Our Declaration of Dependence

by Mike Ratliff

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.  (Psalm 33:20-22 ESV)

The movements we are seeing all around us, whether Christian in form or not, that are attempts to improve the world, to bring in some form of utopian existence or a new level of evolution, or whatever; are all simply examples of the same thing that happened in the Garden of Eden when Man rejected God’s plan and went with his own (Genesis 3). The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) is an example of men coming together in disobedience to God’s command to try to improve on what He has promised to give them. The stuff going on now with globalization of the Church via Dominionism, the Seeker Sensitive movement via Diaprax, et cetera, are just current day examples of professing Christians doing things their own way because they consider God’s way to be ineffective or boring or outdated, et cetera. These movements are declarations of independence from God as Lord and are markers of people who may profess to be Christian, but by these actions, they prove they are anything but. 

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. (Psalm 33:1-5 ESV)

Let’s face it, those professing Christians rebelling against the Lordship of Christ in all of these man-made extra-biblical things they are doing that are declarations of independence from God are acts of rejection and insults of our Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient. Omnipresent, Immutable, and Transcendent God. They do not know Him. If they did, they would do these things. Those of us who do know Him, those to whom He has graciously given eternal life, let us praise Him according to how He has dictated. Let us serve Him according to His will, all by His grace.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.  (Psalm 33:6-9 ESV)

Look at what He has done! How can we take Him for granted and think that we can come up with a better plan than His? Those who do that prove they have no fear of Him and do not know Him. On the other hand, we must examine ourselves and make sure that we are most certainly not taking our awesome God for granted, after all, we are all going to have to give an account…

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11 ESV)

I know professing Christians who are more concerned about what elected officials are put in office than anything else. It is as if they get the right mix then we will have it just right and everything will be great. Nope, it will still be just the counsel of nations and the plans of the peoples. This is the primary reason our focus as Christians must be eternal, not temporal.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!  (Psalm 33:12 ESV)

I have seen the first part of this verse taken out of context, put on billboards and used to proclaim that if we want God to bless our country then we must restore it to its previous state of Christian values. I would not mind that, but that isn’t what this verse is saying. The nation David is referring to here is Israel and the LORD is יְהֹוָה. This is God who is called Jehovah in some translations of the OT. Who are the people whom God has chosen as his heritage? It is the Church. It was Israel under the Old Covenant, but it is the Church under the New Covenant. It is not limited by national boundaries.

The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. (Psalm 33:13-17 ESV)

This is almost laughable, however, right now there are many movements that are man-made attempting to overthrow what God has ordained the Church to be about. The people behind these things are attempting to meld together philosophy and the business management and religions from all over the world in an attempt to create utopia or the perfect dominion or whatever and what about God? Is He concerned? Is He worried? He is enthroned and He is observing, but He is absolutely under NO threat of being overthrown. The next time these things start to trouble your heart, consider that.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. (Psalm 33:18-19 ESV)

What a great place to be for those who are truly in Christ! The eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, who hope in His steadfast love. Their hope is that He will deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. In other words, their hope for their all is in Him not in anything man can do. What a peaceful place to be!

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.  (Psalm 33:20-22 ESV)

Those who truly know and trust in their Lord make this declaration of dependence on the Lord alone. We watch these men who profess to be Christians making train wrecks of their faith and wreaking havoc in the visible church because they have forsaken this very simple yet profound thing. Of course, the reason they have done this is that they don’t really know the Lord this way. If they did, they would serve Him without compromise awaiting His return.

Soli Deo Gloria!