THE PSALMS – A JOURNEY IN WORSHIP AND FAITH - December 5, 2014 - Day 114 - Psalm 114

The power of God is something we Christians often talk about. We know we should walk this earth doing great things for God and we know the Bible teaches us we must do this in His power yet for the most part that power seems to elude us. Nestled neatly within Psalm 114 are the lessons on how to live in the power of God’s Spirit. What we find here is three prerequisites needed to obtain that power.

Separation is the first principle for obtaining the power of God.

Psalm 114:1
When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

The world speaks a strange language. The world will tell you how it is all about you. The world speaks of man’s intellect and man’s psychology as if man has figured out the human psyche. Does the world look like it has solved man’s emotional problems? Just yesterday in St. Louis County a man drove to his father’s place of business and beat his own dad to death with a baseball bat for no known reason and then sat next to him until the police came and arrested him. The irony of this death is that the dad was a doctor who provided psychological consultation services to the staff where he worked. Man does not understand the human mind and never will. Yet many of our churches turn to psychology in their programs of counseling and in their recovery programs. God speaks to man in His Word, the Bible. It speaks a different language than the world and the world cannot understand it.

1 Corinthians 2:12-16
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

If we want God’s power we must trust in it and in it alone. We must separate ourselves from worldly wisdom and seek God’s wisdom.

The second principle for obtaining the power of God in our lives is that of sanctification.

Psalm 114:2
Judah became his sanctuary…

A sanctuary is a place where one can safely dwell and to the Christian it is a place where God dwells. But God will not dwell where sin abounds. Our sin separates us from Him. The process of sanctification is the process by which through the Spirit we become like Christ. Sanctification is the process by which we grow away from our carnal nature. God wants us to repent and He wants us to be holy. When our heart sets its desire for sanctification then we will grow closer to Him in relationship. Through that process we find God giving us more responsibility in His Kingdom which in turn brings God’s power to accomplish His purposes through us.

As John Phillips so wisely states, “Separation sets us apart from the world while sanctification sets us apart for God.”

The third principle for obtaining the power of God is surrender.

Psalm 114:2
Israel his dominion.

If we are not willing to give God the reins of our lives He will not empower us with His power. The Bible is replete with the lessons of submission.

A great example of how we fail in our efforts to break the bondage of sin can be seen in the way we often misquote scripture. Most of us have read or quoted the verse from James 4:7 which instructs us to “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Yet we fall right back into the devil’s same trap so often. The problem does not lie with God’s Word, it did not fail us. The problem is we forget to read the entire passage which says “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The secret of the power of God over Satan in our lives is in personal submission to God. That means obedience to all of His commandments not just the ones we like. This means we ought to be reading his Word so we know how we should submit. God will not give his power to us if we refuse to be submissive.

The rest of Psalm 114 tells us the results of having God’s spiritual power. When God’s power is evident in our life then the world will see us differently. What a witness we make when we live in His power through His Spirit dwelling in us.

Psalm 114:3-4
The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

It was the sea that threatened the exodus of the Jews from their Egyptian captives. Egypt in the Old Testament is a symbol of the world and its hold on us. The Red Sea is the bondage that holds us from escaping. For some that is sex, for others maybe its drugs or alcohol. Maybe it’s many things but the bottom line is that we all have our Red Sea. But the power of God can part the Red Sea. The power of God can let us escape from our Egypt and then destroy the Egyptians that threaten our growth. God’s power can make us invincible against the world.

Psalm 114:5-6
What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?

What happened at the Red Sea has no natural explanation. It was the power of God. When we live by God’s power instead of our own power we are no longer vulnerable to the world and its temptations. We are in a war Christians. For the unsaved it is a battle for their souls, but even the Christian, whose soul is eternally secured by Christ at the Cross and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit, is at war.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

The power to demolish strongholds can be ours. Yet our churches remain filled with broken people who cannot escape their addictions. This does not have to be. We have divine power to demolish those strongholds. It does not say we have power to manage them or to medicate them but it says we have divine power to destroy strongholds. Destroy means they no longer exist.

Psalm 114:7-8
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

When is the last time you trembled at the presence of the Lord? If you cannot answer that question then it’s probably because you have not followed the three principles this psalm teaches.

Separate yourself from the world, do not compromise. Sanctify yourself. Commit yourself to a life of holiness. Submit to God. If we do these things then the power of God will come down upon us and we will fulfill what Jesus spoke of in John 14:12

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

When Jesus left the earth He sent His Holy Spirit to live in each of us who are His disciples. I don’t know about you but its time I start living this out. Will you join me?