O My Soul

DEVOTION

PSALM

O MY SOUL

Ps 104:1-9

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. 2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. 4 He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; 8 they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. 9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

NIV

Praise the LORD, O my soul. Again, here is more reason to praise the LORD. He is over all the earth. He is clothed in splendor and majesty. The psalmist describes the whole of God wrapping himself in his creation, light, the heavens, or sky, space, the universe, all the stars, all the water upon the earth cloths him. The clouds, the vapor in the air is all over him and even the wind is his ride, wind, rain and fire, surround him. All this serves him, he reigns over all the elements of the earth, and nothing is not in his complete control. He established the earth in its perfect orbit around the sun which he established within an orbit in the universe. All that is has been established by him. Can man change the earth’s orbit? Can man change the rotation of the earth? Can man determine the tilt of the axis of the earth or change the seasons? God established it and it cannot be moved. The psalmist speaks of the great flood which covered the whole earth at the command of God. However God also rebuked the waters and caused them to recede to the place he assigned them. God set the boundary of the water they cannot cross, never again will they rise to cover the earth. God has set the boundary of the water, not man. Can man make the water recede? Can man make the water to rise? Can man make the wind to blow or stop blowing? Can man do anything? All the alarm over what is now called climate change is nothing more the man trying to puff himself up over God, or ignoring God has established everything and is in absolute control over all the earth, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe. It cannot be moved. Man can do nothing to change that which God established. How great is our God? He is almighty and all powerful over all things, including us his people. It is time to give him the honor and praise is his due. It is time to recognize that he is God, the creator of all that is, and it is he who set everything into motion and who controls his creation to suit himself. Each day we arise from our slumber, is a day of the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. Even our soul is established by the LORD, he knit us together in our mother’s womb. He established our soul, why would we not praise him from our soul? Praise the LORD, O my soul.

Staying in

DEVOTION

PSALMS

STAYING IN

Ps 103

103:1 Of David.

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul ,and forget not all his benefits —  3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children — 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

NIV

Well it does look like we are having to camp out here at least another day because we sure did not get far our first day. Now we know that we will live in an attitude of praise to the LORD, let us look at his works. What does it mean that he works righteousness? Here we thought he was righteousness, which he is, but how is this working of righteousness play out and especially along with justice. The Hebrew word translated righteousness has multiply meanings depending on the context in which it is used. It is used as rightly governing, to judge as a ruler, the righteous attitude of God, what is ethically right, as vindication as in justification and salvation, used of God, but when it is used of people it can mean prosperity. So we have our choice, or not because of the context. The Lord works justification and salvation for the oppressed. Maybe that is it, but then it could also mean the Lord works prosperity for the oppressed. Yet it could be the LORD works righteous acts for the oppressed. But who are the oppressed and what or who is oppressing them? It would make sense that Satan is the oppressor and that sin is what oppresses people. Then his acts of righteousness, his justification and salvation work toward those who are oppressed by sin, and frees them from that sin because he satisfied his own justice by sending Jesus to take our sin upon the cross. Surely the Psalmist was not aware of all that, but God was as he inspired the words of the psalmist. All that is followed to demonstrate how God works that righteousness and justice among the oppressed. He showed his ways to Moses. He demonstrated his deeds among the people. God is practice and slow to anger, he works his righteousness and justice among his creation. Yes, he accuses sin, and maybe even the sinful, but he has made his ways known to Moses and there is a way to not be accused. In fact, he is not going to always accuse, and we know that is because there was a time he took our sin, he forgave our sin, as Jesus was on the cross. God abounds in love, he loves us so much he gave his only son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.  For this reason he does not treat us as we deserve because of our sin. He does not repay us for our wrongdoing, he works his righteousness and justice in our lives. A friend, who goes by J.D. made a great observation about our sin being removed as far as the East is from the West. If we were to fly a plane from the South to the North we would eventually be going South again as we passed over the North Pole. But if we flew east we would never ever start flying west, nor if we flew west, then never would we begin to fly east. That is how far they are from each other, which is how far our sin has been removed. The clue in all this is that it is for those who fear the Lord, who revere him, who worship him, who say to their soul, “Praise the LORD, and Praise his holy name”. We have to remember that we came from dust and to dust we will go, as far as our earthly body. In relationship to eternity our life span is but a blip on the screen. A friend, David, made a comparison of our lifespan as to a cable that ran around the world a thousand times, with our lifespan being just a scratch, and that was most likely too much. We are here today gone tomorrow. Yet is seems many want to make their mark somehow on the earth. In the grand scheme of eternity we can see how futile that thinking is. What is of the utmost importance in life is in the keeping of the covenant of God. This is not living perfectly, or completely free of all sin, or being the best “Good Christian” . This is making sure we give praise and honor to our Lord, and that we accept his righteous act toward us, Jesus, and we stay in Jesus, we do not deny Jesus, we remain in him. We do not get distracted by the world and go about living out our own plans, ambitions, goals and desires. We are his people and he is our Lord and that means we do his bidding, whatever that may be. We all have been called in some way to serve him, to be a part of his kingdom and to live as kingdom citizens. We obey his precepts. We stay in Christ.

