Psalm 144…blessed…

Psalm 144…blessed…

 This  psalm starts and ends with “blessed”…first "blessed be the Lord”….adoration for what He has done and who He is in the life of David …

David’s humility before God comes through in “what is man”….”man is like a breath, shadow”

Then he turns to the power of God…over nature, people …

Then a new song…praise…

Then the supplication…”rescue me”

Then asking for the blessings of fruitfulness, abundance…

Finally proclaiming “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!

Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!”

Sounds like an example of a prayer….adoration, confession, supplication, thanksgiving….

The ever familiar…Jesus’ example to his disciples….

“Lords Prayer”…

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. 

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.

Matt.6.6-13

Thank YOU for prayers throughout your word…in all kinds of circumstances….examples of heartfelt times of coming to You…Blessed be the Lord…throughout the generations…

 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,who trains my hands for war,and my fingers for battle; 

he is my steadfast love and my fortress,my stronghold and my deliverer,my shield and he in whom I take refuge,who subdues peoples under me. 

O Lord, what is man that you regard him,or the son of man that you think of him? 

Man is like a breath;his days are like a passing shadow. I

Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!

Touch the mountains so that they smoke! 

Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;send out your arrows and rout them! 

Stretch out your hand from on high;rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 

I will sing a new song to you, O God;

upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, who gives victory to kings,who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword. 

Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners,whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 

May our sons in their youth-be like plants full grown,

our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; 

may our granaries be full,providing all kinds of produce;

may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; 

may our cattle be heavy with young,suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;

may there be no cry of distress in our streets! 

Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!

Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!

Ps.144.1-15

  

 

Psalm 143…I am your servant…

 Psalm 143…I am your servant…

Reading this, I had to look up servants, who were called servants…

From Genesis to Revelations…many were called servants…craftsman, boats builders, nation leaders, handmaidens, workers in the kingdom…none perfect except Jesus…people we could meet on the street, pass by in a store, find in the nursery or listening to verses at Awanas, cleaning the bathrooms , or behind the pulpit, typing the church bulletin, holding the hand of a sick one, cooking a meal to share, working with teens, filling a box for children, coaching a soccer team, listening to a neighbor, flying a plane, leading a Bible study….building house, protecting our lives, fighting our fires….the list goes on…

What makes a servant…this was my answer in the dark of the night…

 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Col.3.17,Col.3.23-34

Thank YOU….

Moses is spoken of many times as God’s servant…

Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

Josh.11.15

Caleb is spoken of as God’s servant as well….

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Num.14.24

Nehemiah…

 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Now I was cupbearer to the king.

Neh.1.8, 11

Job…

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

Job.1.8,Job.2.3

David…in this Pslam as well as others…

In this psalm, David ends with, “I am your servant”…

Solomon spoke of servant several times…contrasts and comparisons….

A servant who deals wisely has the king's favor,but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully.

Prov.14.35

Israel, Jesus…

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,my chosen, in whom my soul delights;I have put my Spirit upon him;he will bring forth justice to the nations…

Isa.42.1

 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.I will put my Spirit upon him,and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

Matt.12.17-18

 The greatest among you shall be your servant.

Matt.23.11

 “Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the Lord,nor be dismayed, O Israel;for behold, I will save you from far away,and your offspring from the land of their captivity.Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,and none shall make him afraid. But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Jer.30:9-10

Even Nebuchadnezzar…

behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

Jer.25.9

Mary… 

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke.1.38

Jude, Paul, Titus, Tychicus, Epaphras…and more…all called servants..

 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

 Matt.24.45-46

 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’

Luke.19:17

Psalm 142…I cry out…

 Psalm 142…I cry out….

‘Tis the season to receive requests upon requests for funds from anything, anyone needing help…the baby elephants dying in Africa, the animals needing shelters and care…people shelters…

Myriads of needs the world around…

The most poignant to me is pictures of beggars in the streets, wanting help of any sort…food, shelter, clothing…or elderly picking up pieces of wood to make a fire to keep warm or cook their meager food in war torn countries….people’s hands held out in supplication, wanting, pleading…the sick and dying lying quietly waiting for the inevitable….

Reading Psalm 142 brought these pictures to mind…David crying out in distress as he hides in a cave, hidden in the hill, awaiting King Saul to find him…pleading to God his refuge….knowing His promises, but not quite seeing them at the time…

There are desperate times for many, captive by our fears , problems…we know the truth, but are not quite seeing it through our desperation…we plead..we hang on…

God in His time and way comes through…

Thank YOU….

 I cry out to God Most High,to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

Ps.57.2

 Hear my prayer, O Lord;let my cry come to you! 

Do not hide your face from mein the day of my distress!

Incline your ear to me;answer me speedily in the day when I call!

Ps.102.1-2

 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!     O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentiveto the voice of my pleas for mercy!

Ps.130.1-2

 With my voice I cry out to the Lord;with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. 

I pour out my complaint before him;I tell my trouble before him.

Ps.142.1-2

  With my voice I cry out to the Lord;with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. 

I pour out my complaint before him;I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me,you know my way!

In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. 

Look to the right and see:there is none who takes notice of me;no refuge remains to me;no one cares for my soul. 

I cry to you, O Lord;I say, “You are my refuge,my portion in the land of the living.” 

Attend to my cry,for I am brought very low!

Deliver me from my persecutors,for they are too strong for me! Bring me out of prison,that I may give thanks to your name!

