrees
10 I seek you with all my heart
16 I will not neglect your word.
17 I will obey your word.
34 I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
55 I will keep your law.
60-61 I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. 61 Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law.
88 I will obey the statutes of your mouth.
93 I will never forget your precepts,
106 I will follow your righteous laws.
109 I will not forget your law.
145 I will obey your decrees.
146 I will keep your statutes.
44 I will always obey your law, for ever and ever.
Now listen to the very last verse of the psalm:
176 I have strayed like a lost sheep
Oops. I meant to always obey Your law forever and ever, but I blew it before I even got done writing the psalm.
Resolutions are Not Vows
I think a lot of us shy away from making statements of resolve because we think it’s the same thing as a vow.
Ecc.5:5 It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.
We read that and it scares us away from ever saying anything like “I will walk in my house with a blameless heart.” Because we think, “If I fail, then I have broken my word.” When you make a vow and fail to keep it, you have broken your word. But when you make a resolution God accepts that for what it is – He doesn’t make it into a vow. Statements of resolution just simply mean that this is what you intend to do.
I know of some Christians who are afraid to make the statement that they would die for Christ. They don’t want to say that because they think, “I feel right now like I would – I certainly hope I would, but what if the circumstance actually came up and I didn’t have the strength to follow through?” But when you make a resolution, you’re not claiming that you’ll have the strength or integrity or wisdom to follow through.
All you’re saying is that right now, at this moment, the desire and intention of your heart is to do this good thing. If someone put a piece of paper in front of you right here and right now and said, “Check a box – are you willing to die for Christ or not?” … If right at this moment you would check “yes” – then that is an indication of your resolve.
Not all failure is a problem with resolve
You see, there are a lot of complex layers to our will. You can will (desire) things at several different levels. Suppose I’m a smoker and I decide to quit smoking. At the level of resolve, my desire is definitely to quit. I have made the decision. Then when I get the craving, another desire enters in – so I have conflicting desires. Now I want to smoke and I want to quit. Depending on what’s going on in my affections, I may cave in to the impulse to smoke. But if I do that – if I cave in to temptation, that doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with my initial resolution. If you get in your car and drive in the opposite direction of the store, that doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with the way you turned the key in the garage.
That’s why you should never look at someone like that who fails and say, “Oh, he must not really want to quit. If he really wanted to, he would succeed.” There are a number of different kinds of “wanting,” and several of them need to be lined up together in order for you to have ultimate success… But during the time when you’re trying to get to that point, at the very beginning while you are still failing… - that failure does not necessarily mean your resolve wasn’t genuine.
If you are failing there is definitely a problem that definitely needs to be addressed, but the problem isn’t necessarily in the resolve. When the real problem is with something else, and you keep focusing all your attention on gaining more resolve, you will never solve the real problem.
The Problem is the Flesh (which is still displeasing to God)
In Gal.5:17 Paul addresses the problem of when your actions end up being different from what you really want.
Gal.5:17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
Paul does not say, “If you don’t succeed in doing it, that proves you don’t really want it.” He says just the opposite. You do want it, but you can’t pull it off. And when that’s the case the problem isn’t in the willing and resolve of your spirit. The problem is you haven’t defeated the flesh in that area. And that’s something that needs to be addressed. God is very displeased when you fail to defeat the flesh, and you carry out sinful actions.
But He is Simultaneously Pleased with Good Resolve
However, at the very same time God is still pleased with you for having the willingness and resolve in your spirit – even when He knows you’re going to fail. Isn’t that amazing? I love Jesus’ words to the Apostles in the garden.
Mt.26:41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Their actions were deplorable. They fell asleep. They couldn’t even take the impending crucifixion of the Son of God seriously enough to stay awake and watch and pray with Jesus for one hour. The precious, beloved Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who had loved them so perfectly and so patiently – these were His closest friends... And He was distressed and in turmoil and agony like He had never experienced His entire life – probably like no one has every experienced … And He is so upset He is sweating blood. And all that isn’t enough to move them enough to stay awake with Him for one hour. Some things are so troubling that they keep you awake at night, but none of this was that troubling for them. And Jesus knew that their lack of watchfulness would result in all of them abandoning Him in His greatest hour of need. What despicable sin!
