Either or,not Both And

DEVOTION

PSALMS

EITHER OR NOT BOTH AND

Ps 107:33-43

33 He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, 34 and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there. 35 He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; 36 there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. 37 They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; 38 he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish.

39 Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled by oppression, calamity and sorrow; 40 he who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in a trackless waste. 41 But he lifted the needy out of their affliction and increased their families like flocks. 42 The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths.

43 Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the LORD.

NIV

 Again we are reminded about how this psalm can be all about the life of the Israelites and their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. It also shows how their refusal to enter caused them all to wander in the desert until they all died and then their children entered. But it also speaks about the daily life in a believer of today. Well, maybe a believer and maybe just a lip service believer. It also speaks about mankind in general and the difference between the righteous and the wicked and how each lives in a different realm or reality. For those who refuse to enter into his land, his realm, rivers will become deserts and flowing springs will be thirsty ground. What was fruitful will be a salt wasteland. This is the land of the wicked. This is the life of a worldly person. What they think is the good life is nothing at all, for it is not in the realm of God, they are on the outside and don’t even know it. They have nothing and their end is to perish, just as the children of Israel wandered in the desert until they perished. However, there are others, the people who believe, not just in lip service, but believe in their heart, their whole heart, not a divided one. We remember about the divided heart, half in each realm, but not totally in either, that is the lukewarm heart and the destiny of the divided lukewarm heart is to be spit out from the mouth of God. Either be totally in or out but we should not try to live in both realms. For those who decide to get all in, live only in the realm of God, he turns the desert into pools of water and parched land into flowing springs. He brings the hungry (those who hunger and thirst for him) to live. He gives them eternal life and they will dwell in the city of God forever. There they will settle forever. Within the realm of God, his kingdom, we will sow fields and plant vineyards, and yield a fruitful harvest. This speaks about our lives as believers within his kingdom. It speaks of our sowing the word of God in the world, of our planting his word within the realm of the wicked, and how, because of our sowing and planting there will be a fruitful yield of new believers. Because of this we are blessed and our numbers increase. Again, a comparison of those who are under the oppression because of their wicked ways and how he pours contempt on those who either refuse to enter and how they are destined to wander. But we have to also think of how the Israelites fit this description. And this could mean how some believers might fut this description. They knew God, but also wanted the world, they looked back to their life in Egypt at times, they grumbled about their current situation of following God. It is if they wanted both the world and God. We saw that with Lot’s wife, following the directions of the Lord, but looking back wanting what she had, wanting both, a divided heart. We can see this in the life of the Israelites even after they were in the land of milk and honey and had it all, everything, but instead of staying in the realm of God, they adopted the realm of the foreign gods and the result was disaster. God allowed them to be overrun, hauled off in exile as captives, slaves in a foreign realm. We cannot afford to live in both realms or even try. Yes, we are in this realm of the world, but we are not of it, we do not live according to their rules, their customs, their ways. We live in the realm of God and live in his ways. It comes down to a single united heart bent toward God. We either believe or we don’t, we cannot sort of believe, trying to abide in both. We are all in, we will believe God every time on all issues, until our last breathe.   

Unfailing love

DEVOTION

PSALMS

UNFAILING LOVE

Ps 107:17-32

17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. 18 They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. 20 He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. 21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. 22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.

23 Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. 24 They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. 25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. 26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. 27 They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits' end. 28 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. 29 He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. 31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. 32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.