Praise the LORD, O my soul

DEVOTION

PSALMS

PRAISE THE LORD O MY SOUL

Ps 103

103:1 Of David.

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits —  3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children — 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

NIV

It looks like we could camp out in this psalm for quite a while. Just the opening phrase is enough to fan the flame within. David is speaking to his own soul, and that is certainly something we just might need to do from time to time. How easy it is to spend a day living life, being busy with our daily activities, focused on getting that task accomplished, either at work or around the house. It is not that we forget we are a believer, a Christian, but we just are not in that praising the Lord attitude at those moments. That is when we need to remember to speak to our soul and tell it, “Praise the LORD, O my soul, all my inner most being, Praise his holy name". Should we not be living continually in an attitude of praise? Should we not have some song of praise playing in our heart and mind all the time? When we glance out the window from our home, or as we are driving, and seeing all the wonders of God displayed before our eyes we can be praising God, for the work of his hands. When we take a breath, we can praise God for all his benefits. He is the breath of life within our lungs. How can we not praise him for he has forgiven all our sin, he does not count it against us. That is big, that is really big, and how can we not continually praise him because of his forgiveness, because of Jesus. This life as a believer is not some hum drum, ho hum life. Our life is filled with the benefits of the LORD. That means exciting, exuberant praise filled living. We can also praise him because one of the benefits of the LORD is that he heals all our diseases. Wait a second, then why are we sick, why do we have some aches and pains, or something wrong in the inside? If God heals all, not some, of our diseases than how come we are not always healed? Maybe we just don’t believe it. Maybe we get so involved in life that we forget to praise him, really praise his holy name, and truly be involved in actively praising him and looking to him for all things. He says he heals us and maybe we just see that as healing our soul, or a spiritual healing. Sin is a disease and it is one that is terminal, death is the result. But because we are in Jesus our sin is no longer terminal, it has been forgiven, healed, cured, and we are going to live forever. O Death, where is your sting? It is gone, thrown out and has no hold on us at all. He redeemed us from the pit, the pit of death. If that is not enough he then crowns us with love and compassion. And if that is not enough, he also satisfies us with good things, so that our life, our youth is renewed as the eagles. We are continually in our youth with the strength of youth in our bones, in our heart and mind.

Isa 40:31

31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

NIV

 So then praise the LORD O my soul and all that is within me, Praise his holy name.

Ask

DEVOTION

PSALMS

ASK

Ps 102

102:1 A prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before the LORD.

Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come to you. 2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.

3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers. 4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food. 5 Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones. 6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. 7 I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof. 8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse. 9 For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears 10 because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside. 11 My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.

12 But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. 13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. 14 For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity. 15 The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. 16 For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory. 17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.

18 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: 19 "The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, 20 to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death." 21 So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem 22 when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the LORD.

23 In the course of my life he broke my strength; he cut short my days. 24 So I said: "Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. 25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. 27 But you remain the same, and your years will never end. 28 The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you."