And yet, in the midst of all that, He gives them credit for the fact that their spirits were willing! Were they culpable for their failure to overcome the flesh? Absolutely. But even in the midst of that culpability and guilt, the Lord acknowledges the fact that in their spirits they were willing and resolved to do what was right. What a gracious God we serve! Isn’t it wonderful to be a subject of a King who knows your heart?
It always moves me when I read the account of Peter’s restoration in Jn.21, where Jesus questions Peter’s love for Him. You can tell the process is excruciating to Peter. You can almost hear the pain in his voice when Jesus keeps on asking him, “Do you love me?” I don’t know if any of us can understand the pain that had to be in Peter’s heart when the Lord kept asking that given what Peter had done.
I think I may understand a little bit of that. When you have sinned horribly against someone, and that person is now questioning your love, you can affirm your love with your mouth… - but when your actions have just shown a terrible lack of love, you realize how empty your words sound. In times like that you wish you could do what Peter did after the last time Jesus asked the question.
Jn.21:17 He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Isn’t that great? There have been so many times I wished I could do that with people. I’m trying to convince someone of my genuine sorrow over my sin against them, and I’m begging their forgiveness, but they think I’m lying. And I just wish I could say, “Look into my heart and you’ll see – I’m telling the truth.”
You can never do that with people, but Oh, the blessedness of the children of God who can say that to God! “Lord, You know all things. You can see my heart. I know my actions fall short. I know I have done a terrible job in overcoming the flesh. I have so much to be sorry for, and I am sorry. But You know that at least at the level of resolve, I want to serve You!” And that pleases the Lord – even as He is grieved by the other parts. How gracious is our God! Amen?
Most of us are programmed to think in terms of the bottom line only. The bottom line is you either did what you set out to do or you didn’t. Nothing else matters. If you fail, then your resolve now means nothing. But does God think like that? He knows the future. When you make a statement of resolve, He knows if you will end up following through. So in those times when you make a statement of resolve, and God knows you are going to fail, is He still pleased with the resolve? Yes.
Ps.132:3-5 (David speaking) 3 "I will not enter my house or go to my bed-- 4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, 5 till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."
“I am absolutely, positively going to build a Temple for God.”
1 Ki.8:18-19 But the LORD said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart. 19 Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood-- he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.'
David said, “I will build a Temple,” and God didn’t say, “No you won’t, and now I’m going to rebuke you for failing” He said, “No you won’t, but David, you did well to think that you were going to.” If you have it in your heart to do something good (at the level of resolve) – that pleases God.
So resolutions – sincere statements of intention to do what is right - are good things, and Christians ought to make them. And if you struggle with declaring that you are going to do something in the future because you think of every declarative statement as a vow… Then just tell God that when you make the statement. You can pray this way: Father, like the psalmist I now resolve to live a blameless life. I realize that my statements of resolve are so frequently followed very soon by prayers of repentance when I have done the very things I resolved not to do. But I will resolve nonetheless, because at least at the level of resolve my desire is to do Your will. The defective and ruined parts of my will notwithstanding, I will rejoice in the parts of my will that You have brought into alignment with Your will. What a wonderful God we serve that He accepts statements of resolve as valid worship – even when He knows we will fail.
How to Resolve to Love God
Count the Cost
So let’s think in practical terms of what this will look like in your life. Think of some sin, or some area where you are lacking a certain virtue in your life. Something you want to change, but where you have had a whole lot of failure. When you have your next time alone with the Lord tonight or tomorrow, get a pen and paper and write out a prayer of resolution to God. Major life changes require thoughtful planning. You have to think it through thoroughly. Spending 20 seconds saying, “I’m going to change. I’m really going to try hard” will not be enough to effect a significant life change. Your life is like a huge ship at sea, and it takes some doing to get it moving in a different direction than it has been going.
Think carefully about the sin. When do you tend to do it, and why? Think about what it’s like in those moments when you fail – what idolatrous desire is taking over? What would it look like, in one of those moments where you tend to fail, for you to prefer what God offers? What would it cost you? What pleasure would you miss out on? What would it be like to enjoy God’s presence instead of that pleaure? Picture yourself preferring God’s feast in one of those moments.
