Holding hands with God

DEVOTION

PSALMS

HOLDING HANDS WITH GOD

Ps 37:18-24

18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever. 19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. 20 But the wicked will perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish — vanish like smoke. 21 The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously; 22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.

23 If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; 24 though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

NIV

We continue with this comparison between the righteous and the wicked. It is sad to consider the fate of the wicked. Knowing they are going to perish should inspire us to share the gospel with them in hopes they will turn from their wicked ways and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Still we can rejoice that we are among the blameless. It is not that we are perfect, far from it, but because we are in Christ, God sees us as holy and blameless. In reality we can be at blame for our faults, but that would be in the reality below the line, in the temporal. Above the line in the eternal we are blameless and God knows all our days. That is our life is lived out before the Lord. He watches over us, he protects us, being our shield. He provides for us. He has given us an inheritance that will last forever. Some children receive an inheritance from their parents and when they spend it, it is all gone, but ours will never be gone, it is eternal. Even in the here and now, it would appear we will not wither when difficulty finds us. When hard times come our way, we will continue to stand firm in our faith. It seems hard to understand the in famine we will still have plenty. Could some of this be speaking about the things to come, the eternal aspects of life? It certainly is when it speaks about the wicked vanishing, or perishing, so it might also be about our eternal blessings, our eternal home, always in plenty. Even though we might be in famine in the here and now, we will be in plenty in the eternal. However when we look around we see how plenty we have now. There are believers who do not have the plenty we have, and that is difficult to grasp. But what is plenty? The Hebrew word means to be filled to satisfaction. Certainly we are filled to satisfaction with the Spirit. But this also carries the meaning of having a good life, content, satisfied, fulfilling and enjoyable. We can enjoy our life in the here and now as well as be satisfied that we are going to enjoy eternal life in the new creation. God delights in our ways, because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Certainly he does not delight when we fail him, when we commit some type of sin, whether that be in thought, word or deed, or for that matter when we do not do that which we should. That is failing him as well. Nevertheless because we are in Christ he delights in us, and in our ways. He is the one who makes our steps firm. That implies we cannot make our steps firm. If our walk was up to us, we would stumble for sure, we cannot take one firm step on our own. But he is the reason we walk firmly, without stumbling around in the dark. His word is a lamp unto our feet, he shows us the way we should go. His right hand upholds us, we can be confident he is there with us, alone the way, holding our hand. As a parent holds their child’s hand to both guide them and keep them safe, God holds our hand. What a great thought, we are holding hands with our Father. As Adam did, we are walking in the cool of the day in the garden holding hands with God.

Great Inheritance

DEVOTION

PSALMS

GREAT INHERITANCE

Ps 37:10-17

10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. 11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.

12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; 13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. 15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.

16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; 17 for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

NIV

Again we see a contrast between the wicked and the righteous. It would be good to remember the definition of each of these types as according to the Lord. The wicked are defined as those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The righteous are those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Just because someone has not or yet accepted Jesus does not always make them a bad person. It does mean they live their life based on worldly concepts, putting their own interests as the central theme of their efforts. Even those who do great humanitarian works, accept the praise of men for what appears as their selfless acts. People praising people seems to be the way of the wicked. They have pride in their own accomplishments, their own achievements, and their own intelligence as well as their success and wealth. But the fact is their day is coming, their end is in sight. God will not allow them access into his rest, unless of course they repent and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But it seems an impossibility as long as they remain prideful. The righteous understand the need to be humble. They understand God has provided everything needed for life. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we do are a result of God having started a good work in us and it is he who is bringing the work to completion. Because we are meek, the humble, the gentle in mind will inherit the land, or earth. This is talking about the new creation, the new earth, the new heaven and the new city of Jerusalem. We will delight ourselves in the abundance of peace, as the Hebrew words state it. The wicked will not know such peace, much less any abundance of it. They might try to strike out against those us of who are the righteous, but all their efforts will actually destroy themselves. We see believers all over the world experiencing persecution at the hands of the wicked. Some of the wicked are even doing it in the name of their god or gods. Those of us who live in a free county, may not be murdered because of our faith, but there are still the wicked who try to have God removed from our country. There are those who would ridicule us for having faith in God. They laugh under their breath because we trust God. They think we are weak-minded. One ex-wrestler, ex-Governor even stated that Christians are weak-minded people who use Christianity as a crutch.  One individual wrote that the strong-minded rise to the challenge of their dreams, the weak-minded become haters. There is a general sense within the world of the wicked, they are strong and we are weak. There is another plot at foot as well, they attempt to discredit God, because they do not want to be held accountable for their lifestyle. If there is no God, then there is no consequence for their actions. But God will bring all them to ruin, he will not allow them to come into his rest and have peace. Their own bows, their own swords are their own death. But God will uphold the righteous, he will uphold us and keep us. Our faith will not be shaken, our feet are set on solid ground, our belief in Jesus Christ is firm and established and witnessed to by the indwelling of the Spirit within us. The wicked might believe they have the truth about life, but we know we have the truth, not just about this life, but about eternal life, which we began the day we believed. Thank you Jesus. We have a great inheritance.

