​Psalm 42
 
An instinctive thirsty deer appears to be an appropriate metaphor for an ardent seeker after Yahweh; with God depicted in the narrative as ‘dried-out water brooks’ (Ps 42:1). It is obvious that this is no ordinary Divine absence to one who is expecting to be quenched by his familiar personal and interactive relationship with his Lord. But he is totally disheartened, hence his lament, “my soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long” (Ps 42:2-3). Assuredly, he is dying of spiritual thirst! For some unexplained reason, the psalmist had lost his inner sensing of God’s presence in his life, and his predicament is certainly not due to his disbelieve in His Creator’s omnipresence nor a matter of guilt or unremitting sins encroaching on his conscience. In fact, there is a total absence of any language of repentance in the whole psalm. The aridity of his once blossoming relationship with his God is indicative of a period of spiritual drought or darkness. No one is ever comfortable with spiritual dryness, but when it does happen, and we do nothing about it, it will eventually degrade our faith to the point we become blasé about the things of God. Where is your God? How does the psalmist explain spiritual barrenness as he confronts it head on? 
 
For whatever reasons, he found himself in northern Israel. Exile had been suggested by some as he was being tormented and ridiculed by his enemies over his spiritual struggles (Ps 42:3b, 9-10), but this is controversial. As he reminisced aloud, his most vivid and endearing recollections were on his past dynamic communal participation around the temple in the southern kingdom (Ps 42:3-6), when he appeared to be closest to his God. What is revealing is that when we are focused on God and deeply involved with fellow believers in the local body of Christ, learning and encouraging each other, and being accountable to responsible community leadership, we are more aware of His presence. The Apostle Paul reminded us that we are not meant to be isolated spiritual individuals, but to be part of a wider community as we comprehend the love of God for His world (c.f., Eph 3:17-19). 
 
Often when one is undergoing spiritual darkness, inevitable disheartening questions would arise, both internally and from others, and these enquiries would likely further distress one’s already incontrovertible strivings. It is credible that the psalmist was facing some humanly complex issues that caused him to question within his own soul the veracity of his own faith in God, “Where is your God?” and “Why have You forgotten me?” (Ps 42:3, 9, 10); or “Why would God allow this to happen to me?” No doubt with possibly some adversarial contribution from his erstwhile spiritual enemy, his despair over time impacted both his physiological and spiritual wellbeing in a downward spiral: depriving him of sleep, the loss of his appetite, and weeping day and night over his predicament (Ps 42:3) - intimating a depressive state.  
 
What was the psalmist’s solution for rising above his spiritual discouragement? First, he poured out his soul before God (Ps 42: 4). It is distinctly discernible that the whole psalm contained this rehearsing of his contemplative meditation before his God: his implied instruction to us is to continue worshipping God despite a loss of sensing His presence, to carry on reading and meditating on His Word even though nothing seems to penetrate, and not to cease from praying even when our prayers just seemed to have hit the ceiling! And to continue to converse about all these issues with an apparently ‘absent’ God. Secondly, he re-examined where he had placed his hopes and reinforced his present hopes in God (Ps 42: 5, 11). Thirdly, he deliberately recalled God’s lovingkindness (chesed; Ps 42: 6-8, 11), turning it into a song of remembrance of His past faithfulness. Finally, he preached to himself after he had listened to his heart in order to discern any false hopes that he may have harboured previously, before lifting his face towards God; “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (Ps 42: 5, 11). Knowing God’s immanence (i.e., presence and participation) in our everyday existence is to be assured of His care and faithfulness to His people; He will never leave us nor forsake us.

​Matthew 6: 5 – 15.
 
The significant context of praying in the Gospel of Matthew is preceded by Jesus’ exhortation towards giving to the poor (Matt 6:1-4); linked by the connecting coordinate ‘And’ and parallel thoughts on the hypocrisy in public displays of these religious acts. Both these sacred undertakings characterise our interior intimate expression towards God that reflects His own matchless generosity and aspirations to communicate with man. When it came to praying, Jesus highlighted negatively two specific groups of people: the religious and the Gentiles. Our Lord did not mince His judicious words by calling the former group, hypocrites; viz., a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion or who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. He was not decrying prescribed public or synagogue prayers per se but was addressing an attitude of spirituality devoid of any intimate relationship with Yahweh. A consistent personal prayer life with God is one that was closeted away in secret, usually in the storeroom which was the inner room in a Palestine home (Matt 6:5-6). Next, He turned to a Gentile (i.e., ethnikos, relating to a pagan origin) in prayer, who used meaningless verbal repetition as its mode (‘polylogia’ meaning ‘much speaking’ or ‘many words’). What is being parsed here isn’t the repetitive outpouring of syllables or words but the technique buttressing its purpose, that deems itself sacred and spiritually sufficient to engage a god or God to elicit some form of answer. What is the Lord’s pattern for spiritual prayerfulness?
 
