Psalm - Psalm 4

Psalm 4:8I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Peace: completeness, soundness, welfare
Alone: solitary
Dwell: make to abide, to remain
Safety: without care, confidence, hope, safely secure

As I read Psalm 4 there are many good truths. However, I continued going back to verse 8. Particularly, the words, "You alone". 

So many times people "give up" on Christianity, because they look at people. They look at what people have or have not done. They try to justify giving up on God, because of people - all who are sinners! Some of those sinners are saved by grace, but no the less sinners. 

We look at the World and wonder where God is. Why is He allowing such terrible things to take place. The reason, He gave us free will to choose or not to choose Him. The more people abandon God the more unchecked sin goes. Then we have "every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8).

This is not the time to abandon God. Rather we need to look to Him ALONE. For God is the One who sets the standard and He is the one we desperately need. 

Psalm 4:8 - You Alone, O Lord! 

Thanks Living: You can hear me, now! (repost)

Thanks Living: Remembering. 

I've been reading some of my old posts. So thankful that God knows me and what is a happening in my life. The topic of this post is just as true as it was in 2013, and will remain true forever. God never changes! 

You can hear me, now!

This year (2013), I'm sharing my "Treasures" of my study of my "Ponder the Morsels" book. I've picked 31 Psalms to study throughout 2013. Today (April 5, 2013) I studied Psalm 29. Here is what I learned.

The voice of the Lord rolls over the water. The God of glory thunders. The Lord shouts over raging water. Psalm 29:3 (GW)

The Lord’s voice [thunder] is heard over the ·sea [waters; a symbol of chaos]. The glorious God thunders; the Lord thunders over the ·ocean [many/mighty waters]. Psalm 29:3 (EXB)

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters." The thunder is not only poetically but instructively called "the voice of God," since it peals from on high; it surpasses all other sounds, it inspires awe, it is entirely independent of man, and has been used on some occasions as the grand accompaniment of God's speech to Adam's sons. There is peculiar terror in a tempest at sea, when deep calleth unto deep, and the raging sea echoes to the angry sky. No sight more alarming than the flash of lightning around the mast of the ship; and no sound more calculated to inspire a reverent awe than the roar of the storm. 

"The Lord is upon many waters." Still the Psalmist's ear hears no voice but that of Jehovah, resounding from the multitudinous and dark waters of the upper ocean of clouds, and echoing from the innumerable billows of the storm-tossed sea below. The waters above and beneath the firmament are astonished at the eternal voice. When the holy Spirit makes the divine promise to be heard above the many waters of our soul's trouble, then is God as glorious in the spiritual world as in the universe of matter. Above us and beneath us all is the peace of God when he gives us quiet. The Treasury of David

Chaos. Noise. Confusion. Anarchy. Pandemonium. Tumult. Turmoil. 

It’s amazing how chaos can rob me of the peace that God has given me. My chaos can be caused by focusing on the “what ifs”, or focusing me how I’ll fix things, instead of trusting God to take care of things. Man-made chaos creates noise, confusion, restlessness, and disharmony. The longer I remain in a state of chaos, the more overwhelmed and depressed I become. 

Thankfully, God’s love and peace is “louder” than any noise my chaos can produce. God “thunders” through my created mess, and assures me of His presence, and that He hasn’t gone anywhere, and had no plans to leave me or abandon me. 

“Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” Hebrews 13:5 (MSG)

No matter how loud the noise of my chaos is around me, I know I’ll have a positive day, when I hear, “You can hear me, now!” spoken by my Almighty, loving God.

Proverbs 3:3, 4: Do Not Abandon—In Plain View

Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Proverbs 3:3, 4

Mercy: kindness (especially as extended to the lowly, needy and miserable)

Truth: faithfulness, reliableness

Forsake: leave, abandon

Bind: conspire, join together

tablet of your heart: tablet of the memory

Find: attain to thing sought

Favor: acceptance

High esteem: insight, understanding

Sight: in the view, opinion of

God: Yahweh is God in truth

Man: mankind

Forget. Abandon. Leave. Forsake. We all forget things. Many of us have gone to the grocery store for a particular item, and leave with a grocery cart full of stuff, only to get home and realize that we forgot that one item we wanted. 

How do we NOT forget, we write it down. Shopping lists, right? 

God knows that we will forget His mercy and truth, therefore He tells us... bind it, conspire then around your neck, like a necklace, write them on your memory. Keep them handy at ALL times. 

Why to we need to keep mercy and truth handy? So that our lives would be first and foremost acceptable to God, and then fellow man can see God through us. 

Each morning when we get dressed, we need to make sure we bind, put on mercy and truth. We need to make sure that we have written God's truth and mercy upon our hearts so that they are in plain view of everyone who sees us. 

What do people see when they look at me? Do they see God's mercy and truth? Or do they see a person who is self-centered, hateful, prideful...... the list continues. 

Even more importantly, than what do people see, what does God see? He not only sees my actions, but also the motive behind the actions. Am I living out His mercy and truth? Am I allowing His mercy and truth permeate my heart so that my motives and actions are in accordance with His will? 

