Last Sunday I began preaching a series I’m calling God Work. This series has to do with how the church recognizes the work of God and joins in that work as followers of Jesus. Of course, recognizing and participating in the work of God stems from how we are formed as God’s people. So I began with a message on Psalm 19, reflecting on how we are formed to discern the work of God among creation through prayer and scripture.
Psalm 19 is often cited as a reference to both the general revelation of God among creation and the trustworthiness of God’s statutes of God for life. That’s because the Psalm affirms first that “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge”(vv. 1-2).1 The second affirmation is “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes” (vv. 7-8). These affirmations are important as we consider our participation in the mission of God as followers of Jesus.
The doctrine of Missio Dei claims that mission is an attribute of God, just as much as love and holiness are attributes of God. That is, mission is just as much a part of God’s nature and character as is love and holiness. Because the Lord is a Missionary God, it’s not the church that has a mission but that God has a church to participate in his mission.2 So the primary task of every local church is participation in the work of God, which is how the congregation lives on mission with God.
Living on mission with God begins with discerning the work of God among us and this is where I find the affirmations of Psalm 19 helpful. Despite the evil that occurs on almost a daily basis in a multitude of forms, there is good that happens among God’s creation. In fact, despite the fact that humans are fallen, humans still bear the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27) and this divine image that humanity still bears is affirmed after the fall (cf. Gen 5:1; 9:6). So we should even expect to see people, regardless of their religious convictions, doing good in a variety of ways, whether this good is as simple as helping an elderly person carry a heavy bag or something more organized such as UDance, which involves University of Delaware students raising money for the cause of ending childhood cancer.3
I’ve never met a Christian who lived like they spent too much time praying and reading scripture. However, I’ve met some Christians who seem to live like they spend very little time, if any, ever praying and reading scripture.
The good we see happening should point us toward God but the sacred is often obscured in a secular society. At the very least though, I suggest the good is pointing to something beyond itself and to that which is beautiful and true—the way in which God created life to function. It’s through the eyes of faith that we see the work of God taking place among the good that happens around us.
Yet we also know that not everything happening in life is good or of God. So how do we discern the difference between good and evil? The answer is scripture, which reveals to us the statutes of the Lord. Psalm 19 affirms these statutes and decrees of the Lord as having an illuminating effect. Although the NIV translation renders the Hebrew word zahar as “warned,” the word implies giving light or instruction rather than just sounding an alarm.4 Therefore v. 11 in the Common English Bible reads, “No doubt about it: your servant is enlightened by them…”
Reading scripture serves as a guide for knowing what is right and therefore of God. With scripture as our guide, we are able to name that which is good in society. Scripture is formative, instructing us so that we are able to discern how we might participate in such good as followers of Jesus. Psalm 19 also ends with a prayer, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer.”
My point here is that both prayer and scripture matter. There are a variety of practices that form us for discernment and participation in the work of God as followers of Jesus but praying and reading scripture are two disciplines that we cannot neglect. I know it sounds cliché to suggest we should spend more time praying and reading scripture. Maybe such a suggestion sounds too simple but maybe that’s just the devil finding another way to distract us from recognizing the work of God and participating in that work as followers of Jesus. Plus, I’ve never met a Christian who lived like they spent too much time praying and reading scripture. However, I’ve met some Christians who seem to live like they spend very little time, if any, ever praying and reading scripture.
Our formation through prayer and scripture matters because that’s how we discern the work of God among creation. But it matters also because the work of God that most people will see is in what we, who profess to follow Jesus, do with our lives. People will hear how we speak and see how act. That means we should take the disciplines of praying and reading scripture seriously so that our words and actions will bear witness to the true redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of participating in the mission of God.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2006, 62.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, 6th ed., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2001, 264.