Committed

DEVOTION

 PSALMS

COMMITTED

Ps 37:5-9

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. 8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret — it leads only to evil. 9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

NIV

In the Hebrew the word meanings are sort of different than commit your way to the Lord. Roll unto the Lord your road, or roll your road unto the Lord. It does mean to give the Lord authority over your travels, or your way of life. So then commit your way to the Lord. This implies giving up control of our way of life. We are not the captain of our own ship, he is. Because we turn over control of our life, our way and put our trust in him there is a result that is most pleasing. He will, not we will, but he will do this: He will make our righteousness shine like the dawn. How often do we see someone post a picture on social media of the dawn, the beginning of a new day, the sun breaking over the horizon shining on the clouds, making them all glowing shades of pink or orange? Their posts include exclamations of its beauty. This is how people should be seeing Jesus shining in our lives. Jesus is our righteousness and when we commit our life onto him, he will make Jesus shine through us so people might post pictures of us on social media exclaiming how beautiful we are, how our face shines. Because we commit our life unto him, he will make our justice or our cause, or our verdict, our declaration to follow him, shine so brightly, as the noonday sun. This implies because we have declared, we have rendered a verdict that we will follow Jesus, his light will shine so brightly within us, people will need sunglasses to look upon us, or we will need to wear a veil as Moses did. We cannot force this to happen, we have to be still and allow God to do it. Our responsibility is to commit our way unto him. He will do the rest. He is the one who started a good work in us and it is he who will bring it to completion. Waiting patiently is the key. When we see others succeed in their ways, which is they are not committing their ways unto the Lord, but they are living according to their own ways and succeeding, we need not fret, but keep trusting in the Lord. They are living according to their own schemes, which is wicked or evil, according to the Lord. This should not make us upset, angry, jealous, envious, but we should turn from those feelings of wrath and continue to trust in the Lord. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in their ways, it will only lead us to evil. All who do evil will be cut off, whatever that means, it is not good. Because we are steadfast in our trusting in the Lord, we will inherit the land. This implies we will enter into the new creation, the new city of Jerusalem, on the new earth covered by the new heavens. We will not allow the evil schemes of the wicked to influence our lifestyle. We have rendered that verdict. We have declared God is the way of our life. We are committed to it.

Hearts desire

DEVOTION

PSALMS

HEARTS DESIRE

Ps 37:1-4

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; 2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

