psalms

Worshipping our Maker and Shepherd

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Come let us now down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God and we are the flock under His care. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts… Psalm 95:6-8a NIV

First thing every morning I make my coffee, find my Bible and sit in the same chair to pray. But commendable as it is to be consistent, real worship isn’t about the position or our words. Worship begins instead only as we listen with softened hearts, ready to hear what God has to say.

He is our Creator. All we are and have came from Him. He never asks us to give anything that didn’t come from His hands.

He is our Shepherd. We belong to Him and He will never lead us anywhere that He will not go. Our Good Shepherd has committed Himself to His sheep and true worship is simply a reflection of His great love! So this morning without fear or second thoughts let’s give Him praise!

Meditations on Psalm 25 Part 2

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Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.  Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord! Psalm 25:6-7 ESV

Does it strike you strange that David asks God to remember mercy as if he were shaking God by the shoulder to wake Him, and remind Him of His love? But as if that wasn’t odd enough, consider David’s next request. “And by the way God while you are remembering mercy just please be sure to NOT remember my sins!” But before dismissing David’s seemingly impertinent request, remember that the Holy Spirit inspired his prayer. Here He is showing us the mystery of balancing God’s capacity to remember even the most intimate details about us with His choosing to forget our sin. Right now He is inviting you to ask Him both to remember and forget. What once was a mystery is now called the gospel of His steadfast love and mercy which He offers through the cross of Jesus to all who will dare to believe!

Meditations From Psalm 25

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To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Psalm 25:1-3 ESV

Last week on Kathy’s Hesaidwhatks Blog she talked about her own experience of waiting with her son Aaron. What got me to thinking of today’s post was her closing thoughts from Psalm 25 on waiting. So yesterday I was excited to look back from the beginning of the Psalm. This is the first of at least two parts on what I found.

“To you O Lord I lift up my soul” Tells us of the direction of David’s prayer. Too often when we are in trouble we turn in every direction except to God. That is not to say we are necessarily praying to another god but that in place of prayer we often turn to every available source before we turn to God. We call up our friends or family. We buy whatever is the latest book on the subject or we even look up remedies on the internet. None of these things is wrong in and of itself but why is it that we exhaust every other resource before we ask Jesus for His help?

The second idea that David tells is to fill God in on all the details. David does more than just ask for God to bless his day; his food and sleep. David starts right out with his problem. While we may not know the exact setting of this Psalm we know that real combat was part of David’s experience. I can picture him peering down to where the enemy troops are camped and asking for God’s help because he is about to charge down the hill into battle.  

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Last David shares with us the answer God gives him even before he takes a single step. “Indeed none who wait for you will be ashamed. David’s waiting for the Lord is akin to William Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill commanding “Don’t fire until you saw the whites of their eyes” He had learned that waiting on God meant deliverance from shame and that choosing not to wait is treachery.

What about you? What is God asking you to wait for and what battles do you need to begin asking Him to help you with. God is listening and waiting to listen for our cry. Why shouldn’t we learn to listen and to wait on Him?

For more from HesaidwhatKS here is the link