This week I have been focusing on verses about God being near to and binding up the broken hearted. In my rushing about, flinging my arms in every direction, activity centered life, that just spending honest quiet moments with God have been few and far between. How blessed I was this morning to read Beth’s post about drawing close to God, without using words. One of my go-to scriptures in times of anxiety has been Psalm 34 and it perfectly sets the table for the devotional from Beth today. I pray you will be blessed as you draw near. If you are not familiar with Beth Allison’s blog Lessons from a Lab, I would invite you to check it out for yourself. (And this song from Meredith Andrews is beautiful!
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit
Adi is a licker. So, I wasn’t alarmed when I noticed her licking her front leg. When she persisted in licking this area again the next morning, I took notice. I examined the skin- no bumps, redness, or swelling. I observed her gait and saw no limp. A bit perplexed I decided I would just […]
Then said Jesus, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!” And they parted His raiment and cast lots. Luke 23:34KJV
What if Jesus had died for us and yet not forgiven? What if He gave us Heaven but not His heart? What if angels were sent to dry our tears instead of Him or if when we sat at His banqueting table, that His chair was empty? What if we were restored and given an eternity of mansions of delight but never saw His face?
But the greatest prayer and the greatest legacy of Jesus Christ is that He looked at the soldier’s and the thieves, the self-righteous priests and the mocking crowd and prayed Father forgive! And every time we receive the bread and drink from the cup, we are reminded of what this cost Him until He comes again. He has given us a legacy greater than miracles, more powerful than the armies of Heaven and more precious than all the rest of God’s creation. We are forgiven and we are loved! We are received and welcomed and embraced and He has given us HIs own Spirit of adoption by which our hearts cry out to Him – “Abba Father!”
Jesus what a friend for sinners
Jesus lover of my soul
Friends may fail me foes assail me
He my Savior makes me whole
Hallelujah what a Savior
Hallelujah what a friend
Saving - Helping - Keeping - Loving
He is with me to the end!
Our Great Savior by William Chapman 1910
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The Humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. Psalm 34:1-3 KJV
We won’t have read far into the Bible before we realize that our Sunday School hero; that giant killing boy named David, grew to be a man with plenty of moral failures. Yet in spite of his sins, weaknesses and mistakes, God tells us that David was, “A man after my own heart” Acts 13:22. What makes David so special? We could point to His courage as He faced the giant, His humility in the way He obediently continued taking care of sheep even after He had been chosen to be king or even His musical ability. Yet there are other people in the Bible who also had these characteristics, but what makes David unique is his legacy of praise. Praise is a part of our prayer life equally as important as intercession and without it we will just drift along between problems, wondering what crisis we will need to intercede for next. But if we like David, we begin to praise God when we get victory in battle, then God will also teach us to worship when we are being hunted down by people like the jealous King Saul. (See Psalm 52 and 63). And just as David worships when the ark is brought into Jerusalem, we ought to be praising in church. But David also worships after the death of his child who Bathsheba bore as a result of their adultery, and we he leaves us His heart-rending cry for forgiveness and renewal in Psalm 51.
Our real, honest to goodness legacy of praise is not just “Hip-Hip Hooray, I am so blessed!” when we are nicely dressed and singing in church. We hear David praise the Lord “At all times” even when those all times are hard times. Even in those times when we fail most miserably, we can turn to God in humble repentance and praise Him for His wonderful and undeserved mercies. In Psalm 118:24 David tell us that, “This is the day that the Lord hath made.” That means every one of our days is made by God. Our good days and our bad – successes and failures – our greatest celebrations and our deepest moment of grief all belong to God. But if we praise God at all those times, moment by moment and day by day we become more like the person most like God’s own heart – His Son Jesus Christ. And as His praise remains continually in our mouths, we leave behind for others a true legacy of praise.
I love the Mullett family’s rendering of “Though You Slay Me” and it gives us just a peek into their story and how the God who has kept them through it all is worthy of all our worship, our trust and our praise. I pray you will be blessed as you listen, and that God will help you with whatever you are facing today. He is always worthy of our praise!
praise2worshipdotnet 
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