The reason I say you need to imagine the actual context of temptation in your mind is because your resolve to prefer God will have no real meaning unless you have a clear concept in your mind of what you’re preferring God over. If I decide I’m going to prefer God over some vague, undefined thing, that’s not really saying anything. Jesus taught us that if you want your resolve to last, and not evaporate when the going gets rough and the resolve is tested… - then you need to think through exactly what it’s going to cost you at the time of making the resolution. It’s like you grab your soul by the back of the shirt and force it to look at what you’re considering giving up and ask it point blank – are you willing to prefer God over that? Until you’ve done that, you really haven’t resolved much of anything.
We saw a couple weeks ago that the gospel itself is all about preferring Christ above life. Christ is like a priceless pearl or a treasure hidden in a field. And you are a Christian when you treasure Him so much more than everything else in life that you would joyfully get rid of everything in order to gain Christ. (Mt.13:44) You want Him so much more that it’s joy that drives you to give up everything else.
Lk.14 is another place where He makes the same point. Being a Christian is all about preferring Christ.
Lk.14:26-33 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Think through the cost. Only then will your resolve to prefer Christ mean anything. Very often, in those times when temptation hits your resolve evaporates into thin air, the reason that happened... - the reason you couldn’t finish building the tower... - the reason you found yourself unable to defeat the army of 20,000… - is because you failed to count the cost prior to making the resolution, and so when the cost presented itself you discovered that you really weren’t resolved to pay that price.
You see, there are layers of resolve. I may be resolved to do what is right when I think about it in vague terms. But I need to think through if I’m really resolved to actually give up what I’m going to have to give up. If I haven’t really thought through what I’m going to need to give up, then my resolution doesn’t mean much. If someone says, “I have decided I’m going to be an physicist,” but then when he discovers it requires they have to take math classes in college, he says, “nevermind” … - his initial resolve is meaningless. He didn’t know what he was saying. The truth is he didn’t have any real resolve to do it. Before your resolve can mean anything you have to have some understanding of what you’re resolving.
Illustration: Resolve to Give up Anger
So let’s think about how this works. Suppose your struggle is with anger. When irritating things happen, you always get irritable and snap at your kids, and before you even realize what’s happening, you’re in a bad mood.
The reason that happens is because you have a certain expectation of how God’s providential governance of this world ought to go. You have a scenario in your mind that you not only desire, but you are looking to that for your joy. People who struggle with anger are people who walk through life expecting a certain amount of pleasantness. And if God fails to provide it, they’re mad. You expect peace and quiet when you’re trying to read, or
you expect your wife to speak to you in a kind tone when you are stressed, or
you expect that your car will never break down, or
you expect that you will never stand up and bang your head on something, or
that you will never lose your car keys, or
that you will never get cut off in traffic
that you will never drop a screw in an irretrievable place in your car engine… You have that desire in your heart, and you are looking to that expectation as your source of joy.
If you lose your joy when someone is inconsiderate or when you lose expensive item… - that means you were looking to considerate treatment or that item for your joy. You have dug your own cistern, and you are expecting the satisfaction of the thirst of your soul to come from that. And so when it doesn’t happen, you’re joy is gone, and you get mad.
So what is step #1 in learning to love God in that area of your life? How do you begin with resolve in that particular sin problem? You sit down with your pen and paper and write out exactly what it is you have been looking to for your joy. Then you think through what it would be like not to have that thing ever again. Imagine yourself in the context when you would normally require that thing to happen for your joy - and it doesn’t happen – and picture what it would look like at that moment being fully satisfied with the experience of God’s presence. And then you write down on the paper, “God, I would rather have the experience of Your presence and Your favor in a moment like that, then the thing I have been desiring...” “In fact, if I had to choose between getting that thing and experiencing Your presence I would be not only willing, but happy to go the rest of my life without that thing as long as I had relational closeness with You.” Like David said – “as long as I live.” Even if it meant going the rest of my life without ever having my wife speak to me in a respectful way... Even if it meant going the rest of my life without ever having my husband cherish me or be considerate toward me… Even if it meant going the rest of my life having to spend 20 minutes looking for my keys each time I went somewhere… If in exchange for all that I could have the encouragement, strength, hope, contentment, rest, fullness, joy, confidence, assurance, renewal, motivation, passion, and comfort that come from enjoying Your presence… It’s more than worth it to me.