NIV

This is titled correctly as it would appear this man is certainly afflicted, but we are not sure just what type of affliction he suffers from. During the course of life there are many situations that we could say are an affliction. He is so upset over something that he cannot even eat, and he is wasting away physically. An emotional state of the mind that affected the body is a fact of life. But this man is a believer, not as we think of being a being, as he is not aware of Jesus, the free gift of God. But he does know God, he is aware of the God of creation and the God who dealt with Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. He knows about the time of the exodus and how God’s mighty power was displayed in all those men and the lives of the children of Israel. Yet he suffers and he pleads with God not to leave him to his affliction. We would think being a believer he should not be afflicted in the first place. Oh is the true? Are we exempt from afflictions? He does remind God of the fact God sits upon the throne forever. He does come to terms with God is all powerful and looks to him for a healing of his affliction.  Maybe that is more the true. We may not be free of all types of afflictions, but why would there be a need for us to endure them? Do we forget who God is? Do we just go about living in our affliction, suffering, moaning and groaning without even discussing it with God? Would we rather take our affliction to some doctor type and look for our help from him, that to take it to God? Is our faith more in modern science then in the God who created us? The psalmist comes to grips with the fact God does not change and therefore it is we who do the changing. God is always there to help the oppressed. God is always there to free the prisoners and to release those condemned to death. God is always in the assembly of the righteous, he is near. Even when all the earth and the heavens perish, God will remain, so then why do we not simply believe he will save us from any affliction, heal us, cure us, protect us, provide for us and give us the direction of our life? We do! God does not abandon us. God does not turn a deaf ear to our plea. God waits for us to seek him for every aspect of our life. God desires we come to him for every affliction which comes our way, for he will answer. Seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened, ask and he will give. We just need to ask.

Measured up

DEVOTION

PSALMS

MEASURED UP

Ps 101

101:1 Of David. A psalm.

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. 2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life — when will you come to me?

I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing.

The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. 4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.

5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.

6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.

7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.

8 Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

NIV

This seems to be more of a conversation between David and God than just a song of praise or of petition. The first four verses appear to be what David is vowing to God and the remaining verses are God’s response. So let us see how we measure up to the set of standards David believes God has set before him. First we do sing, even if off key, of the love and justice of the LORD. We sing praise to him. So far so good. We try to lead a blameless life, but it would appear David failed as do we. However, David did not have the covering of the blood of Jesus as we do, and he did not have the declaration of God we do, as God has declared us to be holy and blameless in his sight. This is all due to Jesus, and not of anything of us. Now we do have the choice whether to set a vile thing before our eyes or not. Perhaps it would be good to understand this word translated vile. The Hebrew word has the direct meaning of without profit, worthlessness, by extension destruction, wicked. But thinking about looking at that which is worthless or not profitable for our life could mean a whole lot of things. Much of what we watch on television is of little profit for our lives, comedies, horror, violence, immoral and then there is all the sports and news and whatever else. How about all the stuff we see on the internet, or in magazines? Then books, what kind of things do we read about? Anything profitable or are they vile? There is a lot to ponder on, when it comes to our forms of entertainment, or pastimes. We do, however dislike the deeds of faithless people, those who do not know Jesus, and we will not cling or become like them. That does not mean we do not associate with them for how will they hear about Jesus if we are not living life among them? But we chose not to do life as they do. It would seem David has more of an isolationist viewpoint, but that may not be how God views our life as he did insist that we are to go into all the world and preach the good news. How else will they hear if no one tells them, and how else will someone tell them if that someone is not sent? But, metaphorically, they are far off from our inner most being, we do not live like them, or want that kind of thinking to be at the center of our life. In our heart we desire to have nothing to do with evil, the things which are evil.  How do we measure up? God states that he will not endure people who have haughty eyes and a proud heart. That means a high look, or thinking more of oneself then we should. God will not endure a person like that. No, we are admonished to humble ourselves before the Lord, he will lift us up. He watches over us, because we are in Christ and therefor blameless and faithful and we do dwell in his house, in the kingdom of God. We are aliens here in this world, we do not speak their language, and we are not familiar with their customs or lifestyle. This is a foreign land to us for we dwell with God. This practicing deceit thing, has to do with pretending we are all good, all right, that we are a “Good Christian”. God knows the deepest secrets of our heart and mind. He knows we fail to live up to perfection, which is why Jesus took all our sin, past, present and future to the cross. When we think we are good is to be deceitful to God, and that just cannot stand. We have to speak the truth to God, who we are, are imperfections, our faults, and our sin. But that speaking false also applies to how we talk to others. God does not like all the false prophets or teachers out there. They will not dwell with him. They are not going to stand in his presence. We have to be careful to teach only his truth, speak truth into the lives of others and speak truth to God. How are we measuring up? Evil will be cut off from the land, evildoers will be cut off. They will not stand in the assembly of the righteous. Praise God we can say because we are in Christ and he is our righteousness, we will stand in the presence of our God, and we will dwell in his house forever. We have been weighed, we have been measured and instead of being found wanting, we have measured up because we are in Christ.

