Psalm 19

 

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

6 Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19 (NKJV)

 This is a well-known and much-loved psalm celebrating the majesty of God in creation and the perfection of His word.  One of my study Bibles describes the psalm as uniting the two ways God has revealed Himself to mankind: by general revelation in His creation (v. 1-6) and by specific revelation in His inspired word (v. 7-14).

 Getting outside everyday to be refreshed by the beauty of creation is a true pleasure. I walk in my neighborhood almost daily and love to observe the changing seasons and nature on display in small and big ways. The glory of God is exhibited in the rising and setting of the sun, and in the changing cloud patterns. God’s magnificent handiwork is set forth in the millions of stars and in the thunder, lightning, rain and wind of a storm.  When we take time to really notice God’s creation, it can make us feel small and that’s a good thing. We should be humbled in the knowledge of Almighty God’s creative power and when we experience it. We should also feel His love in creating us in His image, and praise Him for His mighty works.

 The complete trustworthiness of the Bible is set forth in this psalm, for it declares that God’s word is right, pure, true and righteous.  That is why we are to believe it, obey it and trust it.  To really do so, we should be reading the Bible every day and not just reading it, but applying its truth to our life.  God’s word should be the standard by which we test all things, the truth by which we live. 

 This psalm also instructs us that faith is not presumption. We are to have a fear of the Lord, and while that means we should have reverence and awe for God, I also think it means we should fear Him for His judgments are true and righteous. And we are not to be presumptuous in our actions or our attitudes. One example of presumption is to desire the blessings of God without living a life for God. Let that not be true of us. Instead, let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to the Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.

Thursday Devotional - Anonymous Note

Have you ever gotten an anonymous note? In the past, I’ve usually been able to figure out who it is from, but a note I got this week has still stumped me! She wrote to encourage me with all the illness that went through our household last week, during the first week the twins lived with us.

She included many encouraging verses and several from Psalm 46.

Psalm 46:1-3, 5, 7, 10         God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

 
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.

 

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

 

The note was signed “Someone who loves and cares for you!”

She wanted me to know she was praying for me and for healing for my family. I pray she feels God’s blessing for her anonymous encouragement! We are all finally feeling better and James’ asthma is much improved.

 

What encouragement can you and I give to someone who needs it this week?

 

Alice

More Than Enough

 And forgive us our debts, 

As we forgive our debtors.  Matthew 6:12 

What is the most difficult thing to forgive?  Is it betrayal?  Perhaps it is the transgressions of a close friend who turns out to not be a friend at all.  Maybe it is dishonesty.  Or it could be someone who either fails a loyalty test or does not follow through on their solemn obligations.  There is a list of many things that we could spend an entire devotion talking about.  However, I want to share my greatest challenge.  I read something that reminded me of this, and the more I thought about it, the more I find it to be true.  A marriage is a perfect union made perfect by God between two imperfect people.  Well I must admit that my wife is far closer to perfection than I am.  But here is the thing.  She would tell you that I am a wonderful husband and father.  I’m humbled that she thinks so highly of me.  It is not because I do not try hard, and I don’t know saying I am not good to her.  But to me, being good to her is not enough.  Not because she or anyone else says so.  But I do.  You see the most difficult thing for me to forgive is myself.  When I fail, I do not fail just me.  I fail her.  My family.  My loved ones.  When I did, it was the guilt I carried, and until being born again, I was convinced would define me down until my death.  Then I learned that we all fall short of God’s glory, and if I confessed my sins, I could be born again.  We all know that story.  But for some, the pain remains, and it never has gone away.  This is because we have not truly accepted God’s second greatest gift; His grace. 

