JULY 8 READINGS...Psalm 98-100 & 102 & 104
I sure hope you have both enjoyed and been blessed in reading these wonderful Psalms for the last several days. What a blessing for me to read these ancient brothers express their praise to God…it makes me want to join right in. One of the things I have done on a couple of our trips to Israel is when we arrive at a place called En Gedi, (the place where David cut the hem of Saul’s garment, and a place he references in his psalm, it is an oasis in the desert around the Dead Sea), is to write their own psalm to the Lord. In our reading today, I would like to make Psalm 104:1-2 my focal passage… “Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty. You are dressed in a robe of light.” What a glorious King we have in the Lord! Who is this King of Glory? And we get to sing a new song to Him for the things He has done.
The Psalmist tells over and over again just who the King of Glory is. He sits on His throne among the cherubim…He sits in majesty on the earth also. He is a might King, who loves justice and always acts righteously. He is a God of forgiveness…and He is holy. The Lord, He is God…our Creator…who is always good…and is faithful to all generations. He is the eternal King who will forever sit on His throne…He is immutable, eternal, and forever robed in honor and majesty. He is the One who set the foundation of the earth…and everything in creation answers to Him. He set the moon in the heavens to mark the seasons on the earth…He has set the creative order, and has establish how they all function in His perfectly designed universe. He has made a variety of wonderful things in creation…and it is by His wisdom they each exist as He created them. What a wonderful King of Glory we have as His people. All that He has done proves who He is…though He has no need to prove Himself to anyone. For He is who He is, whether anyone recognizes this or not… but it is the fool who would deny the King of Glory.
Because of who He is, and all that He has done we are moved to sing a new song unto the Lord. For us He has won the victory…and we are more than conquerors in Him. He never forgets us, nor does He neglect His promises to us…He is the “Promise Keeper”! We can rest in the fact that He is a just God, and His judgments are always based on truth and His unfailing love toward us. We can rest in the truth that He will always hear and answer our prayers. In Him we have security…and in His presence we will thrive. It is because of Him we get to be everything we were created to be. In the Lord no one comes up short. We can rest in Him, knowing that He will accomplish His perfect purpose in our lives…and His perfect purpose is always the very best thing for us. He not only makes our lives better…He is our life, and how could we do any better than that?
Please share your thoughts from today’s readings. Maybe you would like to sit down and write a psalm to the Lord…if you do, please share it. You don’t have to sound like David or someone else…just express your heart to you loving God.
TOMORROW’S READINGS…Psalm 105-106