Day 7/27 – The Quest for Autonomy — II

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
The Quest for Autonomy — II
Day Two Hundred Eight

“To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” Genesis 3:16-17

When God prohibited Adam and Eve from eating of the tree, Satan suggested that God sought to restrain by fear what might easily and safely be taken by transgressing the command. Instead of gratitude Adam and Eve questioned the goodness of God in that He did not make them like God. Sin began by their doubting that God rules in their interest, that His will is unconditionally binding, and that there are unacceptable consequences to disobedience.

In a utopian environment Adam and Eve were discontent with anything short of being like God. It does not matter what God gives you; ultimately you will be unhappy until you supplant God. Here you can see the grotesque nature of man’s lust for autonomy. You will generally find a direct ratio between society’s affluence and its discontentment; the more people have the more discontent they are. Those who do not have are envious and those who do have are not satisfied. The more people have the more bored they are with life and the more preoccupied with autonomy they become.

It requires an act of your will to put limits on your appetites. A healthy relationship with the Lord Jesus will help you in this quest, but note the solution God implemented in Eden: pain and opposition. Thus you see two extremes on the spectrum of life: become like God or live in perpetual pain, opposition, poverty, disease, and war. If you live a life of gratitude, exchanging your appetite for autonomy for a life of submission to the Lord, you probably will be able to avoid a substantial number of these negative consequences.

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Psalm 43-45 Acts 27:27-44 (New King James Version)

Psalm 43-45
Prayer to God in Time of Trouble
43
Vindicate me, O God,
And plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
2
For You are the God of my strength;
Why do You cast me off?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3
Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your [a]tabernacle.
4
Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And on the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God.
5
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [b]help of my countenance and my God.
Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation[c] of the sons of Korah.
44
We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2
You drove out the [d]nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3
For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
Because You favored them.
4
You are my King, [e]O God;
[f]Command victories for Jacob.
5
Through You we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6
For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7
But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those who hated us.
8
In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9
But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10
You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [g]spoil for themselves.
11
You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
12
You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13
You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14
You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15
My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16
Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17
All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18
Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19
But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
20
If we had forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched[h] out our hands to a foreign god,
21
Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22
Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
23
Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
24
Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25
For our soul is bowed down to the [i]dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26
Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.
The Glories of the Messiah and His Bride
To the Chief Musician. Set to [j]“The Lilies.” A [k]Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.
45
My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a [l]ready writer.
2
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
3
[m]Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,
With Your glory and Your majesty.
4
And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;
And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.
5
Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;
The peoples fall under You.
6
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
7
You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
8
All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia,
Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.
9
Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women;
At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.
10
Listen, O daughter,
Consider and incline your ear;
Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;
11
So the King will greatly desire your beauty;
Because He is your Lord, worship Him.
12
And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
The rich among the people will seek your favor.
13
The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;
Her clothing is woven with gold.
14
She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors;
The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.
15
With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;
They shall enter the King’s palace.
16
Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons,
Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.
17
I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.
Footnotes:
• Psalm 43:3 dwelling places
• Psalm 43:5 Lit. salvation
• Psalm 44:1 Heb. Maschil
• Psalm 44:2 Gentiles, heathen
• Psalm 44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. and my God
• Psalm 44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. Who commands
• Psalm 44:10 plunder
• Psalm 44:20 Worshiped
• Psalm 44:25 Ground, in humiliation
• Psalm 45:1 Heb. Shoshannim
• Psalm 45:1 Heb. Maschil
• Psalm 45:1 skillful
• Psalm 45:3 Belt on

Acts 27:27-44
27 Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. 28 And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms. 29 Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and [a]prayed for day to come. 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.
33 And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” 35 And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. 36 Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves. 37 And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. 38 So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
Shipwrecked on Malta
39 When it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. 40 And they [b]let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. 41 But striking [c]a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, 44 and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.
Footnotes:
• Acts 27:29 Or wished
• Acts 27:40 cast off
• Acts 27:41 A reef