Question: Do we really want God’s active presence?

Anecdote: This morning, I was again in Psalm 67. The first sentence in the poem reads, “May God be gracious to us and bless us/and make his face to shine upon us,/that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations” (Ps 67:1-2, ESV).

Recently I was able to attend a prayer breakfast. 15 Soldiers out of hundreds were present. Some civilians came to provide music. And a dance team was used to artistically dramatize the gospel narrative. And I heard a fellow chaplain for whom I have a great deal of respect speak from Luke’s gospel on the ‘unnaturalness’ of prayer. His point was that the default humanistic position is to live and act in a “I’ve got this” posture. But the oh-so-obvious question one might ask the humanists is, “Well, how’s that working out for you?”

The chaplain was right. God breaks His people in order to restore them. The cross before a crown, if you will. Repentance precedes any restoration and redemption. Prayer is unnatural in that it assumes human weakness and the sovereignty of God. If we didn’t believe God is sovereign, why would we pray?

This all seems so basic, so foundational, that you’d think we all get it. But …

Contrast it with just this first sentence of Psalm 67 above. There we see the speaker in the poem cry out to God in prayer for His blessing, for His active presence, that His face might shine upon them, that His countenance of benediction superintend their ways. And yet when we look out at our culture, what do we see instead? The active suppression of God, the increasing hostility to any ability of heralds of the gospel to inform and shape culture. We have folks that’ll set themselves aflame in D.C. over political leanings while screaming talking points, but where do we see Christian soldiers praying for God’s presence?   

Again, the question: Do we really want God’s active presence? The chaplain was right. Believers need to pray more. We need to be broken and driven to our knees so that we call out for the one and only true God. We need to be brought to the place of the psalm writer when he writes in verse 3, “Let the peoples praise you, O God;/let all the people praise you!”

How are things working out via the humanistic and pagan way? The answer seems obvious. Psalm 67 is so straightforward and so powerful. May we have the wisdom that even the prodigal son eventually came to: humility precedes honor. We need to learn how much in the pigsty we really are as a culture. Because then we will see the Father, the more than willing Father, ready to clothe us in robes and celebrate, “Welcome home.”