Broken Chains: Psalm 102

 

Broken Chains: Psalm 102

 

 

"Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
So that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
That He looked down from His holy height;
From heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
To hear the groans of the prisoners,
To set free those doomed to die,
That they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,
And in Jerusalem His praise,
When peoples gather together,
And kingdoms, to worship the Lord.."
~Psalm 102:18-22

Christmas is one of the few times a year when people actually think about Jesus, more specifically in the context of His birth. Very few venture to think farther about what is was that Jesus actually came to do here on earth.

His birth was miraculous.

The very thought that the perfect Son of God humbled himself to be conformed to the likeness of his own creation is mind numbing.

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Philippians 2:5-8

Ensnared by our own fleshly desires and spiritual rebellion, we, His creation, are prisoners, in the truest sense of the word. We have tied our own knots and bound our own chains in defiance before God; wretched before His sight, yet delighting in that sin because we know nothing else.

That is, until God sent His Son.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light:
Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.....
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given;
And the government shall be upon his shoulders,
And his name shall be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." ~Isaiah 9:2, 6

Emmanuel. Literally, in the Hebrew it means, "God with Us."

  God looked down upon His earth, upon His rebellious children, and....had grace upon them, upon us. He extended His mercy towards us and sent His Son. Through His sacrifice, the prisoners will be freed.

"But He was wounded for our transgression;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
And with His stripes we are healed.
We all like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
~Isaiah 53:5,6

"But if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’
And believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
You will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified,
And with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
~Romans 10:9,10

Through Christ Jesus, WE ARE FREE!!! No longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. Let this truth transform you.

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
 ~Romans 6:22,23

Perhaps the Holy Spirit is moving in your heart today, causing you to hate the life you are living and filling you with an intense desire for something more. That "more" is Christ Jesus.

That same Jesus who was born to a virgin, born in a stable, also is the one who bore your sin, my sin, all the sins of those who would come to faith in Him on the cross.

Never lose sight of this truth. As Christmas passes and life continues on, don’t let this truth become distant in your mind and in your heart.

Christian, you are called, kept and loved by your Savior. You are no longer a prisoner, like is says in Psalm 102. God had grace and mercy on you. Live a life that reflects that.

In this new year, remember who your King is. Remember who your Savior is.

With that awareness, it is a very merry Christmas, indeed.

Learning What to Pray For though Psalm 86:8-17

     God has impressed upon me the content of Psalm 86 through recent bible studies and sermons. I see the almighty attributes of God proclaimed in every sermon, while the prayer for wisdom sits at the heart of a Bible study on proverbs. Moreover, without the guidance of the scripture, my prayers mainly contain earthly requests: Lord, please heal this person, help me pass that test, etc. It is not wrong or improper to lay up these requests, yet the prayers in the Bible have a strikingly different overall focus. Specifically in Psalm 86, David praises and gives glory to God throughout by making predominantly spiritual requests. These prayers that David offers up are so pervasive and recurring throughout the Bible that Psalm 86 can probably be considered a model prayer. The scope does not quite cover that of the Lord’s Prayer, but I find Psalm 86 very helpful when coming before God in times of need and daily meditation.

 8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;

Nor are there any works like Your works.

9 All nations whom You have made

Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
    10 And shall glorify Your name.

For You are great, and do wondrous things;

You alone are God.

    David launches into pure adoration of God without any petitions. We often give God praise for the things He has done for us, but is God only great because of His mercy shown to us individually? On the contrary, David proclaims that God is great in His very being and goes on to praise God for revealing His power through mighty works and establishing a sure kingdom.

1)   God is alone in His omnipotence; there is no one that compares to Him.

2)   God’s works are great and wondrous, and He alone does great things.

3)   All nations will bow before Him, for He has made them. We can also see with absolute confidence that God will expand His kingdom.

We can often praise God Himself without acknowledging His works and vice versa. These three verses taught me to praise God for simply being God and to then acknowledge His works and kingdom.

11 Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

   David here asks God for spiritual wisdom. Three important aspects of wisdom are prayed for; wisdom is only from God, results in a lifestyle after God, and originates from the fear of the Lord.