In sight, in plain view—God and people will see. The question is WHAT are they seeing?  Only when my heart is permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God (Acts 9:31 MSG), will I want to know God's mercy and truth and display them for everyone to see. Do not abandon mercy and truth — for your life is in plain view!

You can hear me, now!

This year, I'm sharing my "Treasures" of my study of my "Ponder the Morsels" book. I've picked 31 Psalms to study throughout 2013. Today I studied Psalm 29. Here is what I learned.

The voice of the Lord rolls over the water. The God of glory thunders. The Lord shouts over raging water. Psalm 29:3 (GW)

The Lord’s voice [thunder] is heard over the ·sea [waters; a symbol of chaos]. The glorious God thunders; the Lord thunders over the ·ocean [many/mighty waters]. Psalm 29:3 (EXB)

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters." The thunder is not only poetically but instructively called "the voice of God," since it peals from on high; it surpasses all other sounds, it inspires awe, it is entirely independent of man, and has been used on some occasions as the grand accompaniment of God's speech to Adam's sons. There is peculiar terror in a tempest at sea, when deep calleth unto deep, and the raging sea echoes to the angry sky. No sight more alarming than the flash of lightning around the mast of the ship; and no sound more calculated to inspire a reverent awe than the roar of the storm. 

"The Lord is upon many waters." Still the Psalmist's ear hears no voice but that of Jehovah, resounding from the multitudinous and dark waters of the upper ocean of clouds, and echoing from the innumerable billows of the storm-tossed sea below. The waters above and beneath the firmament are astonished at the eternal voice. When the holy Spirit makes the divine promise to be heard above the many waters of our soul's trouble, then is God as glorious in the spiritual world as in the universe of matter. Above us and beneath us all is the peace of God when he gives us quiet. The Treasury of David

Chaos. Noise. Confusion. Anarchy. Pandemonium. Tumult. Turmoil. 

It’s amazing how chaos can rob me of the peace that God has given me. My chaos can be caused by focusing on the “what ifs”, or focusing me how I’ll fix things, instead of trusting God to take care of things. Man-made chaos creates noise, confusion, restlessness, and disharmony. The longer I remain in a state of chaos, the more overwhelmed and depressed I become. 

Thankfully, God’s love and peace is “louder” than any noise my chaos can produce. God “thunders” through my created mess, and assures me of His presence, and that He hasn’t gone anywhere, and had no plans to leave me or abandon me. 

“Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” Hebrews 13:5 (MSG)

No matter how loud the noise of my chaos is around me, I know I’ll have a positive day, when I hear, “You can hear me, now!” spoken by my Almighty, loving God.

Abandonment vs An Ever-Present God

This year, I'm sharing my "Treasures" of my study of my "Ponder the Morsels" book. I've picked 31 Psalms to study throughout 2013. Today I studied Psalm 138. Here is what I learned.

Lord, you ·do everything [fulfill/accomplish your plan] for me. Lord, your ·love [loyalty] continues forever. Do not ·leave [abandon; forsake] us, ·whom you made [L the work of your hands]. Psalm 138:8 (EXB)

Jehovah will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, endureth for ever; Forsake not the works of thine own hands. Psalm 138:8 (ASV)

Lord: of deity Yahweh.

Will perfect: complete, accomplish, in the sense of completion, come to an end.

That which concerneth: on behalf of, at by means of, for.

Lovingkindness: Beauty -- favor, good deed, mercy.

Forever: indefinite futurity, continuous existence, indefinite, unending future.

Forsake: to slacken, abate, cease, be slothful, idle, leave, let alone.

Not: nay, neither, never, no, nothing, nought.

Works: business, deed, do(-ing), labor, thing made, possession, accomplishments, achievements.

Of thine hands: indicating power, means, direction.

Forsaken. Abandoned. Left alone. Ever feel that way? I know that living with chronic pain can cause isolation. Can’t leave the apartment, because it hurts to much to move. No one stops by, because they are busy, or are embarrassed because they can’t make it better. Abandoned. 

Satan likes us to focus on “being abandoned”. When we think we are abandoned, that opens the door for Satan to turn our thoughts from God and what God is doing, to doubts, fears, and self-pity. 

But the truth is—God will not abandon His children. Because His lovingkindness is indefinite—an unending future. Plus, we are God’s business! He created us. He loves us. He provided a way of salvation for us. We are His children. He will not abandon us. We might walk away from Him and do our own thing, but God is waiting for us. He will not, no never, leave us. 

Abandonment vs An Ever-Present God.

Which will I chose? 

  

God is concerned in all that concerns his servants. He will see to it that none of their precious things shall fail of completion; their life, their strength, their hopes, their graces, their pilgrimage, shall each and all be perfected. The Treasury of David

I have a choice to make. I can allow Satan to fill my mind with a sense of abandonment, fears, doubts and self-pity, or I can claim God’s lovingkindness and rest assured that He has not and will not abandon me and rest in that truth.

To create a positive day, I must chose God’s lovingkindness knowing full-well that God is at work in my life and that He is EVER-PRESENT!