God wants us to forgive ourselves as well.  An easy way to connect the dots would be to look to the Greatest Commandment, where Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39b) This to me is truly the Greatest commandment because it forces us to focus not only on God and others but also ourselves.  We our only capable of loving others as far as we love ourselves.  In today’s verse, the focus is on the portion of the Lord’s Prayer asking God for forgiveness of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  We must love our neighbor and God, and to do so we must certainly love ourselves.  Thus, it makes perfect sense that in order for us to have the ability to forgive we too must fully embrace God’s grace given to us.  To do so, we must agree that indeed His grace is sufficient.  Then, we must forgive ourselves.  Before we go over the deep end of ‘that’s easy enough,’ one must truly repent, and that is indeed painful.  In reading 2 Corinthians 7, we get a full feel for what a true repentant heart sounds like.  Paul wrote addressing the sins of the young church saying: 

 I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while.  Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way.  For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.  2 Corinthians 7:8-10 

Note the last verse where Paul spoke of ‘worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance.’ As I wrote about my inability to forgive myself, it is a pain that is never forgotten.  But the pain God wishes for us to have is the kind that reminds us to not go back to our old ways but to also accept the gift of His grace which leads to eternal salvation.  Thus, we are not to be consumed by this pain.  It is but a wound that will heal, and we are free from it.  It is that which we are given forgiveness, which allows us to forgive both others and equally as important ourselves. 

 

We must always remember that God is simply enough.  His provisions are infinite, and His love is limitless.  His knowledge is without limit, and His presences is all around us.  With a God so awesome, why in the world would we ever tell Him, “No.  I’m sorry, but that is not enough.”  If God gives us the amazing gift of His grace, how can we continue life as if we still have the burden of that which He forgave us for?  Let us focus our attention on releasing the guilt of our old sinful ways and embrace the New Life provided for us through His mercy.  What in your past holds you from committing fully to God today?  Will you surrender it to Him?  My prayer is that we simply remember God’s grace is more than enough for all of us.  Amen. 

God Loves the Spiritually Impaired

Who doesn't think pugs are cute? I mean sure, they're ugly, breathe disgustingly loud, are are tiny. But they are all these things to such an exaggerated degree, and they don't bark much and are typically very friendly. Those things that are so unpleasant actually become cute because of their good nature. I wonder if our Creator specifically created pugs to help us understand how He sees us.

Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. Judges 6:1 NASB

So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the LORD. Judges 6:6 NASB

Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the LORD on account of Midian, that the LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me.”’” Judges 6:7-10 NASB

The Sons of Israel are oppressed for seven years before they cry out to Yahweh. Seven years. Wow. And then Yahweh sends a prophet to explain to them His perspective of the problem. The Sons of Israel are worshiping the gods of the Caananites. The prophet makes that pretty clear, the "evil in the sight of the LORD" is worshiping other gods. Sounds simple, right?

Maybe the blame lies with the previous generations who didn't pass along the stories of God's miraculous deliverance from Egypt and conquest of the land. Perhaps, had they done that, the people wouldn't have been worshiping other gods, they would have remained faithful, like their fathers...

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Judges 6:12-13 NASB

Or maybe they did pass on the stories, but the people still didn't get it. I know, it's everyone else, not Gideon, that's why he's confused about the problem or Yahweh's perspective. He and his family are faithful followers of Yahweh, but everyone else worships other gods. That must be it...

Now on the same night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the  Asherah that is beside it; and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.” Judges 6:25-26 NASB

Nope. That's not it. Gideon has a altar to Baal right in the front yard, but is still clueless about why Yahweh is upset with them. All the negative features are there, they are ridiculously clueless, stupefyingly arrogant, and frustratingly obstinate. And yet, Gideon goes on to tear down the altar, reduce Israel's army down to 300 so Yahweh would get the glory for the victory, and lead those 300 men with jars and torches against so many Midianites, they couldn't be counted. He even leads the 300 to pursue 3 kings of the Midianites without help.

Gideon is so amazingly effective, the people want to make him king, and he refuses! Could he be any more pug-like? And aren't we? You've had them, those days when God seems more annoying than pleasant. You've wondered where He has been during your difficulty. And you've probably been shocked He doesn't approve of your "shrine" to some other aspect of your life. And yet, we cry out to Jesus, worship Him, seek His face, and seek to be a blessing to those around us. We know we're imperfect, yet seek His Kingdom anyway. And we witness our Savior using us to be amazingly effective for Him. Let's face it, we're the "pugs" of our Creator. And aren't we cute?

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation