The first week has gone great. Thank you for all the hard work this past week!
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Click here for today's psalms over at BibleGateway.com.
Here are some of my thoughts as I read today's passages:
33) loud shouts I can do... skillfully playing the 10 string harp??? Not so much. But praise is what we should offer God!
34) vs 13-14 "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good, seek peace, and pursue it."
Can we pursue peace with violence? is destroying my enemy equal to peace?
35) Why does it always seem like those who do good are always taken advantage of by those who do evil? LORD come save us.
36) vs 8- "feasting on the abundance of your house, drink from the river of your delight." despite our shortcomings, God has abundance for us.
What word from the LORD did you hear while reading?
These psalms strike me as a great contrast between humanity's weaknesses, failings, and conflicts; and God's creative power and faithful love. David also shows emotional peaks and valleys between despair and remorse in his own life, and joyful exultation in the Lord. (He must have been a hard man to live with! Maybe that's why he ran through so many wives!)
ReplyDeleteWe can all find strength and reassurance in so many of these verses! 33:20 - Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. 34:18 - The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 36:5 - Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. These are great promises!
How precious is the constant,abiding love of our God!
ReplyDeleteHis righteousness is like towering mountains.
His faithfulness extends to the heavens.
His justice is like the depths of the sea.
His words are true.
His works are dependable.
He spoke the world into being.
He answers our prayers.
He frees us from fear.
He is near when we are discouraged.
He is hope for the discouraged and helpless.
He is the source of all life.
He is a light shining in our darkness.
He fills our emptiness with his abundance.
He shores up our weakness with his divine power.
Let us join together in praise and celebration for all the Lord has done for us, his children and the sheep of his hand!
I see in the Psalms we're reading that they partly are praise to God for his greatness in various ways and partly telling of the psalmist's needs and how God delivered him. But what I am also noticing more than I have before is how many of the Psalms sound in parts like a teacher diligently preparing his students, giving them orders and beseeching them to hear and obey.
ReplyDeletePs 36:3: an order:Sing to him a new song!
Ps 34:11 He pleads,"Come, my children, Listen to me;I will teach you the fear of the Lord ..."
Again an order i nPs36:4-5 "Trust in the Lord and do good...delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this..." I have had this verse in my kitchen ever since my college days and it has guided me any times, As I get older, I think the biggest "desire of my heart" is that my children, grandchildren, and all the children in my life walk with the Lord all the days of their lives! I pray I am doing enough teaching and the right kinds of teaching that I help them toward that goal. I pray this for our whole church as we assess and plan our direction for the future. We do well at teaching God's love but I wonder how do we in modern times teach a healthy fear or reverence for God - That's harder.
Thank you for the wonderful thoughts Nancy. I've often thought of the praise then needs psalms as a bit of "buttering up." Like "Mom you look so pretty today." "Aw thank you!" "Oh hey, any chance you can take me to the movies this afternoon? I'm going to need some extra cash too..."
DeleteI know that I have generally shied away from many of the psalms and Hebrew Bible passages because of this "Fear of the Lord" stuff. It can be tough to balance an assertion of God's unconditional, steadfast love and grace with the realization that our actions should reflect and be worthy of this love.
33:11 "But his plans endure forever;
ReplyDeletehis purposes last eternally." No matter what craziness goes on in the world, or in our lives, God's love and power shall not be moved. Such a comfort in times of uncertainty and doubt.
Today 33:9 speaks to me: “For he spoke, and it came to be;
ReplyDeletehe commanded, and it stood firm..”
Awesome