Psalm 130:3-4 - Forgiveness

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,

     Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

     so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I am a sinner. Since you are human, you probably are too. As a follower of God, we can receive forgiveness and those sins do not keep us from him. 

Lord, thank you for forgiving us of our sins. Please help us to go and sin no more. Amen.

Psalm 129:4 - Freedom

But the Lord is righteous;
     he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”

I have often compared the enemies spoken of in Psalms to sin and the strongholds in our life. When we pray for release from a stronghold, I think we can expect release. It may not happen right away, and it may be a painful process, but the Lord is righteous, he will release us.

Lord, thank you for releasing us from strongholds of sin. Please help us to not allow the cords to be re-tied. Amen.

Psalm 128 - A blessing

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
    who walk in obedience to him.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor;
    blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4 Yes, this will be the blessing
    for the man who fears the Lord.

5 May the Lord bless you from Zion;
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children—
    peace be on Israel.

Lord, thank you for blessing us every day. Please help us to obey you. Amen.

Psalm 127:5 - A blessing for sports?

Blessed is the man
     whose quiver is full of them (children).
They will not be put to shame
     when they contend with their opponents in court.

When I read this passage, I had to laugh. I immediately thought of a Sports Dad watching his son play basketball on the court. I'm not sure that is what it means, but children, as difficult as they can be to raise, are indeed a blessing from the Lord.

Lord, thank you for children, whether they be sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, part of our blood family or part of our Christian family. Please help us to give you the glory for these blessings. Amen.

Psalm 126:6 - Joy after sorrow

Those who go out weeping,

     carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

     carrying sheaves with them.

God gives us hope. So many painful things happen, but God restores our joy.

Lord, thank you for your restoration, bringing beauty from ashes, joy from weeping. Please help us to rely on you in our times of suffering and focus on the hope we have in you. Amen.

Psalm 125:2 - His people

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
     so the Lord surrounds his people
     both now and forevermore.

In the days of the Israelites, God's people were a nation. When Jesus came and brought Christianity, the idea of "his people" became much wider and open to all humanity. We now have the privilege of being surrounded by the Lord. We as individual Christians, local congregations and as a worldwide church are under the protection of God.

Lord, thank you for surrounding us. Please help us to remain in you to receive your protecting arms around us. Amen.

Psalm 124:8 - Victory

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
     the Maker of heaven and earth.

This Psalm, written by David, starts out by saying if the Lord had not been with us we would have been defeated. One line states, "We have escaped like a bird from the fowler's snare." David knew about battle. He knew when his army was out numbered and should have lost. He knew when God was responsible for the victory.

Lord, thank you for the help you provide. Please help us know who is responsible for our victories and give you the honor and glory. Amen.

Psalm 123:1 - Visualization

I lift up my eyes to you,
     to you who sit enthroned in heaven.

We are what we see. Visualization can be an important part of achieving a goal,  Seeing success will help your mind to adjust to this reality even before you get there. Keeping our eyes fixed on God will help us on each step of our path towards a closer relationship with him.

Lord, thank you for being such a holy God, so worthy of praise. Please help us to keep our eyes lifted to you. Amen.

Psalm 122:1 - Jerusalem

I rejoiced with those who said to me,
     “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

This Psalm is all about Jerusalem, I've talked a lot about the difference between the old and new testaments, which is basically the difference between Judaism and Christianity.  For the Jews, Jerusalem was a holy city. That is where the temple was built and was the only true place of worship. Later synagogues came about which were a local place of worship. Many things in Judaism are foreshadowing of things to come. As Christians, we do not have a holy city on earth. Our Jerusalem is heaven. This is the city we long to go to, the house of the Lord.

Lord, thank you for your holy city. Please let us long to be with you in heaven and sing of it's glory. Amen.

Psalm 121:7 - Safety

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
     he will watch over your life;

We all want to feel safe. Yesterday I was out for a walk and three little girls were out running around, following a puppy. The puppy had on a new harness, so it appeared this was a new member of their family. The little girls were trying to pick up the puppy but when they did the puppy would just squeal and try to escape their grasp. The puppy came running toward me and I bent down and scooped it up. I held it firmly and the puppy was quiet. I told the little girls, "Hold the puppy under her belly, next to your body so she feels safe." That is what we all want, we want to feel safe. As much as we want freedom, we also long for safety and security. When we give our lives to God, along with salvation and so much more, we also receive safety and security.

Lord, thank you for safety and security. Please help us to rest in your arms. Amen.

Psalm 120:6-7 - Imagine

Too long have I lived

     among those who hate peace.

I am for peace;

     but when I speak, they are for war.

Many times in the last few days the idea of peace and equality for all has come up. I believe in respecting the differences and life choices of others, because I want them to respect my differences and my life choice of being a Christian. I am for peace. 

Someone suggested this video to me, Penetonix - Imagine

Also I am involved a project dealing with the same subject: Momochrome

Lord, thank you for loving everyone. Please help us to love everyone too, Amen. 

