Who's at that table with God? (church bulletin cover)

Starbucks is not just a place for coffee. It’s a place for relationship. It’s a place to hang out with friends and share what’s on your mind or on your heart. Imagine God sitting at one of those little round tables sipping a latte. Who would be sitting with Him, hearing what’s on His mind? Who would He be leaning across the table to speak with as He shares what’s on His heart?

Psalm 25:14 speaks of that kind of relationship with God... “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” What a picture. Here’s the God who flung galaxies across the universe and who holds it all in the palm of His hands, confiding in a tiny, little resident of that universe – someone He created for a relationship with Him. Who is it David had in mind for such intimacy with God as he wrote Psalm 25? It’s not reserved for those we might consider the Somebodies of this world, but it’s also not just for anybody. Psalm 25 says that the Lord saves chairs at such tables for “those who fear Him.”

This is not an expression that fits well with our Starbucks culture. Inspiring fear in those you sit with kind of wrecks the atmosphere. Why does God only want to sit and share with people who fear Him? The answer is simple. God will only draw close in friendship to those who have first accepted His Lordship. God does not want to remain at a distance from us, but nor will He draw near to those who disrespect His counsel. He is God, and even as He sits closely at a table with us, He expects us to remember that. So who is the one who fears the Lord? Psalm 25:12 both asks and answers that very question: The person who is prepared to walk according to the way God has shown them. The rest of Psalm 25 makes it clear that such a person is by no means perfect! David, a man who truly feared the Lord, says in verse 11 that his own sin is great! But what he also says just prior to that is God “guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way (v.9). It’s the humble who fear God and bow to Jesus Christ’s Lordship, and as we do, we find ourselves offered a chair and a heart-to-heart with the King of kings!

© 2008 by Ken Peters