Psalm 5

Psalm 5 (NKJV)

1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation.

2 Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray.

3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.

4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.

5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity.

6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7 But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before my face.

9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue.

10 Pronounce them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own counsels; Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, For they have rebelled against You.

11 But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You.

12 For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

God does not take pleasure in wickedness or evil, and He can’t accept sin in His presence because He is holy.  Yet God has graciously provided a way for sinners to be able to stand in His sight, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But God will judge those who rebel and reject His Son; they will be pronounced guilty one day.

By contrast, those who love His name and trust in Christ will be saved. We can rejoice because God blesses the righteous (those who are in a right standing with Him).  We can be joyful because He surrounds us with His favor as a shield.

Thursday Devotional - Chasing After the Wind of Immortality

I would guess most people like to think they are going to live forever (or at least a very long time). We don’t like to think or talk about or prepare for death, but it’s inevitable. Solomon didn’t like it either and realized all his wisdom, power and wealth couldn’t prevent it or predict it.  

Ecclesiastes 9:1-2a and 12    So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. ² All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

¹² Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
    or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
    that fall unexpectedly upon them.

All people face death and no one knows exactly when. Our destiny is in God’s hands and His timing. We can spend lots of money to look younger or feel younger, but it won’t change the outcome. This life is temporary, whether it’s a few years or a century. Instead of chasing after immortality, let’s chase after that which is eternal.

II Corinthians 4:16-18     ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Where are you and I focusing more on something temporal than eternal? What verses help you focus on what’s of eternal value?

Alice

Treasures

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

My son and the cousins his age are headed up to my parent’s this week.  My mom has plans to take the kids on a Pirate Cruise (https://www.munisingpiratecruises.com/).  Yesterday my son started asking questions about it.  Would they get treasure?  Would there be real cannons?

This got me thinking about all the treasures we tend to store up here on earth.  Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s something different.  No matter what it is, the material things of this earth are only temporary.  If you pour all of your time and energy into something here on earth, that is where your heart is also. 

We are told that instead we should be storing up treasures in heaven.  What are treasures in heaven?  Investing in people, rather than things (Luke 12:32-22, Luke 14:13-14), faithfully enduring persecution (Matt. 5:11-12, 2 Cor. 4:16-18, 2 Tim. 4:8), loving your enemies (Matt. 5:43-48), praying in secret (Matt. 6:5-6), serving the Lord and his people (Matt. 10:41-42, 1 Cor. 3:9, Heb. 6:10).

There are just a few examples.  When it comes to the greatest treasure we can have, it will be seeing God face-to-face.

Are you investing in earthly or heavenly treasures today?