TTWW-19-E Our Subtle Selfishness in Serving God

The favorite book of the Bible for many people is probably the book of Psalms. This collection of Hebrew poetry is the longest book of the Bible and expresses the whole range of human emotions: sorrowful wailing, doubtful questioning, and joyful thanks for deliverance. One of the favorite verses is Psalm 126.3: “The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad.” That sounds good, but that’s not what the original in Hebrew says.

Psalm 126.3 has been quoted in every language in every age when believers stand up and testify to some marvelous thing only God could have done. “The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad.” It’s a short verse with universal application, and it was the next verse to be translated from Hebrew in my morning devotions. As always, I ended my study by using the Bible Hub app to compare my translation with that of dozens of other versions in English. I also check the translations in several other languages I read. My translation: “The LORD has done great things with us; we are glad.” I checked the lexicon to be sure I had translated each word correctly, and it confirmed my translation. There was no doubt, the original says “God has done great things with us”, not “for us”, which is what every English translation says, except one. Many translations in other languages also say “for us”, but Young’s Literal Translation and the Spanish, Swedish, and Greek Septuagint translations read “with us”, which is how I translated the verse.

Is there a problem with the translation?

The Hebrew preposition “ ‘im” is found over 1000 times in the OT text, and its principal meaning is that of “association”, “equally with”, “beside”, “in conjunction with”. In some places it is translated “among”, as in “among us” or “among you”. In a few places it is even translated “against you” because the context talks about the enemies who make war “with you”, in other words “against you.” We say this word every year at Christmas. It’s the first syllable of the name Immanuel. “God with us”, Immanu (with us) El (God). But in these two verses “ ‘im” is translated “for”:

1When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.

2Our mouths were filled with laughter then,   and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

3The LORD had done great things for us (immanu); we were joyful.

Does it matter whether we say “for us” or “with us”?

In the context of the Psalm, it would be natural for translators to adopt the rendering “for us”, and it wouldn’t be contrary to the rest of Scripture. God has done great things for many of you listeners, I’m sure. But what if we take God’s Word literally, “He has done great things with us”? Consider also the fact that, of the 1000 times this preposition is used, I found only one other time it’s translated “for”. The prophet Samuel tells the Israelites in 1 Samual 12:

23“As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.  I will teach you the good and right way. 24Above all, fear the LORD and worship Him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things He has done for you.

The wording of v. 24 is almost identical to that of Psalms 126.2-3, but look at verse 23, where Samuel says “[I will] pray for you”. The word he used here is a different preposition that means, “on behalf of”. “I will pray on your behalf, in your benefit”, and then he says, “Consider the great things God has done with you”, not “for you”.

The Negative implications of God doing great things “for us”

We all know our natural tendency is to think of ourselves first. Self-preservation, self-defense, is one evidence of that. But there’s also the “What’s-in-it-for-me?” approach to any decision we make. We weigh the advantages and disadvantages of buying a new car vs. keeping the old one another year. We believe that the purpose of God’s love is to promote our well-being, in life now, and forever in eternity. Seeing that we are God’s highest creation, His goal is to ensure that we are contented and well off.

We’re glad when God does great things for us, in our benefit. That’s what we expect from God. But what happens when the great things we desire from God aren’t the reality we experience in our personal lives? The Prosperity Gospel with its message of health, wealth, and no problem unresolved is very attractive, especially if we’re healthy, wealthy, and haven’t a care in the world. If we’re plagued with illness, battling poverty, and swamped with problems at home or on the job, we think God has failed to live up to His promises, or to our expectations, anyway.

The root of the problem is the “inadequate follow-through” of the gospel

Many years ago, I used to play tennis occasionally. A good swing of the racquet depends on “the follow-through”. I think it’s true of baseball and golf, as well. I know it’s true of the gospel. The root of the problem is the “incomplete” gospel so common in evangelistic endeavors. The gospel has been famously summarized in 4 spiritual laws, 1. God loves you. 2. Sin separates you from God. 3. Jesus died to take away sin.4. Trust in His sacrifice and receive eternal life. That’s not a false gospel. It warns of eternal separation (damnation in hell) and presents God’s offer to save us from that. I recognized that truth when I was 8, but that was only the start of my new life. When a baby is born, it naturally seeks its mother’s breast, but something is terribly wrong if it never gets past that stage in life. The “get people saved” evangelistic campaigns are not false, they are “incomplete” to the extent they end there. The fault lies in the “follow-through.

Even the “Full Gospel” found in the names of denominations, which implies that the gospel is not “full” without the healing of believers, may itself be incomplete. It focuses on what God can, will, or even must do “for me.” Certainly, those things are not to be downplayed. Psalm 103.2 says, “My soul, praise the LORD, and do not forget all His benefits.” The rest of that Psalm emphasizes God’s mercy shown in His forgiving our sins and trespasses. Psalm 107 extols God for hearing us when we are afflicted, presenting different situations of affliction, each time repeating the refrain, “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He rescued them from their distress.”