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to

you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

Ephesians 1:17

18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,

That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know what makes them stumble.

Proverbs 4:18-19

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

The understanding of God’s truths, which leads to obedience throughout life and the fear of Him, is the wisdom given by God. This longing for wisdom is an excellent God-centered prayer since our obedience brings glory to God. I pray that God will help me obey Him more faithfully every day, and this Psalm reminds me that wisdom/obedience is only from God and not from my own strength.

12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,

And I will glorify Your name forevermore.

13 For great is Your mercy toward me,

And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

   Again we see the recurring pattern of praising God and praying with faith and boldness. Right after praying for spiritual wisdom, David praises God recognizing that God has already graced him with a measure of spiritual wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,” (Proverbs 14:27) David recognizes that he has already obtained wisdom and salvation from God. Without wisdom, which gives a new understanding and direction in life, we do not inherit salvation. Thus all of us who have obtained salvation through Christ have the same prerogative to praise God, for we must always strive to acknowledge and thank God for what He has already done.

14 O God, the proud have risen against me,

And a mob of violent men have sought my life,

And have not set You before them.

15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,

Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

   Sometimes our shortsighted minds discover what to be thankful for with difficulty. In such times, it is often helpful to compare things relative to each other, and David composes the most extreme comparison possible, comparing evil men to God. David’s enemies were proud, violent, and most importantly, ungodly. God on the other hand is reiterated to be full of compassion and abundant in truth, attributes that David himself testifies from experience.

I have learned to implement comparison in order to gain proper perspective of my life through prayer. In my personal prayers, I try to compare what I know of God, to myself, opponents of God, and worldly goals. Can I claim that I have been longsuffering toward other people as God has been to me? Do the enemies of God appear to be abundant in mercy and truth? Can the benefits of worldly gain compare to an eternity in heaven? Any Christian should know the answer to these questions, but without God’s help through prayer, we often forget the majesty of God and the consequences of sin.  

16 Oh turn to me, and have mercy on me!

Give Your strength to Your servant,

And save the son of Your maidservant.

17 Show me a sign for good,

That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,

Because You, Lord, have helped me and comfort me.

The comparison indeed seems to have cleared David’s mind. After meditating on God’s goodness, David again cries out for mercy. After recognizing that his own enemies are also against God, David asks God to make them ashamed.

Psalm 86 is a powerful prayer, since it rests in and focuses on the omnipotent God. Many of the requests and praises of David have become an integral part of my own private prayers, and I hope God continues to edify my prayer life through the examples given in the Bible.

Psalm 41 Part 1: A Heart Full of Mercy

¹Blessed is he who considers the poor;

The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.

As sinful human beings, we naturally gravitate towards a selfish mindset. It is a part of our nature. We care about ourselves, our family, our friends, and perhaps our church. But how often do we care for the poor? Most of us would look at a homeless man on the street and decide that he must have done something wrong to be in the situation. He has to be lazy or taking drugs, or maybe he does not mind homelessness. We can come up with a million reasons and then turn away, never looking back.

And maybe we are right. Maybe he “deserves” to be in that situation. But then, what if God thought like that? What if He said, “She does not want to be saved. She sinned. She deserves to be in that situation.” If God thought as we often do, then none of us would be saved.

Now, I am not saying that we should run around, handing out money to every poor person we see. Considering the poor does not always have to do with money, or food, or a house. It is about sharing the gospel to the person or suggesting a church for the person to go to for help. It is about caring, and it’s about love.

And when considering a “poor” person, don’t limit yourself to those who don’t have a lot of money. Life isn’t about money. Those who are poor include anyone who is not yet saved, and even those who are saved and who are struggling. This world is full of sinful, struggling people. We are all sinful, struggling people. God loved us. How much more should we love others?

² The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,

And he will be blessed on the earth;
You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
³ The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will sustain him on his sickbed.

God will protect us when we reach out to poor. Yes, we should be careful. And yes, we shouldn’t just randomly go out into the streets of Detroit and start evangelizing, but that doesn’t mean we should be scared. There are safety precautions, but in the end, God is with us. If you feel like God is calling you to speak to a person, even if he doesn’t look like the safest person in the world, what are you to fear? This is God we are talking about. He can fill in valleys and flatten mountains. We have no excuse. We should not be afraid.