NIV

Two stanzas which we most likely should deal with individually, but they do both deal with people of the rebellion. Both kinds are fools. Simply rebelling against God is a foolish way to live and it does cause suffering from afflictions because of sin. What we believers have to grasp deep within our being is that God is the God who heals us. Somehow we should get that and know that all our iniquities have been forgiven, Jesus took them all upon himself at the cross. So why should we have to suffer any afflictions? But this song is talking about fools who reject God and perhaps it is speaking more metaphorically about loathing all food. This could be the bread of life. This food they reject could be the food that came down from heaven, Jesus. When he was with his disciples at their last meal with him, he speak of taking this bread which is my body and drink this  wine which is my blood and this could mean as men reject him and his communion they draw near to the gates of death. Surely they still have a chance to change their minds and turn from their wicked ways, as we did, and accept his food from heaven. The psalmist indicates they did just that, crying out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them, he will always save those who cry out to him. He sent forth his word and healed them. He sent Jesus who heals people from the grave. When we accept Jesus the distress of death no longer holds its power, for the word of God, Jesus is the word and the word became flesh and dwelled among us. Jesus heals us from death, from the grave. We are no longer subject of the infirmity of death. The others, they spent their life’s effort in commerce, the pursuit of profit, of success. The desire to gain the wealth of this world. They are the merchants of the sea of life, the mighty waters. But this group were not really as foolish as the others, as they saw the mighty works of God. They were not just foolish, living in either ignorance or rebellion, not wanting to notice what God does. They were aware of his works but desired to travel their own course on the sea of life. But God stirred up their sea, made their lives into a turmoil, huge waves, things got messy, as much or as fast they could produce wealth, it could vanish just as quickly. The market is fickle that way, the merchants were at their wits end, their courage melted away from the acts of God against them. When they cried out to the Lord, he calmed the waters and guided them to a safe haven, his haven. Life is a dangerous thing when we are not in Christ. When we want to live by our supposed wisdom, we will either be a fool or in so much distress upon the sea of life, we might just drown. We have to see we need the food from heaven, Jesus and as we live in him, he calms the sea of life that we travel on. We do not have to deal with the infirmity of death and we do not have to deal with the pursuit of commerce, for he calms the storm, he is in control of the course of our life. That does not mean we go without, not at all, in fact we are well cared for. God is not only our redeemer, but our rock, our fortress, our provider, our healer, and our shepherd. He leads us on a path of righteousness, he leads us beside still waters, and he restores our soul. We can live in contentment, loving where we live, for we live in Christ. We do not need to suffer anymore, or fear anything or anyone. We do not need to fight our own battles in life for he is our victory and we thank him in every situation in life we face. We will always praise him for his unfailing love.

Broken chains

DEVOTION

PSALMS

BROKEN CHAINS

Ps 107:10-16

10 Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, 11 for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. 12 So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. 13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. 15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, 16 for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.

NIV

We have several stanzas of a similar format and somewhat of the same subject, so let us just deal with each one for they are slightly different as well. This stanza deals with those who sat in darkness and the deepest gloom. These are the prisoners in iron chains. The cause for this condition is rebellion against the words of God. Is not our life before we finally heard his voice? We were sitting in the darkness of the deepest gloom. We refused to listen to anything about the truth of God, in fact, we were in the worst of a rebellious movement as we did not even believe anything could be a result of God for it was all natural occurrence and that we did not believe humans could even comprehend the existence of the idea of God. This is why we fell into the category of being an agnostic rather than an atheistic. Nevertheless it was the darkness of our own mind. Yet we still may have been better off than those who professed they believed there is a God, but still refused to obey his words or counsel. However, being in the darkness is not a good place no matter what men may say about doing their own thing. Being in this rebellious state against God results in him subjecting people to bitter labor. This is not just labor, but bitter labor. This is not a happy life, living enjoying our jobs, our labor, and content with our position or possessions. This is a life of discontent, always wanting more, wanting better. This is being measured and weighed and found wanting. A life less then how God desires our life to be. But living, refusing God, results in stumbling around in the dark with no one to help. Yet whenever someone calls out to the Lord as we did, he brings them out of our darkness into his light. It is far better to be able live in the light then in the dark. The chains Satan kept us locked up with were broken by God, he freed us, and he cut away the bars of iron that kept us in the dark. It is all due to his unfailing love. There is nothing we warrant of his love, other than we are his creation, even as we lived in the darkness. His love reached into the darkness of our heart and broke the chains that bond us and lifted us up into his light, all because of his unfailing love.

Forever

DEVOTION

PSALMS

FOREVER

Ps 107:1-9

107:1

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say this — those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.  4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. 6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. 8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, 9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

NIV

This may be speaking of the wanderings of the Israelites as in the dispersion when many were carried off into captivity. But this speaks even more to the general condition of man living in the land of the foe, who would be the prince of this world, Satan. Jesus, having ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit to convict men of their sin and need for repentance. He has been sent all over the earth to gather from the lands, from the east and west, from the north and south. This song describes the condition of humankind without the presence of God in their lives. Once we wandered in a desert wasteland and we could find no city where we could settle. This city we could not find was the city of God. We were in this wasteland of darkness, and there we could not see to find our way to the city of light. We were indeed hungry and thirsty. We were looking for a way out of our desert, our life was ebbing away. But somehow the Spirit was able to shine into our darkness, our hungry and thirsty soul and showed us a way into the city of light. He shown the light into our desert wasteland and gave us a hope, so we called out to the Lord, we said, “forgive us, we repent”, and he did. He delivered us from all the distress in our spirit, in our soul, in our life. He lead us on a straight path right into his city, his kingdom and we then found a place to settle down finding a contentment that was never in our wasteland wanderings. His love is beyond measure to take the time, effort to come into our desert wasteland and redeem us, find us and bring us into his city where he satisfies all our thirst and fills our hunger with good things. His love is unfailing and his deeds for us are wonderful. How could we not give thanks to the Lord? He is good and his love endures forever.

