Month: March 2021

Psalm 104:5-9

God is not only our creator but the one who rules and keeps the world together also. Chance is not a probability of God’s imaginative power. Everything He made has purpose and pleasure.
We often forget that God holds the whole world in His hand and start and think we can operate it ourselves. Perhaps the world as it is right now ( with all the global warming effects of crazy farming and consumption) because we have taken the harness of regulating it our way.
Still, God sets a boundary not just for the waters of the ocean and the sea, not just for the nature activities, but for the evil also.
The Israelites are not touched by death that overcame the Egyptians because the boundary is set by the blood of the lamb. ( Exodus 12:13)
Job’s life is saved because God limits the power of the devil. ( Job 2:6)
Apostle Paul and his companions are not drowned by the worse storm because God preserved their lives ( Acts 27)
The world may seem to be unravelling and heading for distraction, your life may feel that way too, but together let us not fear dear friend because God providential control and care for us are sufficient.

( See Isaiah 41:10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Peter 2:9)

Psalm 104:1-4

This psalm parades the creative power of God as the maker of all we see and not see. Dressed in sunshine, His clothing reflecting the work of His hands, God unmistakably rules wrapped in light.
It seems that the melody of Genesis 1 has awakened the mind of the writer and reader to catch a glimpse of the majesty of God.
The sun we see and are warmed up by is but a small star in the galaxy.
Billions of lighting stars and suns that our eyes can’t see nor fathom are the accessories of His garment. Not only that God created our world, but He participates in the world He made.
He harnesses the clouds as a chariot to ride with and uses the wind as a path. There is no doubt that God delights in all that He has created.
He enjoys it all. And he delights in you and me.
Just think about it, if God dresses in light from the outside, imagine his heart? We hear these days that: our clothes reflect our personality, our God is dressed in sunshine. What is even more mindblowing is that God lives in us through the Holy Spirit.

GOD open our eyes to see and be light like you are.

( See Matthew 17:2, Song of Solomon 6:10, Colossians 1:27)

Psalm 103:18-22

There is an eternal connection between our ‘soul blessing God’ and everything else that God has made ‘blessing God together.’

When we bless and praise the Lord, we join this universal symphony together with the angels, yes the strong and mighty host of heaven in blessing and praising our God.
Our hearts are not alone in blessing our God.
The sunrise each morning sings praises to the maker. Birds singing and dancing give glory to God. Animals running and prancing tell of God’s joy. Trees and flowers display God’s beauty. The sea and the sky dance with the creation. Friends, when we urge our soul to bless God, we notice that everything that had breath praises Him with us. We are not alone and we must use our voice and song to join the universal symphony. Bless the Lord, remember all His benefits and rejoice in the song of salvation played endlessly by God’s creation.

( See Nehemiah 9:6, Colossians 1:16, Isaiah 55:13)

Psalm 103:11-17

We may not know God, but He knows us. He knows our frailty, He knows our eagerness to run after worthless idols, He knows our hearts are one action away from ruining our lives. Like dust, we raise up to every wind and scatter to nothing. Yet, God chose us and redeemed us for His glory.

God’s love does not depend upon our characters, nor our lifestyle or our achievement. There was never a time in history and before history and after history as we know it that God did not love us.

His love is from everlasting.

LD

He will not spare to pour that love in all who fear Him. Not those who are afraid of Him, but those who acknowledge and revere Him for who He is. Like a loving father, He forgives and extended His merciful hand to us constantly through the cross. He never gives up on us! From everlasting to everlasting is His grace.

(See Genesis 2:7, Ephesians 1: 4, Job 36:26)

Psalm 103:6-10

God is not like us. We are quick-tempered and slow to show tenderness, but He is slow in anger and rich in love and mercy.

LD

That’s why is difficult sometimes to know and understand God, for He is unique and the riches of His love and kindness are far more than we can imagine or understand.
Can you imagine the distance from the earth to the heavens? That’s how long His mercies expound to us. Can west and east join in a line together? That’s how God has dealt with our sins. He has put them far far away. It’s not that God is soft and passive, it’s not that His holiness and righteous are ignored, more that His love has been poured down to us through Jesus Christ who bore our sins and granted us freedom.
When we were deep in sin and mire God send His son to reconcile us to Himself in love. That’s when we know and see someone’s true colours, when we are down when we are nobodies when we are weak.

Dear Lord, open our eyes and hearts to see the vastness of your tenderness and care for us. You who loved us then will love us forever now. Waw!

( See Lamentations 3:22-23, Romans 5:8, John 15:13)

Psalm 103:1-5

We may be in church ‘blessing and praising God’ but our minds stay at home.

We worry if we turned off the lights, or if we switched the oven on with the chicken inside, we circulate in our minds the harsh words that we spoke to one another as we rushed out of the home.
That is not the kind of ‘blessing the Lord’ that David is taking here.
All that is within me…he is speaking to all of him. His mind, heart and soul, the whole faculties of his being. It speaks of an arrested personality to the wonder and the glory of God.

