新视域的力量
虽然艰难,但更稳妥

经文
申命记三十二28-38
28因为以色列民毫无计谋,心中没有聪明。
29惟愿他们有智慧,能明白这事,肯思念他们的结局。
30若不是他们的磐石卖了他们,若不是耶和华交出他们,一人焉能追赶他们千人?二人焉能使万人逃跑呢?
31据我们的仇敌自己断定,他们的磐石不如我们的磐石。
32他们的葡萄树是所多玛的葡萄树,蛾摩拉田园所生的;他们的葡萄是毒葡萄,全挂都是苦的。
33他们的酒是大蛇的毒气,是虺蛇残害的恶毒。
34这不都是积蓄在我这里,封锁在我府库中吗?
35他们失脚的时候,伸冤报应在我;因他们遭灾的日子近了;那要临在他们身上的必速速来到。
36耶和华见他百姓毫无能力,无论困住的、自由的都没有剩下,就必为他们伸冤,为他的仆人后悔。
37他必说:他们的神,他们所投靠的磐石,
38就是向来吃他们祭牲的脂油,喝他们奠祭之酒的,在那里呢?他可以兴起帮助你们,护卫你们。
信息分享
我们前几天一直在思考诗人在圣所中被提醒某些忽略了的事情,因此得到醒悟。是的,除非我们的思想先经历变化,否则我们的性情不会有真正的改变。凡是只着重改变行为的心理辅导法,没有强调改变思想的重要性,均是片面以及不完整的。没错,改变行为的确可能为我们带来一些改变,但正如今天的经文指出,思想改变以后,我们才能够经历最大的改变。
诗人在圣所内似乎对不敬虔的人有了正确的想法,他「思想他们的结局」(思想就是明白的意思)(诗七十三17)。而接着的经文指出他对神的想法也跟着变得正确:「你实在把他们安在滑地,使他们掉在沉沦之中。他们转眼之间成了何等的荒凉,他们被惊恐灭尽了」(诗七十三18-19)。诗人的疑问并不是为何不敬虔的人会兴盛,而是神怎会有这样的安排。如果他认为事情只是出于偶然,那么他可能没有任何疑问,但事实是伟大的设计师如此的计划,令他充满疑惑。不过,现在他看到神大能的手把这些人放在兴盛和显要的位置上,目的是要实现创造主的旨意,经文说「你实在把他们安在滑地。」留意这个「你」,也要留意「滑地」这两个字,意思是他们的位置其实是危险的。因此,神没有将祂所爱的人放在那个地方,而是选择了一个虽然艰难但更稳妥的立足点来让他们站立。
「神选择了看似艰难但更稳妥的立足点来让我们站立」
进深研究
诗十六1-11;撒上二9;诗十八36;弗六13-14
1. 为甚么我们能够站立得稳?
2. 保罗给以弗所人甚么劝告?
祈祷
神啊,我很感激您把我双脚放在安稳的地方而不是滑地。我不知道为甚么能被拣选得到这样的恩典和慈爱,但我深深的感激您。阿们。
The Power of a New Perspective
Rougher - but more secure

Bible reading:
Deuteronomy 32:28-38
28 They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.
29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!
30 How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.
32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
34 "Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?
35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."
36 The Lord will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.[a]
37 He will say: "Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,
38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!
Message
We have been seeing that in the sanctuary the psalmist was reminded of the things he had forgotten, and thus his thinking was straightened out. There can be no real change in our personalities until there is a change in our thinking. Counselling that focuses only on changing behaviour and fails to emphasise the importance of changed thinking is partial and incomplete. We may experience some change when we change our behaviour, but we experience the greatest change, as our text for today suggests, when we change our thinking.
In the sanctuary the psalmist's thinking was put right about the ungodly: "Then I understood their end" (Psa. 73:17, NKJ). The next verses indicate how his thinking was also put right about God Himself: "Surely you place them on slippery ground, you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors" (Psa. 73:18-19). The psalmist's problem, you remember, was not so much that the ungodly prospered, as that God had arranged it that way.
Had it happened by mere chance, he might not have had any difficulties, but the fact that the great Designer had planned it like this filled him with perplexity. Now, however, he sees that the divine hand had purposely placed these men in prosperous and eminent circumstances so that they could fulfil the Creator's purposes: "You" - note the You - "You place them on slippery ground." Note, too, the phrase "slippery ground": their position was dangerous. Therefore God did not set His loved ones in that place, but chose instead a rougher but more secure standing for their feet.
"God chooses a rough secure standing for our feet"
Prayer
O God, I am grateful that You have set my feet in a secure place and not on slippery ground. Why I have been chosen to be a recipient of such grace and favour I do not know. Yet it is so. I am deeply, deeply thankful. Amen.
Further study
Psalm 16:1-11
1 Samuel 2:9
Psalm 18:36
Ephesians 6:13-14
1. Why are we able to stand firm?
2. What did Paul admonish the Ephesians?
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