He has made us glad

DEVOTION

PSALMS

HE HAS MADE US GLAD

Ps 100

100:1 A psalm. For giving thanks.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

NIV

How appropriate to be on this psalm on a Sunday morning when we are preparing to enter his house to worship and give praise and thanksgiving to God. Some services will be more liturgical than others, but the whole body of Christ will be at worship. This is the key word, worship. During the time we are in the house of the Lord it can become a little traditional in some sense. Each service has its pattern and it might become easy for us to just go through the motions, in hope it will end on time so we can get about our day, maybe go out for breakfast or hurry home to turn on the game. But this is a time within the house of God we should worship with gladness, to come before him with joyful songs. But then, of course, that should be our daily activity as well. It should not be reserved for Sunday only. Our whole life should be a song of worship with gladness, for he is the LORD God who made us. Our life would not be had he not made us. It might be easy to approach our life from a humanistic view, our birth as a result of a union of our parents. However it was God who knit us together in our mother’s womb.

Ps 139:13

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

NIV

It is the LORD God who made the first made with his own hands, kneeling in the dirt, making mud or clay and forming Adam into the God’s own image, then breathing into him God’s very breath. This is our heritage, he also made us, and gives us breath and life and our very being. We are his image, we should always remember it was the LORD God who created us for his purpose, so we worship and praise him with gladness of heart, and we come before him each day with thanksgiving and praise. Yes, we yearn for the day we step into eternity to be in his presence forever, but for now we still have the breath of life, and are here for his purpose. So we are glad for this day, and each day we awake to give praise and thanksgiving for this is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

We will enter His gates with thanksgiving in our heart We will enter his courts with praise We will say this is the day the Lord has made We rejoice for He has made us glad He has made us glad, HE has made us glad We will rejoice for HE has made us glad

We could see that song two ways. One that he has made us from sad to glad because of calling us out of darkness into the light, for giving us eternal life. Two, that he formed us in our mother’s womb glad. He designed us to be glad, to live life gladly, without sadness. But many people bring sadness unto themselves. It was not how God designed our life.  He designed us to have a glad heart, a glad life, filled with his joy and peace. He has made us glad.

Worship

DEVOTION

PSALMS

WORSHIP

Ps 99

99:1

The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. 2 Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name — he is holy.

4 The King is mighty, he loves justice — you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. 5 Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the LORD and he answered them. 7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.   9 Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

NIV

Just a reminder of all that God did for the people of Israel, yet it was for the purpose of sending his Son to them to be their Messiah. What would have happened if all of Israel would have accepted Jesus as the Messiah? How would the plan for the rest of the world played out? The offer of salvation to the Gentiles was not just because Israel rejected Christ. John records that fact in the singular most quoted verse in the people. “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting last. 3;16. The whosoever is us, we are the ones spoken about in the Holy Scriptures. So then the Lord reigns in our heart, the nation of believers. He is high and lifted up. We lift him up in our hearts. We cannot actually lift the lord up for is it the Lord and is lifted up by his own word. But this lifting up is in a metaphorical sense. We exalt him, we praise him and his great and awesome name. Who would ever dare to claim God is not holy? Yet, how quickly we get distracted from exalting the Lord. How easily we allow our human nature to rule over our heavenly nature. Yes, we are human, but just as we abide the human law we live under, should we not abide, even more, under the heavenly law we live under? However forgiving God is and although we are in Christ, we still need to live in a manner befitting our position, a child of God. We are representing God to the rest of the world. We are part of his plan now. We are part of his active rather than passive plan. It is not just in church that we make that effort to exalt him and worship at his footstool. We need to worship at his holy mountain 24/7/365. That is all the time, without ceasing, for he his holy and is due all our worship, with an undivided heart, undivided attention span. Being a believer, living as a believer is our new nature, the one we were reborn as. So we will exalt the Lord, we will live up to our name, our title, our position in Christ. We will worship the Lord God, not just when it is convenient, but all the time in every situation we are in. We will worship the Lord God because he is holy.