Of course, we are initially drawn to the gospel because it offers to do something for us. We may answer the evangelist’s appeal in order “to save our own hides”, as it were. As my first pastor used to say, God’s plan of salvation is not “a fire insurance policy” against the threat of eternal hell. God offers to do something “for us” because His real goal is to do something “with us.”

The positive implications of God’s doing things “with us” instead of “for us”.

In the first place, this signals inclusion, and it has a direct impact on the way we should pray. I can’t know for sure, of course, but I suspect a lot of our prayers are aimed at recruiting God’s help in our plans. That’s backwards. God wants to include us in His works; He wants us to be involved in His plans. God is Self-sufficient; in His omnipotence and sovereignty, He doesn’t need us or anything we have to accomplish His purposes. But He takes pleasure in our being joined with Him when He works. An evangelist doesn’t save anyone, but he shares in God’s work of rescuing the perishing.

I remember when our son Rick was 3 or 4 years old and I was making furniture for our home in Brazil. He loved to get a hammer and “help” me. Honestly, his “help” didn’t make any appreciable difference in the finished product, but I was glad he was with me. Five years later, when he was 9, and we were in Madeira, he, along with his mother and his sister Rachel, put together the lumber I had cut and prepared, and they assembled the pews for our first meeting room. I had to be in town to finalize the paperwork so the electrical power would be installed in time for the scheduled inauguration of our first mission. At the age of 9, Rick was a great help in completing the plans I had laid out. We are not saved by our good works, we are saved for good works, “which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2.10.

God is interested in observing our sincere desire to be involved with Him as He works. He’s not dependent on what feeble work we might accomplish on our own. God wants us to be a part of the great things He does, He wants to do great things with us. As we grow and mature in our faith, He will involve us in greater projects.

That leads to the next step: Instrumentality.

We are not only included in His work, we are the instruments he uses in His work. “with” not only expresses a common or joint relationship, it expresses instrumentality. I’m going to have to go out and cut up large branches that have fallen from the trees by the creek that runs along the side of our property. I’ll use my chain saw to do that. I’ll cut them up with my chain saw.” But when I make toast at breakfast, I slice the bread with a knife. I use a different instrument, one appropriate for the task. God has an instrument for each task He has purposed to carry out. I want God to do His work with me, as His instrument in the work He has prepared.

Can we look back on our life and humbly and joyfully say, “God has done great things with me”? Has God used me to do His work? That’s the lesson of the jars of clay in 2 Corinthians 4, which God uses to transport the treasure of the light of His glorious gospel to a dark world. The clay jar is worthless without the treasure it holds. The tool is nothing without the workman. The chainsaw is nothing more than a giant doorstop, until I pick it up and place it where I need to use it on the tree branch. Remember, it’s not what God does for us, it’s even less important what we do for Him. It’s what He does with us.

The knife in the cabinet drawer is nothing but an object until I use it to slice my bread, and it becomes useful in my hand. The knife doesn’t decide how thick the slice will be; that’s my decision. We rejoice to see where God has done great things with us, but we are only the instruments, the tools in His hand, used where and how the Master thinks best.

Then, there's modification

That instrumentality is related to the last point I want to highlight. In order to use us, God has to make changes in us for what He purposes. It’s modification. It’s the question I ask myself when I come across an unusual object at a flea market. The question is not only, “What could I do with this?” It’s “What else could I do with this?” In other words, “What could I do to this, so it will serve another purpose I have in mind?” How many times have I modified the material I had available to me to achieve an entirely different purpose from what it was originally designed to do?

When we went to Madeira in 1976, there was nothing like Home Depot or Ace Hardware, where I could go and pick a tool or piece of hardware from the shelf. I had to go to the counter and tell the employee what I wanted. I often ended up sketching more or less what I had in mind. The employee would disappear between the shelves behind the counter or in the back room and return with an item. After looking at it, I would say, “Well, not exactly that.” I might then say something like, longer, or shorter, narrower, heavier, or black, not brass. Eventually, the employee would ask a useless question: “What do you want it for?” Well, it would be for something completely unrelated to what the hardware he was selling was designed for. I already had in mind how I would have to modify it, bend it, cut it apart, put holes in it, and turn it backwards and upside down to serve the purpose I had in mind.

Did your mother ever say to you, “What in the world am I going to do with you?” She was at her wit’s end and something was going to have to change, and that something was you and the way she related to you. Before God does something great with us as His partners, and does something great with us, using us as His instruments, He will have to modify us into the exact instrument for the purpose He has in mind. He’s going to have to do something with us.

He cleanses us from our sins, polishes off the rough edges of our human nature, sanctifies our way of speaking, inclines our interests to spiritual things, resetting the dial on our spiritual receiver so we’re tuned to His Spirit, and He adjusts the focus of our goals to the vision He has for us. There’s a lot He has to do with us. The purpose of His salvation plan is not to make us comfortable, but to show the world what great things He can do with poor creatures like us.

God accompanies us, uses us, and changes us: He does great things with us.

Yes, truly the LORD has done great things for us; and we are glad. But we should say even louder, “The LORD has done great things with us; He accompanies us, uses us, and changes us. He has done great things with us, and for that, we are exceedingly glad.”