The righteous will surround me,for you will deal bountifully with me.

Ps.142.1-7

Psalm 141…please listen…refuge…

 Psalm 141….please listen…refuge…

One of the times I read through the Psalms was when my husband was dying…it wasn’t Job I turned to, but David’s psalms….

We were fighting an enemy, cancer….surrounded by helpful people, but the fight was still relentless… we fought the deep pit of despair, felt like our feet were stuck in the miry clay, words by the enemy, we had anger toward the situation, we cried, we wanted out, we wanted the enemy cast away from us…we felt like fainting ….many of the emotions brought out by David at his times of trials…in the psalms…

I would read them at night after all had left, my husband holding my hand until he couldn’t and then I held his…reading, crying, seeking the same refuge that David spoke of…seeking the same strength that a king sought so many years ago…

I am glad that God isn’t partial…helping a king and us with the same care and love…refuge…

My husband didn’t win the battle with cancer, but he went to  a better place, knowing a Savior…who gives eternal life to those who  seek and find Him….

Thank YOU….

 O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! 

But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord;in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!

Ps.141.1,8

Hidden landmarks….

 Hidden landmarks…

Recently my cousin sent me a series of videos he took while visiting places near our grandparents’ ranch…

As children we would drive through a little valley, passing homes, corrals, gardens, landscaped yards, barns before  going through a big, white closed gate leading to winding road and another valley where our grandparents lived…

Over the years, the first valley was vacated, homes leveled to make way for a lake to help with irrigation further away, roads moved to higher ground …now that lake is receding due to lack of water ….foundations, hidden landmarks are once again visible of  times past…memories made…

My cousin had the privilege of taking former residents back to the valley to find their home spot, other landmarks  they knew well and we saw as children…they could name families who lived in that valley, tell some of their stories….what a treasure…

Even though water has covered those landmarks for years, some could still be found…

It made me ponder again, whatever happened to those ancient altars, landmarks that people of long ago made to worship the Lord…

After visiting Israel three years ago, seeing excavation after excavation, thousands of years of history built on top of one another…they have long disappeared into the sands of time…probably not to be uncovered by lack of water, as the ones my cousin found…

Although the landmarks were hidden from view for many years, the Word of God was not…it has maintained its prominence, it best selling spot, its integrity, its Truth for generation after generation…it cannot be burned, flooded, torn away as it stands eternal…it is still being translated into languages via the written or spoken word..,so that it is proclaimed  to the ends of the earth…

 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Luke.21.33

Thank YOU….

 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Gen.8.20

 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Gen.13.18

 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

Gen.35.1

 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

 Deut.27.2-8

 “You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

 Deut.19.14

 Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.

Prov.22.28

 

Psalm 140…slander…

  Psalm 140…slander…

Slander…

“: the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation?

: a false and defamatory oral statement about a person,” Merriam Webster.. 

Psalm 140 may have been written during David’s time as he was fleeing from Saul…words falsely accusing David by Saul…

 Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's,and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah 

Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;preserve me from violent men,who have planned to trip up my feet. 

The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,and with cords they have spread a net;beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah 

I say to the Lord, You are my God;

give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord! O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation,you have covered my head in the day of battle. 

Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah 

As for the head of those who surround me,let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them! 

Let burning coals fall upon them!

Let them be cast into fire,into miry pits, no more to rise! 

Let not the slanderer be established in the land;let evil hunt down the violent man speedily! 

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,and will execute justice for the needy. 

Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;the upright shall dwell in your presence.Ps.140.1-13

This psalm could be written today…slanders have not ceased being around…evil still abounds…those who are good are still be accused…there are “mischief “, wicked, violent, those who make war, needy, afflicted….none of this has gone away over the centuries…we haven’t gotten any better…sin still abounds…

But Grace abounds all the more…

The same  Lord whom David called upon can still be called upon today… He still saves, still lifts up, still executes justice for the needy…

Thank YOU…Help me not to be among the slanderous…guard my tongue…

 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.Lev.19.15-16

Let not the slanderer be established in the land;let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!Ps.140.11

 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets,but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.Prov.11.13

 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Matt.15.18-19

 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.Col.3.8

 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,Titus.2.3

Psalm 139…permeate…

 

Psalm 139…Permeate 

One of my favorite psalms…no matter where I am, what I am doing, what I am thinking, about to say….

God is there/here…he knows everything there is to know about me from the beginning to the end…

I was lamenting the fact of a medication that I am currently taking is awful…it tastes awful, it permeates into all of your pores, your clothes smell like it, your bedding smells like it…your mouth tastes like it all the time..researchers have tried various ways to make it palatable, but haven’t come up with a way yet  in its thirty year history…conclusion is just take it and hope you have to only take one round of it…

God “permeates”, indwells us in a good way…he is palatable…he doesn’t go away…and as believers, we have Him all the time…

Thank YOU…..

 “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;you discern my thoughts from afar. 

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 

Even before a word is on my tongue,behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 

You hem me in, behind and before,and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;it is high; I cannot attain it. 

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence? 

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,and your right hand shall hold me. 

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you;the night is bright as the day,for darkness is as light with you. 

For you formed my inward parts;you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well. 

My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there was none of them. 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them! 

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.I awake, and I am still with you. 

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me! 

They speak against you with malicious intent;your enemies take your name in vain. 

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 

I hate them with complete hatred;I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts! 

And see if there be any grievous way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Ps.139.1-24

 And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matt.28.20b