⁴ I said, “Lord, be merciful to me;

Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
⁵ My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ And if he comes to see me, he speaks lies;
His heart gathers iniquity to itself;
When he goes out, he tells it.

I am not perfect. You are not perfect, and God does not expect us to be perfect. In this portion of the Psalm, David is crying out to the Lord for forgiveness. We have sinned against Him, and that is something that should be remembered when going out into the streets, proclaiming His word, when being a loving friend to a Christian who is struggling, when choosing to spend time in Bible studies instead of hanging out at the mall. We can never truly be fruitful without God first blessing us, and we will never be really asking if our focus is on ourselves. If we think of ourselves to be better than others, who will listen?

Enemies rise up against the faithful Christian, but God does not and will not abandon. He will always be there for His child, protecting him from those who rise up all around, trying to make us trip up. Trying to hurt us and tear us away from the Lord. This is a great blessing and a great encouragement. If the Lord is on our side, who can go against us?

A God Who is Mighty in Wisdom and Power: An Exposition of Psalm 104:24-30

     I have always loved nature, when I was a small child I would cry because the wild deer would run away from me. The fact that they did not understand I meant them no harm and merely wanted to be their friend was a constant anguish to my young heart. However, though I loved nature, I rarely thought about from whence it came or how it came about; it was simply always there.  

     This psalm has been my favorite for as long as I can remember, I loved it even before I could read it for myself. Though I used to love it purely because of the Leviathan and the Rock Badger. As I grew a little older and I was able to read and understand for myself, I began to see this psalm in a new light. I began to think about from where this wonderful nature came and how mighty and powerful God was to bestow such a wonderfully glorious world on little old me.

     I still love nature, but now it affects me in a very different way. The sight of a purple tulip in spring will still bring a smile to my lips, but it also reminds me of how wise God is in all the intricacies of creation, and how short I fall in all my attempts to understand all His powerful works.

24 How many are your works, Lord!
    

In wisdom you made them all;
    

the earth is full of your creatures.  

In the previous verses, the Psalmist praises God for the individual wonders He had made. Throughout verses 10 through 23 he paints a gorgeous picture of nature, with all her little facets. These characteristics display the caring nature of God as He accounts for and takes care of every aspect of His creation. Verse 24 comes, almost as a doxology, after this eloquent ode to God’s creative and sustaining powers as if the psalmist is unable to contain himself and must burst out in awe and amazement of God. After thirteen verses of systematically unfolding all the ways in which God upholds creation, the psalmist summarizes his entire thesis in one small verse.

How many are your works, Lord! The psalmist is stumped; at this moment he has nothing left to say. He realizes that if he tries to catalogue all the ways in which God works he would still be at it today! The only thing left for him to do is cry out in wonder at the majesty of God. 

In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. This declaration is another statement testifying to the greatness of this mind-blowing creation in which the psalmist finds himself. Not only are God’s works numerous but they are also made in God’s wisdom. We live in the midst of a creation that was created with the divine and perfect wisdom of an all-powerful God. In this verse, creatures do not merely mean the wild panda bears, or the cuddly kitten that is curled up at your feet but, we humans, are included in this list of God’s creatures. Not only are we one of His creations but we are also made in His image and bear His characteristics. We are able to reason and cultivate wisdom, unlike the dumb horse, we are able to commune with fellow humans in a small imitation of the way God communes with Himself, we are able to receive the Sprit of God which brings us not only physical animation, but an immortal soul which is able to one day enter into the presence of the everlasting Creator.         

25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
  

teeming with creatures beyond number—
    

living things both large and small.  

26 There the ships go to and fro,
    

and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. 

In these verses, the psalmist has once again found his voice and continues to survey the ways in which God has worked in the world. In the previous verse the psalmist states that the earth was full of God’s creatures, here he states that the sea also teems with those He has made. In case the hearer or reader of this psalm missed the psalmist’s point that the whole of the world, earth, sea and sky, were positively filled to the brim with declarations of the existence of God, he lays it out plain and simple. By going from one area, the earth, and then to another, the sea, the psalmist explains the all-encompassing creation in such a way that lets even little children in on what he has experienced.

