Psalm 112

The man who fears God is blessed. This is the theme of Psalm 112. It continues from Psalm 111, which was written as an acrostic which means each line would start with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The writer shows us how when we fear the Lord we will be blessed and will not be moved.

True Trust: vs 7

I love this psalm as it is one of great encouragement to stay focused and on track with seeking  to please God. It says in verse 7, “He (the righteous man) is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.” This verse caught my attention because I think this shows how much we trust God when we hear the bad news. This does not mean that we are grieved when receive news of someone passing away or that we are saddened by the hurtful news, but this shows that we are not afraid, God is who is in control, even in those tough situations.

We can hear bad news by people who we thought were our friends and then they talk bad about us. How do you react to that? Do you become afraid and think everyone will believe it? Do you think that everyone will turn on  you? Look at Job as people turned on him. We need to stand firm to know that God is in control as it says to be steady and not afraid. In verse 6 it says, “For the righteous will never be moved. We are not moved from God. Problems are hard, our flesh and heart are weak, but God is our strength. The problems will keep coming and what great comfort to know is that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Even in hearing the bad news of death, we trust God as Jesus is victor over death. Praise the Lord for his infinite love and wisdom.

Here is last Sunday’s, Sept. 6th, message from Morris Brison, on Psalm 97.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Psalm 109

In this psalm we read about David lifting up a series problem with enemies to God. In this we see that David not only is restraining himself to prayer but we see that he is asking God to act on his behalf.

God Say’s Vengeance is His

Even though this psalm is more of a complaint against his accusers, David still opens the psalm up with worship and asking God to not be silent but to act. This passage is a good reminder on how we are to react while we have been mistreated, lied about, or falsely accused.

What to Learn:

1) David restrained himself from acting out but said, He would be a man of prayer (vs 4). Instead of reacting to lies and allegations, do you go to God in prayer? Do you trust God to act for you according to his grace and mercy? Sometimes that is the hardest thing is to not react right away. Seek God for wisdom on what to do and what to say, when it is his timing.

2) David asked God to act on his behalf. There is nothing wrong for you to pray for God to vindicate you or to make yourself innocent in the eyes of the world.

3) David asked God to get these guys back. We see specifically David asking God to curse them and their family. This may seem harsh but David was asking God to bring everything back into place; the righteous to be free and blessed and the wicked to be cursed.  One thing we should know is that God does not turn his head to wrongs done to others. It may seem like the cheaters, get away and get the grade, the lying get rich, but it will all crash one way or another for them. God gets his vengeance one way or another. He will remember the wrong and repay them.

4) David closes the psalm in vs 30-31 that he anticipates God’s deliverance. For this he praises God expecting him to deliver and make things right for David. Again another reminder of who is in control of problems, God is. He sees them all and works in the midst of us, even though we may not see God working he is.

This should encourage us as we have probably been a victim before of wrongful doing but also serve as  a we may have been the one accusing. We need to seek the Lord and ask for forgiveness and from those we have wronged.

Psalm 100

The title under the chapter is “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.” This is exactly what this psalm was meant to do, make sure we are giving thanks properly to God.

Here it is: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with Gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

This psalm is simple and to the point, it is to God. We are called to make a joyfull noise to the Lord and that is something to think about. We may make noises to God but are they joyful. Think about it! Is our noise to God one of complaints? Worries? Stress? We can offer these up to God but do you have joy in God and in his presence? This should be what consumes us in our time with God.

Not only are we to sing a joyful noise to the Lord, we also see that it is the earth doing it. This should challenge us to see if we are being the examples of this. How real is the sense that we come before God? How joyful is our singing? As we see in this Psalm that we are sheep of his pasture, Jesus is the shepherd over us who laid down his life for us. We have real joy in our salvation which is through Jesus Christ. Do you have a real sense of that? Take this day and reevaluate your noise to God.

Psalm 98

We may not have an author for this Psalm but what we do see is the writer pointing us to something even greater than victory over war, pestilence, and the enemy. this joy is what we see in Christ.

Let all Israel, the nations and even Creation Sing for Joy

This Psalm is only 9 verses which we can see the writer’s focus is on praising the Lord. He starts out with Israel, then moves to all the nations in the world, and finishes with even creation itself will sing to the Lord. If you read Psalm 148 we see an even greater list of creation praising God.

The whole focus of why we praise God is for his salvation and this writer was writing of something to come, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. He was revealed his salvation through him. The whole world gets a chance to see his salvation.  When Jesus walked into Jerusalem in Matthew 21:1-11, we see the triumphal entry that would take place for a hero or a king. We know now that Christ  entered in as victor over sin and death. He died and rose again for true salvation.

Worship the Lord

Do you ever think about worship and why you do it? I would recommend writing some things down of why. 1) God is worthy of all praise (Psalm 18:3). 2) He offers salvation through His Son Jesus Christ 3) He is God (Psalm 150). 4) He is in control of our lives. 5) He provides for his children (Matthew 6:25-34). 6) He loves us and nothing separates us from his love (Romans 8:37-39).

This is just a small list, I encourage you to spend a few moments and make your own, see what the Bible says about praising God and why we do it too.

Here is Adah in the morning. She always is smiling when we come to get her. It is interesting how much God is teaching me through my child. I can not help but think, do we react with excitement towards God when we spend time with Him? Also I get a chance to put a picture of my Bible on the Jr. high site.

In Psalm 96, it says, sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. This praise of salvation should be from our lips every day. It should be evident that we have spent time with the Lord. May we be excited that we have spent time with God and also realize who God is when we do. He is holy.