Start and list a few of the benefits of God’s love upon us and see your heart renewed.

Most of our worry and fret in life is because we listen to ourselves and not speak to ourselves.

LD

Speak the truth to your soul, speak of the sins forgiven, tell of the body healed from diseases, realise the depth of the redemptive love God has shown to us, speak of the good things God has filled our lives with. For this is the ‘good news’ my friend. The speaking of the truth to ourselves first and the basking in his love. Bless the Lord, oh my soul today and always, may my affections and gratitude for you be forever sincere.

( See 1 John 2:12, Proverbs 17:22, 1 Peter 2:24)

Psalm 102:23-28

There is a rhythm I have found that we live out when it comes to our spiritual formation. There is-prayer then learning and relearning to hope and trust in the Lord and there is amazement, always.

Our psalmist is showing that rhythm too. Help, Hope and Waw.
The realisation that we need help and that we can’t do it by ourselves keeps us on our knees.
The pull of the flesh and the world and the evil are relentless at convincing us to try and do it our way and the learning to hope and trust God’s timing is a constant battle.

The marvellous turn out of events when we let God be God because He is very good at that, amazes us, always.
Wen we learn and live how to pray, how to hope and how to stay in amazement is not just good for us, but it’s a script to the next generations coming. They join the rhythm, they join the eternal dance.

God establishes us and he establishes our children. Prayer, Hope and Glory keep our perspective on the eternal.

( See 1 Peter 5:8, James 4:7, Ephesians 3:21, Joel 1:3)

Psalm 102:12-22

And there was light! This is the contrast between any darkness we face in life and the moment the presence of God appears. It doesn’t matter how thick and vast our darkness can be, the presence of God changes everything. That’s what the psalmist is seeing, hope forward as he looks at God. There is hope and not just for him, but for his people and the country.

Oftentimes, our struggles are not ours alone, they echo the same conditions of many others and the country we share.

LD

Like the body of the psalmist, Zion ( Jerusalem, the city of God) is broken and bruised. When we are broken we are made aware of all other brokeness. We can’t see brokenness when we ourselves are healthy.

So, we, together with the psalmist in our brokenness peel off any attention from ourselves and hope for God’s favour to fall on everybody who suffers, on the city and especially on the destitute.
GOD sends help and restoration to us and Zion very differently from the way we pray or expect Him to. We often miss seeing God’s glory and favour because our attention is elsewhere.
Forgive us Lord for looking to you then expecting our own outcomes.

( See Ephesians 2:4-5, Deuteronomy 7:9, Romans 11:33)

Psalm 102:1-11

Physical pain erodes the heart like a crazy wave the steady cliffs. It taunts the mind with anguish and isolates the person within the walls of a room.
That is the picture that the anonymous writer of Psalm 102 is painting for us to see. I am thankful for this psalm in particular.
For us in pain, the psalm gives voice to our multiple symptoms. And to the healthy, the psalmist draws us to feel and experience the misery of the sufferer.

For how we can comfort people without entering into their chasm of grief?
It’s strangely comforting to know that when we feel the loneliest, we are not alone. With eyes up to the sky observing the desolate birds and tossing and turning we are comforted.

We people tend to run from the sick and suffering, but not God.

LD

Jesus, the savior of all agonies visits us. He who has tasted scrutinizing pain gives an abundance of comfort. Can we? Can we comfort, comfort his people? Can we comfort ourselves in the victory of our Lord?
Can we empathize with the sorrowful?

( See Galatians 6:2, Romans 15:1, Matthew 8:17)

Psalm 101:3-8

I was reading yesterday’s newspapers and I was not surprised to see how many of our ‘past’ presidents and officials are brought to justice after they have served their term. The bribery and influence peddling they used when they were in power is following them like a bad smell. You see, justice might delay, but catches up nevertheless.
There is this talk of ‘who are our friends and how can they do us favors’ when power rules. The people we surround ourselves with as we lead are as important as our ability to govern.

Who do we listen to and who do we choose to lead together with make or break a king’s or a prince’s rule.
King David wants ‘the faithful, the salt of the earth’ to be the people he appoints to govern together with. Not the triple tongue ( the gossiper and slander) not the proud and haughty, not the deceitful or the one who tells lies, not the wicked or the evil ones.

If we want to make a difference as leaders, we must choose our friends, the people whom we serve with based on their faithfulness and honestly and not the trends of time.

Choose not the ones that are famous, but the faithful ones.

LD

Faithful to truth and mercy and faithful in-home and faithful to God.
Let’s us pray for our leaders that the faithfulness of God will be evident in their lives. May their skill, wisdom and honesty of character guide them daily and may the love of God dwell richly in them.

( See Proverbs 10:9, Proverbs 13:6, 1 Timothy 3:2)