This psalmist is a master at painting huge pictures that then narrow down to focus on a single image which represents the whole. A ship, a rather common image, is seen traveling on these waters which he has just described as crawling with creatures and is representative of the entire human race. In just one half of a sentence, the psalmist includes humanity in this picture of God’s handiwork, and in the other half of the sentence the entire sea is symbolized in the single image of the leviathan.

27 All creatures look to you
    

to give them their food at the proper time. 

28 When you give it to them,
    

they gather it up;


when you open your hand,
    

they are satisfied with good things. 

The theme of food is rampant throughout this psalm. Earlier, in verses 14-15 and verse 21, the creatures of God are provided with food from the earth, cultivated by the very hand of God Himself. And again in these verses he states the all creatures, not just dumb beasts or man, are satisfied unto satiety with good things by the hand of God. The psalmist brings the common act of eating to our attention and reminds us that without the hand of God opening and providing us with our daily bread, we would never be supplied with our needs. Not only is the psalmist reminding us of our total dependence on God for our every need, he is also reminding us of what God has done in the past.

For an Israelite, the thought of gathering up food provided directly from the hand of God would not be so nebulous an idea. In the desert wilderness where the sons of Adam wandered for forty years, the people gathered to their satisfaction “manna,” the food of heaven, which appeared on the ground every morning. Every small Israelite child would know this story and about how God had provided for his forefathers.

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:2-4

29 When you hide your face, 
    

they are terrified;


when you take away their breath,
   

they die and return to the dust.  

30 When you send your Spirit, 
    

they are created,
    

and you renew the face of the ground.

     These two verses serve as an antithesis to the two verses that come before. In verse 27 all creatures turn their faces to God in humble dependence on Him for food and in verse 29, when God hides His face from them, they are utterly terrified, terror-stricken, and convulsed. Even the humble beast without a soul or an understanding of God’s plan of redemption is left in a state of total despair and inner chaos when the face of its Creator is hidden from him. How much greater is the inner anguish found in the soul of one who has blatantly rejected the hand of grace?

When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.  

Verse 29b continues to carry the antithetical parallel to verse 28. The hand of God abundantly gives food which sustains, but that very same hand can take away the breath of life. This seems unfair. Why does God provide food in abundance for some and hardly enough to sustain life for others? Only one sentence is needed to answer this question: because God is holy and merciful. God’s holiness means that the instant sin entered the world creation was condemned to die. For God to be holy means that nothing unholy can be tolerated in His presence. The whole wild and beautiful earth that is God’s creation was turned in an instant from a blooming paradise into an inferno filled with writhing sin. In light of this, the proper questions to ask are not, “why doesn’t God bless everything equally?” but rather “why does God bless anything at all?” Why are we sitting here writing articles and in turn reading them? Why are we privileged to have a life sustaining sun? Why are we alive and breathing at all? This is due completely to His mercy.

     When the blackness entered the wonderful creation and turned paradise into a breeding ground for festering wounds, God could have easily, beyond easily, turned right around and let fall His sustaining hand. But He didn’t; He had a plan from the beginning of eternity to save mankind, and in doing so, He brought Himself glory. Why did He do this? Why did He decide to save a withering creation at the cost of His Son? There is no answer for that besides His mercy, His compassion towards those He calls His own, and His forgiveness for those who call Him God. Never again can you dare to call God “unfair,” the very fact that we are alive means that God is “unfair.”

     When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

     In God’s goodness He didn’t just leave the earth as it was, to spiral downwards into oblivion. Not only did He decide to continue to sustain the earth, but He decided to renew it. He didn’t merely let the former die and be done with it all, but He also sends His very Spirit to bring renewal again to the earth. Through the Spirit that is sent from His hands the old passes away and a new generation covers the earth. Not only is the psalmist presenting a fundamental characteristic of God in this verse, that He is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (Exodus 34:6) but he is also harkening back to a renewal God had performed in the past. He is reminding us of the story of the destruction of the earth and the renewal of the covenant of grace through Noah.