It is pertinent to note that in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus’ immediate concern is our relationship with His Father. It stands to reason that a mere reiteration of the Prayer, or any prayer for that matter, is not indicative of any relationship with our Creator. The foremost goal is an established prior friendship that is extant in the ongoing conduct of praying if it is to be meaningful (Matt 6:8-9; c.f., Luke 10:38- 11:13; John 15:14-16). The intimacy of a developing communicative fellowship would elicit a personal discovery of our authentic spiritual needs (Matt 6:10). Undoubtedly, His Lordship over our lives will aid in discerning our insidious self-centred clamouring for what we desire. In addition, time spent in His Presence will enable us to gain our Father’s wise perspective of our circumstances, including those around us; after all, He IS Lord of all.
 
The second half of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of our inheritance in Christ as children of God (Matt 6:11-13), in viewing our Father as the unequivocal Provider of all our essential needs for daily existence. Indebtedness was a significant problem among the poor in the economy of the Near East, and the Lord sought to encourage a counter-cultural grace from those whom debts were owed, to forgive their debtors in as much as God had forgiven them their ‘debts’ (viz., their transgressions). This theme of indebtedness elicited a further comment from the Lord (Matt 6:14-15), where forgiveness juxtaposed between the two (viz., debts and sins) appears deliberate. It should be noted that it is the debtors rather than the debts which were to be forgiven; where our concern, like God’s, is the restoration of personal relationships with our debtors. The implication is that we would certainly be hypocritical not to forgive the debtor when we have been forgiven by God (c.f., Matt 18:21-35; Matt 20:1-15; Matt 25:31-46). And it is in that forgiving attitude that we can petition our need for God’s help and protection in the face of the devil’s desire to lead us astray. The Lord’s Prayer is ultimately our response to the Word of God, acknowledging our Father’s Lordship and His special relationship with us as sons and daughters of God, as we seek to witness to His Kingdom on earth.

Isaiah 61.
 
In the Book of Isaiah, his prophetic declarations included distinct references to the Jewish Messiah as the Warrior, the Servant-King, the Suffering Commoner, the Sacrificial Lamb, and the Anointed One. These are metaphorical human attempts to describe the Second Person of the Trinity, given our rather limited perception of heavenly affairs. Hence, this narrative (viz., Isa 61) continues to explore these Messianic pronouncements. It can be separated into two parts: the first fragment is spoken by the Messiah prophetically (Isa 61:1-9), while the second, is a canticle of exaltation from Isaiah himself (Isa 61:10-11). In a synagogue in Nazareth, at the commencement of His ministry, Jesus chose the first two verses from this passage to announce the inception of God’s favour to His people, the Jews (Isa 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-22), by focusing His good news towards the poor, the broken-hearted, those held captives by darkness and the spiritually blind. Following that is a remarkable set of glorified transformations involving the physical, emotional and spiritual realms (Isa 61:3); where the human sinful predicament that brought about spiritual death (viz., ashes) is totally reversed into steadfast righteousness that glorifies their Creator. 
 
Turning His attention towards those who belong to Him, He declared that a rebuilding and restoration of cities and villages destroyed earlier will occur, and together with others who are ‘strangers’ to His spiritual community, a shared labouring responsibility will endure (Isa 61:4-5). It is significant to note that God intends to restore not just our souls and bodies but the world and all relationships, including the whole of the created order (c.f., Isa 65:17-25; Rev 21:5). This renewal by Yahweh is purposefully juxtaposed with the devastating presence of sin, as the latter’s existence created a relational dichotomy between God and man, contrary to His intended design and leading to a collapse of humanity at every level. Although sin’s visibility may be hidden from our fellow humans, it can never escape the all-seeing God, in His pervasive holiness and omniscience. With the restoration comes not only a new beginning in relationship with the Almighty but also new responsibilities in the created order; where in Christ, we become His representatives on earth and into eternity (Isa 61:5-9). 
 