NIV

This psalm has way too much to deal with in its entirety. We need to bite off a little at a time in order to absorb all its truth. Sometimes it seems as those who do not know the Lord are getting way ahead in the world, getting the best positions, making the most money, having all the toys, so to speak. Some of them are living in the biggest and best homes, driving the most expensive cars, taking their big RV laden down pulling a big pickup truck loaded with the fancy custom golf cart and a motorcycle and with bikes and whatever else they can load in or on it. Some of them just have it all. But some of them are so poor, they live on the streets. Some of them have such horrible health problems they cannot enjoy a day without pain. Some of them are so worried about everything, they are filled with fear of losing all their stuff, or fear of not having enough. The point is all people are simply people. We can always find people with more then and better off then we are, and we can always find people who are worse off than we are. Some of them are non-believers, some of them are believers. Our task is to not fret about either of them, but especially about those who do evil, the non-believers. Some of them might seem to be getting all the toys, but a day is coming when they will wither away like grass. We may not be so comforted in the here and now, but we are admonished to be content in whatever state or life we are in. We have learned to live with plenty and we have learned to live in want, our particular physical condition is merely a temporary one. If we are living in plenty it may be temporary, if we are living in want, it may be temporary. In light of eternity all this physical life is temporary. The point is no matter how we are living, or how anyone else is living, we are to trust in the Lord and do something good with our life. Whatever situation we are in, we are to do something good in that situation. It does not matter how much we have or how little we have. It does not matter if we are extremely healthy or have health issues. We are to do something good with our life. What that good is may be quite different for each one of us, depending on what God calls us to do. But we are to do good and enjoy dwelling in the land with safe pastures. We are to delight ourselves in the Lord. This is we keep our focus on him, not on our lives. This statement about God giving us the desires of our heart might have been taken out of its context. In order for us to have the desires of our heart, we are to delight in the Lord. Delighting in the Lord should be the desire of our heart. This also might mean that if our hearts desire is to delight in him, which is the desire he has given to our heart. God gives us the desire to delight in him. It may not mean that if we delight in him, he will give us whatever worldly things we desire. If we are desiring worldly things, then could we say we are not delighting in him, but rather in the things of the world? How can we delight in him and desire all the stuff? Isn’t that like having a divided heart? Isn’t that like really not actually delighting in the Lord? We need to keep everything in perspective. He is God the creator with all the power and glory and honor. We are the created, created for his purpose. He has called us to a purpose, and the desire of our heart should be to have him accomplish his purpose in our life. That is our hearts desire.

Fountain of Life

DEVOTION

PSALMS

FOUNTAIN OF LIFE

 Ps 36

An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. 3 The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. 4 Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.

5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. 7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

10 Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 See how the evildoers lie fallen — thrown down, not able to rise!

NIV

To be able to discern the sinfulness of the wicked is a good thing. We cannot just go about living our lives ignoring the sinful attitudes and behaviors of the wicked. They lift themselves up for their achievements, their success and their humanitarian efforts. They flatter themselves so much they are not aware of their sin is what the psalmist says. We must be aware of them, and not get drawn into their kind of thinking. We know our sin, we have knowledge of our weaknesses and failings. If we were to think that we have completely overcome sin, whether in word, thought or deed, we would be deceiving ourselves and would be no better than the wicked who cannot detect their sin. However, we have the love of the Lord in our lives. His love reaches beyond the bounds of the physical. His love reaches into the heart of man. His love reaches into the depths of our heart cleansing us from within. He is faithful, never failing to live out his righteousness within us. He preserves our life, he gives us eternal life, so that we will never have to experience eternal death. We should also be aware that just because we experience the love of God, we are not any different than anyone else. He does not show us favoritism, for he gives life to whomsoever believes no matter the condition of a person’s life. Rich or poor, educated or not, he loves them all. It matters not the nationality, the ethnic origin or language, he loves them all and will give eternal life to whomsoever believes. We are so blessed to have found the light, to have been brought out of the darkness and into his light. We have found that refuge under his wing. As a small young chick finds refuge under the wing of the parent bird, we have found that refuge, he will protect us from those who would devour us. We feast in his house, we live in abundance within our heart, our spirit, the temple of the Lord. We sing within, we rejoice within, we are lifted up by the Lord. We drink in his delight in us, we delight in him, for he is our God and he loves us so much. We delight in drinking in his goodness, his faithfulness, his unfailing love. We delight in the Lord. We drink from his fountain of life.

Always in praise

DEVOTION

PSALMS

ALWAYS IN PRAISE

Ps 35

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. 2 Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid. 3 Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me .Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."

4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. 5 May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away; 6 may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them. 7 Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me, 8 may ruin overtake them by surprise — may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin. 9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation. 10 My whole being will exclaim," Who is like you, O LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them."

11 Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about. 12 They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn. 13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered, 14 I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother. 15 But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; attackers gathered against me when I was unaware. They slandered me without ceasing. 16 Like the ungodly they maliciously mocked; they gnashed their teeth at me. 17 O Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my life from their ravages, my precious life from these lions. 18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.

19 Let not those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; let not those who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye. 20 They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land. 21 They gape at me and say, "Aha! Aha! With our own eyes we have seen it."

22 O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent. Do not be far from me, O Lord. 23 Awake, and rise to my defense! Contend for me, my God and Lord. 24 Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God; do not let them gloat over me. 25 Do not let them think, "Aha, just what we wanted!" or say, "We have swallowed him up."

