Week Thirty-Seven - Skilfulness

SKILFULNESS

“…so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”  Psalm 78:72

This is the only Scripture to use the word “skilfulness”, though “skilfully” is seen once in Psalm 33:3 and the words “skilful” and “skill” are found several times.  It is interesting to note that in all of the verses where these words are found they relate to the skill of men for war, music and handiwork.  The book of Daniel reveals that all wisdom and skill are gifts of God.

        

But only Psalm 78:72 points consideration to the skill of God, and how great is that skill!  He guides us.  He orders the entire universe – skilfully.  I once read, “There is a God in heaven, and you are not Him”.  Oh, that we would learn to submit to the skilful work He desires to do in our individual lives.

        

Think of the skill of creation and of the continuance and wonder of nature.  Do you produce the air you breathe?  The water you drink?  The life in your veins?  In the book of Job God asks more questions of man who would be god, and man is unable to answer.

        

God is so skilful.  So precise.  No detail goes unnoticed.  No thought.  No word goes unheard.  No intention is un-discerned.  No problem need be unresolved.

        

So, why don’t we just lean back and trust?  Trust in His skilfulness abandons worry and yields peace.  No doubt we need to learn to be more skilful in obedience and truth.

Take time to meditate on how skilfully He has ordered your life.  Where can you see the hand of God directing, protecting, teaching, or blessing?  Take time to thank Him for His skilful involvement in your life.

SKILFULNESS

“…so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”  Psalm 78:72

God has an intricate plan for every bird, every minute, every individual, each nation, each discovery of man, each raindrop, every hair, every grain of shifting sand, and his plan is larger than the ages.  Nothing goes unnoticed or uncontrolled, and though the universe is His, He takes time to know you and me; to seek us out, to draw us to Himself, to desire our attention and fellowship.  And, in all of this He skilfully works in our lives to bring blessing, to encourage growth, to correct and teach, to show through His every action that our lives are important to Him.  His skilfulness is an example, a manifestation, of his immense love.

        

God will accomplish his plan.  He will because He is God and because of the integrity of his heart.  He will never break His promise to Israel, or to us His children.  He will work in love to bring about the desires of His heart toward us and to give us the desires of our hearts along the way.

        

This truth can be of great strength when we face uncertain and turbulent times.  It helps us to look up when things look down. God is at work in every circumstance.  He can skilfully make the crooked ways straight and he can change the heart’s desire with the wipe of His hand.

        

We need to pray believing, watch expecting and live resting in God’s skilfulness.

Have you come far enough in your Christian life to look back and see where God has skilfully intervened in your path?  Where might you have been now had He not intervened?

SKILFULNESS

“…so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”  Psalm 78:72

Continuing with the thoughts on God’s skilfulness, let’s examine Psalm 139. Verses 1-5 teach that God knows every thought, every word, every movement, every characteristic, and every iota about our lives – inside out!  He knows me.  Greater yet, he knows everyone, all of his children with the same skilful intensity.    

Verse 6 is full of wonder. Verses 7-12 reveals that God sees everything and sees everywhere.  I can not hide.  He is too interested to turn a blind eye.  His hands lead me and hold me.  He is not only showing me the way to go but holding me as I follow.  The action is all His.  He is that interested in guiding my life. Verses 13-16 explain that even in an embryonic state I was important to Him.  He made record of my fingerprints and DNA.  Humanity is a marvel of creation.  It is God’s design created in His image.

        

Verses 17-18 say that His thoughts toward me are too numerous to mention.  Though I may lie down to sleep, He keeps watch and is right there waiting when I awake.  Verses 19-22 are the stance of the Psalmist.  With the knowledge of how much God loves, he chooses to hate those that would stand against such perfection.  It was the Psalmist expression of complete devotion to this marvellous love of God.

        

Verses 23 & 24 is the response of the Psalmist.  In the face of such love comes the ability to open one’s heart.  There is no reason to fear being revealed, no fear of being vulnerable, no need to hide or run, no need for shame or embarrassment; just openness, honesty, and dedication to God’s love.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Take time to thank Him for his skilfulness in your personal creation.

SKILFULNESS

“…so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”  Psalm 78:72

God is skilful in his plan, in his exhibition of love, and in his dealings and knowledge of my life, but how skilful is He when things go wrong in my life?  Just because he understands can he do anything about it?

        

We cannot limit God.  His ability to work in our lives is “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”.  (Eph 3:20)  I can bring to him hurts and difficulties that defy human reasoning.  He can take these and turn them into good.  He can help me make sense of things.  He can give the wisest counsel and give me peace to go through.  Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15)

        

The fact of God’s skilfulness need not remain merely factual.  By faith we can turn fact into action.  God greatly desires to prove himself.  By believing the attribute of skilfulness in active faith we experience God’s skilfulness in our lives.

        

Experiencing God’s skilfulness means I can take my hands off.  I can release my problems, children and my spouse, to him to have freedom to work in their lives as he sees fit.  Then, I can look for his hand and acknowledge it; make mental note, record it in a journal, or, share it in testimony.

        

Experiencing God’s skilfulness means I can stop mulling it over.  I can acknowledge that I may never fully understand, and that is okay.  My finiteness is submissive to His infiniteness.  As a child I can come under His direction and simply believe that He will do right and do what is best.

        

Experiencing God’s skilfulness means I can know that He will either solve my problem or bring me though. He will skilfully compass and hedge my path.  I can consciously live in that vein of thought and act upon it by faith.  Can you?

SKILFULNESS

“Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.  Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.”  Psalm 33:2

So worthy is our God of praise.  We have looked at the skilfulness of His hands in our lives, now let’s look for a short moment at our own skill.  This verse is admonishing us to use the gifts and talents of the musician to bring worthy praise to God.

        

The Israelites used many different instruments and music was a part of their worship and praise.  We see Miriam and the other women using tambourines, we read of trumpets and horned instruments, and we see a people ready to raise the roof with noise in praise of their God and his wonderful acts among them.  God appointed and gifted people whose main ministry was of voice and instrument.  They were talented people who gave of their gifts to God.

        

Now, not all of us can sing or play an instrument and it would be unfair to think that we cannot praise God without music.  But for today, we need to think about the skill of the musician.  It takes practice to be skilful.  It takes dedication and sacrifice to practice properly and adequately.

        

So it is with life.  We need to practice to be skilful.  We need to take time to look at our strengths and weaknesses and set plans to practice improvement.  A life well played is praise to God.  The Psalmist asked God to try him and prove him and see where his weak points were so that he could improve and be more pleasing to God.

        

You have heard it said that actions speak louder than words.  If so, then what music is being made by your life? Is it a skilful toned noise, or an undistinguishable sound?  Are you living your life skilfully?