     For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. Genesis 6:17-18   

     Again and again the psalmist brings the reader or hearers attention to the seemingly ignored things of life. The beauty of the leviathan playing in the seas, the magnificence of the unshakable earth, the tall trees that provide food for one and shelter for another, the life which comes from the hand of God, and finally, how mighty and wise is the Creator of all.

When Reading, Singing, or Praying this psalm:

• Acknowledge that God is Holy, Wise and Powerful.
• Realize that the mighty God who is full of power is also a loving God full of mercy.
• Understand that your life here on earth is a gift and not to be taken for granted.
• Comprehend that this perfect God is willing to save reeking sinners.
• Pay attention to the small things in life. Don’t rush by a perfect sunset en route to “more important things.” Stop and realize the blessing the sun is in our lives. 

Ask yourself:

• Do I see the Creator through creation, or do I merely acknowledge His works?
• Death is the only sure thing in life; how can I remember that God knows even when the smallest sparrow falls?
• Though the world is full of people, how can I accept that each life is a miracle?
• Do I resent that only God can sustain my life?
• How can I bring renewal to those around me by sharing the gospel?
• How can I study God’s word to better understand Him?

Psalm 84 and Me

Howdy! My name is Abigail Parnell. To start I thought I would tell you a little bit of my history with the Psalms.

My History with the Psalms

 I am a daughter of a pastor in the Reformed Presbyterian Church which means I have grown up singing the Psalms. This has been a great blessing but it has definitely had its challenges. It has made me very comfortable with the Psalms; I am very familiar with them, and I have learned many Psalms by heart because of my upbringing. In fact, I never really thought about how different and strange this was to other people. I definitely was too comfortable. I was singing Psalms because that was what my Church did. I had never really thought about it personally; I didn’t appreciate them or hear God’s voice in them.

I was rudely awakened when I attended an amazing/awesome theological program for youth. While I was there I met many Christians with many different levels of understanding and maturity. Many young believers who were there hadn't sung the Psalms all their lives and weren’t comfortable with them. They were questioning the basis for something that I had accepted all my life as normal. This came as a bit of a shock to me. I almost felt like I had missed something.

Now I am not saying I regret growing up with the Psalms! However, I definitely needed to understand why I sang the Psalms. It needed to become my own conviction to sing the Psalms. While I know that I can't simply accept something because it's comfortable, I also am reminded of the verse in second Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:14-15

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”

My life is summed up in Psalm 84

In a similar way, I have been going to church for all my life. I can become comfortable so easily. church was another one of those things I just did. It was more of a social gathering for my own pleasure. I was blind to the rich blessing set before me EVERY week. But God was good. He showed me my ignorance. He didn’t take away the gift, but He showed me its beauty. He took me out of my comfort zone.

As I said, church was a social thing. In fact, church was my social group. I didn’t really know anybody outside of my Church community. So God gave me something to compare his gift to. He placed me in a three year program at a Vo-tech school where I was surrounded by people who acted and spoke in way that showed that they didn’t care about God. 

Enter Psalm 84….

Verse 1-2: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

  

Being surrounded by that selfish attitude I came to recognize my own selfishness. At the same time God caused to grow in me a longing for Him, His house, and His people. Being in the world drove me to my God.

Verses 3-5: Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

The world without God is a dry and dessert place. In contrast God offers a sweet dwelling place in Him! God strengthened me even in that place of spiritual barrenness where He had placed me. This was because HE was with me. God was my shield, my Sun. He is becoming more and more my joy.

Verses 6-9: As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!

It is nothing short of a miracle when you stop and think about it. God changed my heart, using the world! He changed my heart and made it my soul’s delight to be in His presence!

Verses 10-11: For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.  For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

And now the last verse perfectly states the song of my soul!

Verse 12:  O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Just a Few Thoughts.....

 

    

                                                         Just a Few Thoughts.....

     It ceases to amaze me how you can read the same passage in scripture over and over again throughout your life and come away with a new understanding or deeper appreciation each time. It really just goes to show how the Word of God really is like a boundless treasure trove, and that we can never reach the bottom of the wisdom and truth found there.

