Mengejar HadirMu (explanation n application).

A few days ago, one lady asked me a tricky question via YM. She was listening to the song “Mengejar HadirMu” by GMB and all of sudden, she felt moved to ask me a question that goes like this:

“If God is so powerful, all loving and omnipresence, why do we have to sing ‘Mengejar HadirMu’ when we know the truth that He’s always there for us?”

She demanded some explanation. I know the reason why. The song sounded as if ‘we have to run and beg for God’s grace in order that He would commune with us.’ I do respect her initiative in sharing with me her honest thought.

I asked her to first understand David’s life, before and after he became a king, to get the idea of full-relying on God, a God-fearing life (not in the sense of ‘fear as in scared’) but an obedient in awe and wonders of God’s limitless power. We found that in Psalms.

Anyway, trying NOT to get too far from my topic, let me first try (my best) to explain some available possibilities for the composer of “Mengejar hadirMu” to choose such title and lyrics for the song. I’m aware that I’m not qualified enough to write about all these.

“Memandang wajahMu, mengikuti kebaikanMu
Mengejar hadirMu, dalam hidupku…”

When we look at David’s live, we can see the hands of God working constantly from the day that he was chosen (1and 2 Samuel), how he ran away from Saul when he tried to kill him etc. David didn’t hold any grudge against Saul. There’s no need for me to elaborate more on 1 Samuel but just as a reference, you may turn to 1 Samuel 23:1- end. I guess that’s enough for us to see the intimacy between David and his God, our God. In everything that he did, David consulted God first. They conversed. He knew he needed God for wisdom and divine help. He was aware of his important role as the main player in the history of the Israelites (I’m going off track here!), thus putting God as the centre of his life in order that people might see his God and how real His power is.
We all know the rest of the story of how David eventually became the king over Israel (please read 2 Samuel 5:3) and gained victories over victories against the enemies of the Israelites. But, why am I telling you all this again, while in fact, I was supposed to write something about “Mengejar HadirMu”?

Here’s why.
Nobody is perfect. If you have a problem with this statement, then you better go out there and call for a help. Only Jesus is perfect. The precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19) cleanses us. He had set the standard for holiness and purity for us.

The Bible tells us that only Jesus is perfect because he has no sin (Hebrew 4:15) and sin distorted the perfect image of God in and within us. You want a perfect life, let’s look up to Jesus!
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

Am I getting into something here? Not really?

Ok then, let’s go back to David.
In 2 Samuel 11:3, we can see an ancient mistake, yet so common in our modern world- adultery! We all have the potential to ‘accidentally’ involve in one so BE VERY CAREFUL. Thank God I have a girlfriend who is really fierce and strict and tracks me down like a hunter (LOLz). Anyway, David sinned against God, so terribly that not only he slept with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, he intentionally sent him out to battle in the fiercest front line and he died in the battle (2 Samuel 11:15). That is too much for someone who is so close to God (pastors, pay attention!). David committed sin upon sin against The Lord.

Reading furthermore, we can see how displeased God was and He sent Nathan to David (2 Samuel 12:1-12). Nathan was a brave man who speaks boldly as what God has intended him to say. If he is today’s Christian, I believe that the Gospel would have been so common in Malaysia among all Malaysians!
David felt terribly guilty upon hearing the words from Nathan and confessed that he had sinned against God. This part is very interesting, Nathan then said, “Now The Lord has PUT AWAY YOUR SIN; you shall not die”.

………………..WHAT???!!! (O_o)………………..

That is SO simple a forgiveness for someone who had misused his power and took advantage on people below him. God knows the best for His chosen people, the Israelites. Solomon was borne unto David and Bathsheba, though the first son died. Solomon then succeeded his father, David. Oh, you all know the story. Good. What I’m trying to say is our God is a gracious God. BUT that doesn’t mean you can do whatever David did and still be free, absolutely not! We all fall under a new covenant in Christ Jesus, that’s the New Testament (Jeremiah 31:31, Luke 22:20, Hebrew 8:8, and Hebrew 9:15).

David had sinned. That’s what I’ve been trying to say from the beginning. You may say, of course we all have sinned, so what? Well, I want to focus the struggle that David put when he knew how foolish he was when he sinned against God.

Please bear in mind that we all have sinned. We are sinners (Romans 3:23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…‘fall short of the glory of God’ brothers and sisters…That should tell you something…

The reason all must come to God through faith in Christ is that "all have sinned and fall short of [or `lack,' as in Mark 10:21] the glory of God." This glory cannot be eschatological, as in 5:2, since even believers, for whom the sin problem has been solved, lack the future glory now. The suggestion that the glory is God's approbation or praise is unlikely, since this meaning of doxa, common in Luke, is somewhat rare in Paul. C.H. Dodd seeks to link the glory with the image of God in man (cf. 1Cor 11:7) which is marred by sin. This is suggestive, but it would be more acceptable if Paul had used the past tense ("have fallen short") to match the sense in the previous statement about sin. Possibly the best interpretation is to associate the glory with the divine presence and the privilege man originally had of direct communion with God. This ever-present deprivation is depicted in the restriction of the glory to the holy of holies in the tabernacle and the denial of the right of access to the people save through the high priest once a year (in reference of the Jewish practice). God's glory is the majesty of his holy person.
To be cut off from this fellowship is the great loss occasioned by sin. That’s the same reason why we ANGLICANS have the ‘prayer of humble access’ in our liturgy. We are not worthy. Yet, Jesus died for us because He’s the ‘messiah’ or the ‘anointed one’ spoken in the Old Testament and our savior. Ever wonder why the Muslims adressed Jesus as ‘Nabi Isa Al Masih’? it means ‘Jesus the MESSIAH’. Even they acknowledged His destiny and truth, so why deny any further my brothers? http://www.isaislam.org/ (LOL).

Hmm...such a ‘great loss’…well, now it’s time to talk about ‘Mengejar HadirMu’…
When I first looked at the lyrics, I was stunned. It really expressed the voice inside of me that cried out for God’s presence in my life. It was an old song from GMB but I only get to know bout it last year…! I sang it over and over again last year as to motivate myself due to certain things that had happened in my life in 2007 (read my previous post) and I even had it uploaded in youtube.com.

What do I mean by ‘seeking for His presence in my life’? It sounded as if God is hard to connect to. But it is a command if we all look at Deuteronomy 4:29-30, 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27. “To love Him with all our heart, mind and soul”. Yes, friends we are not robots. God created us for a purpose that is to worship Him, some more in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). We all have the free will and the option whether to worship Him or not to do so. David was aware of that. We can see in Psalms (take note that not all of the Psalms were written by David) of how much he adores and loves God. In times of trouble, he expressed his longing especially in Psalm 42:1 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

It’s a genuine expression from a sinner’s soul. He longs for God. His soul needs God as much as a deer pants for a stream of water. It gives life to the dear deer. The same goes with God’s presence. We all need His divine and special presence and intervention in our lives.

God is not that hard to connect to after all.

Thus, ‘Mengejar hadirMu’ is a splendid song to express the unworthiness of our mortal life, being sinful, yet we want to be with Him.

If you ask me, why I really wanted to learn to play guitar so badly 5 years ago, it was because I wanted to MENGEJAR HADIRAT TUHAN. It was all for Him. Even what I’m doing now is all for Him and His glory. Being unworthy, I deserved salvation from Him!

to God be all the glory!