Psalm 21

 

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

2 You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

3 For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.

4 He asked life from You, and You gave it to him--Length of days forever and ever.

5 His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.

6 For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

8 Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You.

9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them.

10 Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, And their descendants from among the sons of men.

11 For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.

12 Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.

     Psalm 21 (NKJV)

 This psalm may refer to King David as he offers thanksgiving to God for victory in battle and other resulting blessings; others see the kingly references to mean the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The psalm also can be taken more generally to express the many joys of salvation for the child of God.

 The verses stress that all good things come from God’s hand. There is only one salvation and it comes from God, who gave His only begotten son Jesus Christ, to save all who would believe in Him.  David knows from personal experience that blessing, life, gladness, strength and joy come from the Lord’s presence, and that should be our experience too Rather than letting the world influence us and hold our attention, we should seek His face and spend time rejoicing in our glorious Savior. And we should pause and meditate on His infinite goodness, as the psalm instructs us (v. 2).

 David trusted in the Lord and through the mercy of Almighty God, he was not moved. Although he suffered many trials and experienced sin and mistakes in his life, his faith did not fail and the Bible says that he was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). That should be both an encouragement to us when we sin and make mistakes, as well as an exhortation to make sure we are truly trusting God even in tough circumstances and uncertainty.

 The psalm ends with a description of God’s judgment upon the wicked and God’s people can rejoice that justice will ultimately prevail. It is also a solemn warning that while we are living in the age of grace, there is an appointed time coming of God’s wrath upon this earth and all those who have rejected Jesus Christ will perish. Be certain that He is your Savior and Lord today. Then let us sing and praise His mighty power (v. 13).

                                                 Crown Him with Many Crowns

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon the throne;

Hark, how the heav’nly anthem drowns all music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee,

And hail Him as thy matchless King, through all eternity.

(Matthew Bridges, 1800-1894)

Thursday Devotional - What am I?

People were created with the need for relationships with others. We long to belong to a family, group, and community. 

The twins have figured out many of the family connections in my family, since I live near my parents and one of my sisters. One of the twins even figured out that the “Panikkars” refers to everyone in my sister’s family (aunt Jane, uncle Sean, and cousins Maria and Mark). I said “Yes, and we’re Reas!” Then, she asked: “What am I?” I told her she and her brother would be Reas just like Joe, James, Sarah and me, once we adopted them.

In Genesis 1, God created everything. What I noticed this time studying Genesis is that God said “Let there be…” or “Let the…” when He created things days 1-5, but on the 6^th day, God said “Let us make!”

Genesis 1:26-28       ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

We were created unique from all the rest of creation! Each person was created in the image of God! We have special value and worth to God!

What am I? I’m a Rea, but most importantly I’m God’s!

I pray you feel your value and worth to God!

Alice

A Chosen Friend

 

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!  This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.  There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.  You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.   John 15:9-16

My wife is my best friend.  We have lots of fun together.  We fight and argue.  We have had nights where I slept on the couch, and a few where she put me there.  Deservingly.  I will never forget how we started dating.  We worked together at Burger King, and she asked me out.  Well let me rephrase that.  She told me I was going to take her out for her birthday.  I do not remember having an option in the matter.  The funny thing was I had to cancel the date because I was forced to work that night.  She was so mad!  I promised to make it up to her and be her date at the company’s Christmas party.  That was December 23, 1983.  We dated off and on for twelve more years before we got married.  We have three children and soon to be nine grandchildren.  Our lives are filled with joy and lots of love.  I am forever grateful that she chose me to take her out, and happy she graciously accepted to be my wife.  But if you let her tell you, she will say she ‘let’ me marry her.  As the years have passed, I realize how special it was that she chose me.  It gave me context to understand how it is equally as special to know I did not just choose to be a follower of Christ.  He first chose me as He has chosen each of you.

We are all chosen by Christ as His friends.  In today’s verses, my initial inclination was to be drawn to the middle, where Jesus talked about the greatest love of one laying down their life for their friends.  Of course, this was a precursor to the crucifixion.  However, reading the whole paragraph delved into not only a much deeper love Jesus had for His disciples but also the love He wished for them to show each other and the world.  It was a selfless (lay down one’s life), submitting (do what I command), freeing (I no longer call you slaves), and trusting (a master doesn’t confide in his slaves) kind of love.  Reading these verses give us a clear indication of what a healthy and loving relationship is like.  But first, it requires a choice.  I never really caught onto the part about Jesus choosing the Apostles.  This is truly significant because remember in Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, and John 1:39, 46, He asked them to ‘follow’ or ‘come.’  We often believe that we found God and are grateful we were given a new life to follow Him.  But the real prize is realizing that He chose us first!  This fact is amazing to me, and we know this to be true because David spoke of such saying:

You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
    They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
    they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
    you are still with me!  Psalm 139:16-18

We are never separated from the love of God if we choose to follow Him.  Last week, I spoke of how God delights in us.  Today, we are to rejoice in how God loves us.  It is complete and without fail.  I now understand how Israel Houghton wrote in song, “I am a friend of God.  He calls me friend.”  Jesus said it.  Before we said ‘yes’ to Him, He chose us!  Whenever you begin to doubt your place or situation, never forget this.  What in your friendship with God needs repair?  How can you befriend someone as Jesus befriended you?  My prayer is that we remember that we did not just choose God as our savior.  He chose us as a friend.  Amen.