Therefore, our response to God is critical during this interregnum where grace abounds and His mercies through the age of the gospel is still extant. Isaiah then breaks into a hymn of worship in thanksgiving for the irrevocable promises of Yahweh (Isa 61:10-11). Unmistakably, the allegory of fertile soil is introduced (Isa 61:11), giving us a clue as to what our Lord seeks from His people. Our devotion to God is fuelled by our obedience and the eventual surrender to His sovereign will; for unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24-26; c.f., Matt 13:3-9, 18-23). With the advent of the Messiah, we are presently within this time frame of His promises, albeit its complete fulfilment only to be achieved after His Second Coming. And as such, our high calling as ‘ministers of our God’ in the here-and-now, to express Christ-likeness in every sphere of our lives becomes a testimonial to all around us (2Cor 3:3; Eph 5:1-2; Phil 2:1-11) - an onerous and challenging responsibility!

​“But if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him” (C.T. Studd).

As a staff of the Singapore office of an international missionary society, I was going through a list of potential interviewees for missionary service for the coming months, with the available openings on different fields of service in Asia, when suddenly a Voice said, “I want you both to offer yourselves for service overseas with the new inter-missions team!” The apparently new venture was not on the candidature deployment lists in front of me then. I queried, “Oh! What team is that?” He replied, “It will be announced soon.” The following week, at a staff gathering, we were informed that our mission organization, together with several other like-minded groups, would be forming a new team for an initial outreach in a third world country. An appeal for prayer was simultaneously made. 
 
Immediately, my mind went into overdrive in excitement and curiosity, with an overabundance of questions and decisions to be made. Who are these groups we will be partnering with? Who are the unreached people with an unfamiliar name? How will my wife respond to this sudden change in future direction? And how will our families and church react to the decision? What about our finances? And what to do with our apartment? Etcetera! Our routines were turned upside down as we began to fathom the repercussions of relocating. And we were only six months into our marriage then! 
 
A major question that was of immediate relevance was “Why?” Why now when we were much older than the normal missionary applicant? A few days later, that quiet thought elicited an answer: “I want to show you how I love these people to whom you will go to. Besides, by being with them, there are valuable lessons I want you to learn. Don’t worry, I will watch over the two of you.” That latter assurance immediately assuaged my growing concerns. We then set about informing our families and closest friends and consulted with our church’s leadership. Once they gave their blessings, we began the application process. Learning two foreign languages at a mature age raised immediate concerns, but eventually we survived the mission board’s candidature screening process.
 
One day, as we were clearing our home for an eventual rental prior to our departure overseas, He chipped in, “I want you to put your home on the market and donate all its proceeds to whomever you choose.” My immediate reaction to that was my wife’s uncertain response! She had bought the apartment when she began her career as a banker a few years earlier, and I loathed to discuss with her about giving it up so soon. But to my surprise, she agreed to its sale without raising any conditions. This apartment was the most expensive asset in our possession, and to relinquish it would normally elicit some heartaches as property prices were escalating exponentially each year. Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for us, when we did return home in the future, to realistically be able to afford to purchase another home. Nevertheless, logically, if God were to dispossess us of this apartment, surely, He would be able to provide for our future, despite the upscaled costs then! The day we commenced our in-house mission orientation programme, the young couple who bought our apartment, took over a fully furnished flat. The total cash proceeds of the sale were then given away.
 
As the ten-week in-house orientation programme ended, we received news that a permanent staff member at the mission’s headquarters required emergency surgery. “Gerald, I want you to give all your savings to this couple tomorrow,”  He instructed. Dutifully we emptied our savings account, which was the balance of our wedding gifts, and anonymously forwarded it to the couple. We learnt later that the sum contributed matched exactly the hospital expenses. We left Singapore with very light hearts and thankful for His faithful provisions. 
 
This journey into a very different cultural and religious environment was to be formative in our walk with God, as He ventured in familiarising us to His unconditional love (agape) towards a distinct racial group from us, with an acquired sensitivity towards their particular spirit world. Due largely to a disintegrating peace and order situation at the time, the lesson in ‘laying down our lives’ became paramount as we served in a highly ignitable conflict zone; where the daily tranquillity masked a hostility between two politically large opposing armed factions. The fact that we persevered is due principally to God’s earlier promise that He would look out for us. He is faithful in every way.