Praise

DEVOTION

PSALMS

PRAISE

Ps 106:32-48

32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; 33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' lips.  

34 They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, 35 but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. 36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. 39 They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

40 Therefore the LORD was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. 41 He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.

44 But he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; 45 for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. 46 He caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive.

47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.

48 Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, "Amen!"

Praise the LORD.

NIV

Well at least it ended with, all is well and they returned to him and he gather them to himself. But what a trip, what a wasted amount of time they spent grumbling, rebelling against his ways, against the Spirit of God. He had commanded them to rid the land completely of those who were living there. He did not want them to become involved with the pagan ways of the Canaanites. But they did not listen and the mingled with them, they adopted their customs, there idols worship and even there form of sacrifices. How could they do that?  What the heck was wrong with those people? Did they not know who God was, considering all the signs and miracles he did for them? Yet here we are today, many times rebelling against the Spirit of the Lord. Oh, we say we are a good person, we do not murder, steal, cheat, lie, or do terrible things. But if we harbor any ill feelings toward anyone, Jesus says it is the same as murder. If we do not bring the whole of our tithe into the storehouse, are we stealing, robbing God? It could even be considered lying. But that is not the all of it. Have we mingled with the nations, have we adopted any of their customs? It would seem many of us have done that, at least at some level. Do we waste away in our sin? It may not be so much as wasting away, but wasting our time, wasting our efforts trying to trust in our own abilities. Have we wasted our time trying to live by the customs of the pagan world? This whole idea, or ideologies, customs such as methods of preparing for the future. The subject of investing has the danger of who are we investing in? Who are we giving our money to make more of it? Who have we trusted to prepare for our future? The whole idea of retirement is a hoax perpetrated on people by the devil himself. He wants nothing more for us to store up as much as we can, investing in his evil schemes influenced upon so many companies who are involved supporting so many morally bankrupt concepts. He wants nothing more to get us to retire, sit back and do nothing for the rest of our life, until we die. We just waste away in our sin. No, we have to put all our trust in God, for he is the one who saves us, who gathers us to himself. We need to always be in an attitude of praise and thanksgiving. We always need to be looking to God for everything we need and how we live our life. We know many of these ideas have a great deal of differing opinions or interpretations, but what we write we write from our heart, and how God deals with our heart, my heart in specific, so if what I write offends you, please understanding I am led by how God deals with me. I have to live according to his leading for my life. So I want to praise him, give him thanks and stay as close to him as it is possible in this frail, corruptible human condition.  Praise the LORD.

Any Idols

DEVOTION

PSALMS

ANY IDOLS

Ps 106:24-31

24 Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD. 26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, 27 make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. 31 This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

NIV

It seems it does not make any sense how those people could engage in such worship of idols after seeing how many great things the Lord did for them and was still doing for them. He brings them right to the Land of Promise and they despised it. We know the story about the twelve spies they sent into the land to check it out before they would dare cross the Jordan River. Come on now, after God dried up the Red Sea, after they saw Moses meet with God at Horeb and they heard the thundering voice of God they still needed to send spies. They did not believe God would go before them and crush anything or anyone who would keep them from occupying the land. What it comes down to is they simply did not believe him, or his promises. The story about the plague and this priest Phinehas is found in Numbers 25. We will not recount it, but the result of all there grumbling was twenty-five thousand of them died from the plague. It did not stop until this Phinehas drove a spike or spear through two people in their tent. A Israelite who brought a Midianite woman into his tent. In other words he was taking her as his wife, a strict violation of the Law. This was all about accepting the gods of other people. There is a danger in allowing women to woe men into false gods. Throughout the Old Testament we can see the temptations brought by women. This is not to be negative about women, it is just a fact of history during those times. We think of Samson and how Delilah brought him down. There are so many times this happened. Even David and Bathsheba. It even started back with Adam and Eve. She was the one deceived and then Adam followed after her. God did not intend this to be. But the children of Israel would not believe him, they wanted what they wanted and it caused many of them to die. Have we learned anything from those people? Do we believe all his promises? Or are we about getting our own way? Have we brought foreign idols into our life? Have we accepted the influence of the ways of the world, the idols of the world, which basically boils down to fame and fortune, success, and the accumulation of money? What makes us happy? What gives us a sense of security? What brings us comfort and a sense of peace and serenity? Is it God or money? We better make sure it is God or we might well be in trouble somehow. Have we taken him for granted? Do we think this is how he blesses us, by making us wealthy, or able to store up enough to live in comfort in our old age? Are we trusting him to lead us across the Jordon, we will travel the path he has put before us, or do we grumble in our tents? If it is not money, they maybe we have made some other idol, such as beauty, or health. How much time do we obsess over beauty, thinness, good health, or fashion? All those are billion dollar businesses designed to trap us in their clutches. Every year another fad diet comes down the pike. Every year another something which was good for us in now bad for us and that which was bad is now good. How many times are we going to be tricked by their deceptions? How many idols will we fall prey to rather than living for God, trusting God, looking to God for every aspect of our life? Let us stand up and drive a spike or a spear through all those idols and it will be credited to us as righteousness. Thrusting in Jesus for he is our righteousness is the only thing we need to do. He took three spikes for us, let us use those spikes for any idols we have allowed to sneak into our lives. We will believe his promises.