Psalm 62 is one of those treasure troves to me. I was going through one of my old devotional journals a few days ago. Amid the prayer request lists, memory verse lists, and many other lists that happen to spring up during my devotional hour, I came across something that I had written about Psalm 62. It was labeled under the heading Ways I Can Fix my Heart on the Lord in times of Trouble. I would like to share some of the ways that I have applied to my life through the reading of this particular psalm.

   1. Pray. Seek solace and direction before God. (Vs. 1. “God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.” Also, vs. 8. “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”)

    2. Remember the works of the Lord and His promises to His people. Recount them in my prayers. Turning my thoughts towards the promises of God will give me  strength and courage, as He not only is a God of truth, He is also unchanging. ( Again, vs. 8 “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out our heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”)

    3. Encourage other brothers and sisters in the faith and help them fix their eyes on Christ by speaking and acting according to how the Lord commands us to follow Him. Focusing on building others up takes my eyes off of myself and helps to strive after the Lord in holiness, instead of wallowing in selfishness and self-pity.  ( Vs. 3 + 6: “How long will you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? He [God] only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”)

  4. Turn away from the world and surround myself with godly people who will encourage and pour out their wisdom and experience upon me, especially older, wiser brothers and sisters in the faith. ( Vs. 11+12: “Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For You will render to a man according to his work.”)

   I thank the Lord for the work He has done in my life. He never gives up on me and is continually teaching me new things from His word, even if I’ve read it multiple times before.

                        What has has the Lord reminded you of or taught you lately?

Psalm 86:1-7 "Learning How to Pray through Psalm 86"

Through the Psalms, God has recently been teaching me how to pray according to His will and not my own. When praying according to my own will, I always focus on my own concerns and pursuits through my own perspective of the world, namely that of a weak human being. However, the Bible, as the revealed will of God, provides both the concerns and pursuits we are to have as His servants, and also the manner in which we are to petition God.

Psalm 86 is a personal prayer of David, the type of prayer that he probably prayed all the time. Yet even David’s personal prayer exhibits an utter lack of worldly or trivial requests, and in the first seven verses of Psalm 86, David prays for mercy on his soul with a spirit of humility and dependence on God. What strikes me most about David’s prayer is that he prays humbly yet boldly, dependently yet with confidence that God will answer.

1 Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.

David does not appear to be thinking of any particular persecution while writing these first few verses. Instead, David is crying out for God to be merciful on his poor and needy soul, and we must always come before God humbly recognizing the sad condition of our souls without the Lord’s grace. The imagery evoked is that of God stooping down to us, and other Psalms such as Psalm 104 and 139 expound the greatness of God through His creative works and omniscience. The thought of coming before such a great God sometimes fills me with misgiving, but the next verse demonstrates that we do not pray in vain.

2 Preserve my life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!

Psalm 86 is a prayer with hope, for David immediately turns to God for salvation after admitting his helplessness. We receive Christ’s righteousness through believing, trusting, and embracing Christ as our God, and through Christ we pursue and receive preservation unto eternal life. This verse reminds me that all of my prayers are based on my salvation in Christ, and thus all of my prayers are to be poor and needy and with hope. “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:18

3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long.

We should pray with perseverance. How often do you cry out to God for mercy? Once a week? Never? David felt the need to plead mercy “all day long”. Our prayers for mercy concerning our souls should be so persistent, that we can say to God, “Lord, I am grieved by my sin and lack of spiritual growth. I think on and pray about my soul constantly. You are the only one able to answer my prayer, so I will call upon you all day long.”

4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

David asks for mercy, and then praises God for being abundantly merciful to His people. He asks for forgiveness, and then extols God’s goodness and readiness to forgive. We do not pray to a harsh and unforgiving God but to an abundantly merciful and good God. Our prayers can thus be made in faith, and I have experienced, as David certainly had, that God is truly good to His prayerful servants.

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
And attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,
For You will answer me.

Praying confidently means that we can know that God will answer our prayers. If this prayer was anywhere else but in the Bible, we would say the prayer to be presumptuous. Yet Jesus commands us to pray in the same way.