26 May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace. 27 May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant." 28 My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

NIV

There is a lot of prayer here regarding God doing harm to those who would do harm to David. But this whole prayer could also be seen as from Jesus upon the cross. It also could be seen as the struggle between the world and Christians. However, it does not seem right that we should pray God do them so much harm. But it is more of a prophetic prayer, or statement as to what God is going to do those who would attempt to do believers harm. When it really gets down to the core issues of life, those who do not believe, those who refuse to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, hate the idea of living for God. They prefer to live for their own wants and desires. They prefer to live according to their own philosophies of life. They may even ridicule us for having faith in something, or someone unseen. They refute the truth and say the god they believe in accepts all manner of lifestyles, they can live however they desire and their god is alright with it. But their god is of their own making, for their god is not the Almighty God who created all things. They may say theirs is, but it is not God. We say it, because some of them have created a female god, or a god without gender, or a god of whatever they want. They slander the true God. They defame his name. They hate the truth because it is light and the light exposes their sin. They prefer to hide in the darkness, the darkness of their own making, so sin cannot be seen, and if not seen then it is not sin. This psalm speaks of all the disaster that awaits them. But it concludes with the righteous shouting for joy and gladness over the vindication of believers. The Hebrew word order is even better. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. We should shout for joy and be glad because of the righteous cause of Christ on the cross. We should shout for joy and be glad because of the righteous cause of another believer. We should pray and say the Lord be exalted because we delight in the well-being of other believers. We should delight in the well-being of others. That would then put aside any of those feelings of jealousy, envy, greed, or selfishness. We would rejoice and shout for joy when someone is blessed by God. Our God is a God of righteousness. Again this speaks of Jesus, everything in this psalm could apply to Jesus, but also to every believer. So let our tongue always be in praise of our God, for what he is doing in our life as well as in the life of others.   

Everlasting arms

DEVOTION

PSALMS

EVERLASTING ARMS

Ps 34:11-22

11 Come, my children, listen to me; will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, 13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. 14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; 16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

NIV

Simply by reading all of the word of God we will no doubt learn to fear, to reverence, to respect the Lord. There is also in some sense real fear, trembling fear of the Lord. He can, if he so desired, to wipe us off the face of the earth by one word from his mouth. We may not even grasp how awesome his power is, yet when we combine all of his word which he gave us to reveal himself to us, we should not need to tremble in fear for he loves us. However, there are some aspects of life which we need to acquire if we desire to have a long life filled with good days. We are to keep from speaking about evil things, and refrain from telling even the littlest lie. It might seem harmless to tell what is referred to as, a little white lie, but it is still not the truth. The Hebrew word translated lie, means deceit. Any non-truth would be considered an attempt to deceive someone. We are to turn away from all that which is evil, including the speaking lies, and live in a good manner, a truthful manner, a righteous manner, living as if Christ is within us, oops, he is. We are to seek, to find what is peace, which again is Christ, he is our peace, and pursue it, or him. Jesus said he gives us peace, not as the world gives peace, but his peace he leaves us with.

John 14:27

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

NIV

God is attentive to those of us who love him, and live according to his ways. He watches over us, he hears our cry when we have a need, when we are facing trouble, or a difficult situation in life. It is certain that from time to time we will face some sort of trouble or hardship. Life is not always a bed of roses, even for those of us who believe. We get sick, we feel pain in our body, and we experience painful emotions. Life even brings us the loss of a loved one. It is inevitable we all will face the death of a parent, or a spouse, if we haven’t already, that is life. But God is there, he is always there and he is there to hear our cry, to comfort us, to be our Rock, our Fortress, and our help in trouble. He hears us, he is attentive to us, he loves us and is there for us, but we must come to him, we must allow him to comfort us, to be our shelter, our Rock. When we face those situations, we do not need to face them alone, he is there with us, and we can lean on him, on his everlasting arms. The wicked have no such promise, in fact even the memory of them will be gone. They will perish and will never be remembered by anyone, even God. He remembers us, but not them. That is harsh, but the truth. We will be saved, we have the Lord, he delivers us from all our troubles, he protects all our bones, not one will be broken, of course that speaks of Jesus on the cross, but the idea is God will watch over us as he did with Jesus on the cross, he did not turn his face from him nor does he turn his face from us, even when we fail him, when we sin. We can always trust him, we can always lean on his everlasting arms

What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning in the everlasting arms;                                                                      

What a blessedness, what a peace is my, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms;

Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms;

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning on the everlasting arms.