That is a resolution that means something. It’s not enough by itself to guarantee victory. But it is enough by itself to please God.
Illustration: Resolve to Give up Sinful Fantasy
I’ll give you another illustration. Suppose the problem is with some fantasy in your mind. You gain your joy from fantasizing about things money can buy (the Sunday ads in the paper or certain commercials on TV send your heart into a covetous, greedy frenzy... And suddenly there is hardly one drip of contentment in your heart. Or you gain your joy from daydreaming about being famous. Or you look for joy fantasizing about getting even with someone who hurt you. Or you seek joy by fantasizing about having a different spouse (or having your spouse be completely different). Or your soul seeks satisfaction from imagining some sexual sin. Whatever it is – you find yourself sinning in your thought life because of covetousness in your heart. You daydream about that thing almost every day. When you’re depressed, you mind drifts toward thinking about that thing. When you’re lonely, you revert to dreaming about that thing. When you’re bored, that’s where you mind goes. That’s the source of satisfaction for your soul, rather than God.
So you imagine one of those moments when your mind always goes to that broken cistern. And imagine what it would be like at a moment like that to seek your satisfaction from fellowship with God rather than from that object of your greed. And you consider carefully the trade off. Don’t just flippantly say, “I’ll give that up.” Think it through. On the one hand you will get those benefits we talked about that come from being the presence of God (encouragement, strength, hope, contentment, rest, fullness, joy, confidence, assurance, renewal, motivation, passion, comfort, etc.) … But on the other hand you will not get the thrill or enjoyment that comes from that daydream. Think about missing out on that thrill, and then write out a prayer of resolve – “Lord, I have thought about the pleasure I get from that sin, and I have thought about what comes from intimacy with You… - and I choose intimacy with You – even if it means never experiencing the thrill of that sin again – for the rest of my life.”
Conclusion
I wanted to give you a couple illustrations because I want to make sure everyone understands what I’m saying. And if you forget everything else I have said tonight, please don’t forget this: When I talk about step 1 being resolve, I’m not saying you should resolve to quit something. I’m saying you should resolve to prefer God over that thing. Quitting will just leave an empty space that will be filled right back in by more sin. Preferring forces that sin out and trains the affections not to want it back.
So just to make sure everyone understands, you tell me: how would you do this if the sin were, say, laziness? (imagine preferring God’s favor over physical comfort).
Each one of the rest of the steps we are going to learn is going to require resolve. You will not make much progress in learning to love God more just by attending this Bible study and listening. I’m going to be describing principles from this psalm that will make a huge difference in your life if you implement them… But the implementation is going to require a lot of work. You’ll have to go home after the study or the next day and sit down and think through specific changes you’re going to have to make in your life, and how you’ll make them. If we get to a certain point in this study and you realize you need to set aside an hour each day for spending time alone with God, or that you need to start memorizing Scripture more, or you need to read some better books that will be hard for you to read, etc. – that’s never going to actually happen just because you sat there at Bible study and thought, “yeah, I really need to start doing that.” It takes some serious effort to figure out when you’ll do it, and how you’ll make the necessary adjustments.
But that’s not the most important application for this week. Since the entire purpose of this study is to help you love God more passionately, the most important thing you could do this week is spend as much time as possible thinking about, and enjoying this amazing attribute of God that we’ve learned about tonight – The more you see and enjoy God’s goodness and beauty and glory, the more you’ll love Him. And one of the brilliant rays of His glory, one of the breathtaking vistas of His beauty, one of the wonderfully satisfying aspects of His goodness… - is this attribute – that He is a God who is pleased by our resolve, even when He knows we will fail. God makes it so easy to please Him. Enjoy that this week. Enjoy Him.