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

John 14:12-14

We can learn from the first seven verses of Psalm 86 that God will not ignore our humble cries for forgiveness and mercy on our souls since He cannot deny Himself. Psalm 86 clearly shows that the state of our souls, and thus our ability to glorify God on earth, is a request made in Christ’s name. David understood that he was praying God’s will which allowed him to pray in a humble yet confident manner, a manner of prayer we all should strive to achieve. 

Resource: Ryle, J.C. Practical Religion 

A Beautiful Inheritance

Recently I had the wonderful experience of attending the Reformed Presbyterian International Conference. I suspect that many of the people reading this will have attended as well, but if you don’t know what I am talking about, take a look here. Several times during the conference we had the opportunity to worship God in a corporate setting, and it was during one of those worship services that I realized what we were doing was really beautiful. At a point in one of the worship services I was overcome by a sense of tremendous joy, that at first I could not explain. Why was this so wonderful? And then we sang Psalm 16.

Psalm 16 explores the blessings of being part of the people of God by explaining the two-part inheritance God gives to his saints. In the first part of the psalm, David (the author)  focuses on the many benefits of living on earth as a child of God, before ending by explaining his hope for eternity.

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the LORD, ‘’You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.” (Ps. 16:1-2)

The beginning of David’s Mikhtam (Psalm 16's title) is a cry to God for refuge. However, it is not a cry of despair, but rather of great hope, as seen in the rest of the psalm. Acknowledging he has no good apart from the Lord, David begins to outline what he calls his “beautiful inheritance” (v. 6). He opens with a discussion of two kinds of people.

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

or take their names on my lips. (vv. 3-4)

There are two camps here. There are those who worship other gods, and those who worship the true God. David makes a clear distinction between the two, saying that excellence is only to be found in those who have been set apart to serve the Lord. On the other hand, he refuses to even speak of idolaters.

Do we think this way? Do we make our closest friends those whom Christ has redeemed? In whom do we find delight? One of the most magnificent parts of the inheritance that we have as believers is being put into a Church. If redeemed by Christ, we are made members of his body, and in that context we have a group of unique individuals, all with different gifts to contribute, all working toward the same end goal.

I think again of the RP International Conference. Here was a group of 2000+ people from all different backgrounds. One might assume that when stuck in the same place for a week these people might have trouble getting along. But I was actually amazed at how well everyone meshed. It was evident that Christ was the uniting factor.

So fellowship with the saints is part of the our earthly inheritance, but David doesn’t stop there.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure. (vv. 5-9)

Among the blessings mentioned here are security, counsel, instruction, beauty, leadership, foundation, and joy. If no good is to be found outside of God then all good is the Lord’s to give! While the world promises things that will be pleasurable for a short while, real gladness, wisdom, and pleasure come from God alone. God makes this point in Jeremiah by using a metaphor: “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13) All good comes from God. Apart from him are only cheap imitations that can “hold no water”.

Again I ask, do we think this way? Have we set the Lord ever before us? Do we view wisdom, pleasure, and safety as gifts from God? If we do it should fill us with gladness. David says, “Therefore… my whole being rejoices.”

After singing verse 9 I was beginning to realize why worship with all those believers was so amazing. We are a blessed people! But then we sang the rest…

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalms 16:10-11)

At the end of the psalm, David gives the second part of our beautiful inheritance. Not only does God give us good things while we live on earth, but he extends our inheritance into eternity! You see, for the believer, death is not the end of the story. If we are God’s children we have great hope, and that hope is outlined in verse 10. Not only is the psalm speaking of our eternal life, it is speaking of Christ’s resurrection! Romans 6:5 gives us that wonderful truth, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Because Jesus was not abandoned to Sheol (the grave, or Hell), neither will we be!

The reason I found worship with a large group of believers so wonderful was that we were corporately praising the God who has given and is giving us good things on this earth and who has promised to provide for us forever! There we were as his saints, thanking him for what he has done across the globe. And to think; we get to spend eternity doing just that!

Psalm 16 tells us that if God is our refuge we have a beautiful inheritance that we receive both in this life and eternally. It is a wonderful psalm to sing when thankful, or to express our dependence on God. It is all the more joyful when sung with a group of close friends who have all been redeemed by Christ. What a beautiful inheritance God has given us!