No forgetting

DEVOTION

PSALM

NO FORGETTING

Ps 106:12-23

12 Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.

13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. 14 In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. 15 So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

16 In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the LORD. 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram. 18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.

19 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. 20 They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. 21 They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 23 So he said he would destroy them — had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.

NIV

Verse 12 most likely should have been included with the first eleven, but we chose to start this next few stanzas with it. In quick review the children of Israel were very upset at Moses, at God because of leaving Egypt just to be trapped between the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh. Then God opened the sea and they crossed on a dry desert sea bottom and then he drown all the army of Pharaoh when they tried to cross chasing the Israelites. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise, but. There is that holy but. One day singing his praises the next day forgetting what he had done. The rest of this next stanza is all about how they forget and what they did instead of continuing to believe his promises and sing his praise. The details of their desires and their sin is not as important as the reason for them, forgetting what God had done and forgetting to believe and sing his praises. We know the whole story of their discontentment and the golden calf event. There is another truth in this portion, but we will save that for later. Now we should consider if we ever slide into this same type of forgetting his promises and wanting what we want and wanting it now, so we go about trying to get it for ourselves. We get distracted from his promises and begin to make a life for ourselves that we desire, almost to the point of worshipping something other than God. That is back to the divided heart issue again. The children of Israel didn’t even have a divided heart, they simple rejected God for the golden calf, which we could see as being all their wealth. The calf was made from a collection of all the gold they took out of Egypt, which God may have intended for them to use as currency in the new world he was taking them to. Instead they worshipped their wealth, the golden calf. God’s anger was fierce regarding this and he would have destroyed them on the spot if it were not for Moses. But let us get back to this idea of forgetting his promises for a little while. Do we forget? Do we try to make our own way? What are his promises that we should remember and live by them? He promised them he would take them to a land of milk and honey, the Promised Land. He promised they were his chosen people and he would take care of them, lead them, watch over them, and give them victory. As far as all the promises he made to them and to us we would have to include all the New Testament and all that he promised to those who believed. Just thinking about the promise of Jesus, the Spirit who dwells within us and the fruit and gifts he brings to bear in our life, sends chills down our spine. Just thinking about God is leading us into a Promised Land in which we will spend eternity with him should give us enough to sing his praises all day long, each and every day. But do we forget and get so involved with our daily life, striving for that which we want in this world? Sure we have to work, we just can’t sit back and believe God will drop everything we need into our laps, or can we? No, we are commanded to work for our sustenance, but at the same time we are supposed to believe God will supply all our needs. So our work is to be as to onto the Lord.

Col 3:22-25

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

NIV

Transpose slaves and masters to employees and employers and we have this truth in our modern era to live by. We must work, but our work is not for men, but for God. Everything we do should be about God, not about men, not about winning their praise, but winning the praise of God. Our whole life is about our relationship with God. We should not every forget his promises and always be about singing his praise. He has already done so much for us, and he continues to do even more, and will do immensely more in the days to come. Just as Moses stood in the gap and kept God from destroying the children of Israel, we have Jesus standing in the gap. Jesus stands before the Father interceding for us all the time. Though we try to be good, and remember all the time, we fail from time to time. We get distracted by life, we mess up and fall prey to some temptation, and we are not perfect as we now stand. So Jesus stands for us, stands up for us, intercedes on our behalf, and God the Father relents and we are not destroyed because of our failures. God remembers that Jesus took our sin and now we have been saved, and we will continue to be saved and kept by God, unless we completely turn our back on him and walk away. That is not going to happen, we will continue to believe, all the days of our life. We will not forget.