Psalm 119:176 - Find me, God

I have strayed like a lost sheep.
     Seek your servant,
     for I have not forgotten your commands.

I love this! Hundreds of years before the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7) this sentiment is made. We all stray. We all sin and loose our way. How wonderful that we don't have to find our way back on our own. We can ask God to seek us, he will not only show us the way, but to pick us up and carry us back to the fold.

Lord, you are so wonderful and loving. Thank you for seeking us. Please help us to call out to you when we have lost our way. Amen.

Psalm 119:164 - Prayer times

Seven times a day I praise you
     for your righteous laws.

How many times a day do you pray? I am only certain of one, in the morning before I do my study. I offer random prayers through out the day, but nothing structured so that I would know exactly how many times I prayed. One thing I like about the Muslim faith are the specified prayer times, This entire group of people stop what they are doing an pray at least five times a day. Maybe we can find regularly occurring things which happen throughout the day to remind us to pray. Meals are always a good time to pray. Or we could set an alarm on our phone to remind us to pray at certain times of the day. No matter how we do it, the more time communicating with God, the better.

Lord, thank you for the gift of prayer. Please help us to spend several times a day praising you and communicating with you. Amen.

Psalm 119:160 - Words for the word

All your words are true;
     all your righteous laws are eternal.

Yesterday in my blog post I used several words all basically meaning the same thing: the Bible. In this Psalm 119 section all of these words are synonymous: law, promise, decrees, statutes, word, precepts. If you are familiar with the Bible you probably know this, but the old testament has the law (Genesis-Deuteronomy) given by God to the Israelites (Jews). The Psalms are referring to this law. When Christ came to the earth and died on the cross, he fulfilled the law. That is why most Christians no longer follow the Jewish Laws. The new testament books were all written after Christ's death. Both the old and new testaments are God's word and all these words above describe both.

Lord, As we have said so many times, thank you for your word. Please help us to study it and love it more and more every day. Amen,

Psalm 119:148 - A page turner

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
     that I may meditate on your promises.

Every once in a while I will see a post on Facebook "It's 2 am and I need to go to sleep, but I can't put down this book I am reading!" From the verse above, the author of this portion of Psalm 119 felt this way about the word of God. When we allow the word of God to penetrate our heart and ask God to speak to us personally through his word, his word becomes more than just a book and we too will have this kind of passion about the Bible.

Lord, thank you for your word. Please help us to love your word and meditate on it often. Amen.

Psalm 119:143 - Our rock

Trouble and distress have come upon me,
     but your commands give me delight.

There will always be trouble and distress. There will always be things in our lives and things in the world that are difficult to bear. The blessing for the believer is the constancy of truth. It is our rock and even in the storm, the rock does not move. It is something to firmly hold on to in times of trouble and a place to find rest, peace and even joy.

Lord, thank you for your word and and the stability it brings to our lives. Please help us to cling to the truth in times of distress, Amen.

Psalm 119:133 - Stronghold sin

Direct my footsteps according to your word;

     let no sin rule over me.

Sin, especially a stronghold sin is deeply embedded in our life. It may be deeper than just a choice of do or don't. It may be something resulting from generational strongholds, as Beth Moore puts it in Breaking Free, the ancient ruins. Getting rid of this kind of sin is going to require supernatural power. It is going to require God.

Lord, thank you for giving us hope and salvation even in our weakness. Please, let no sin rule over me. Amen.

Psalm 119:126 - Unoffendable

It is time for you to act, Lord;
     your law is being broken.

In our Sunday night small group study, we have been studying the book Unoffendable. This book discusses the concept of not allowing ourselves to act in anger or offense, but rather reacting only out of love. I like the verse above because it reminds me of two things. When someone sins, their sin is against God and it is God's right to act, not mine. My job is to love them. I believe we have the right to leave the situation or even discipline that person, especially a child to teach them right from wrong, but it must be done out of love, not anger. A good police officer will respond to an unlawful act in a calm, deliberate manner, not in anger. When I am wronged, a quick reaction in anger does no one any good.

Lord, thank you for being so trustworthy, you will never wrong us. Please help us to be unoffendable, to slow down and not respond in anger when we are wronged or see sin and injustice. Amen,

Ruth 4:15a - New Life 4

He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.

Even as we get older, God has a plan for us. We may feel like it is the time of life to slow down and take it easy due to setbacks like the death of a spouse or health issues, but God can give us renewal even at this time of our lives. There are things we are uniquely suited for. God will use us if we let him,

There may be somethings we can not do, or things we may have to learn, A woman called an airline customer-service desk asking if she could take her old dog on board.  “Sure,” the representative said, “as long as you provide your own kennel.” They further explained that the kennel needed to be large enough for the dog to stand up, sit down, turn around, and roll over.  The customer was flummoxed: “I’ll never be able to teach him all of that by tomorrow!”

Lord, thank you for renewing and sustaining us even in our old age. Please help us to allow you to use us in all phases of our life. Amen.

2 Kings 23:3 - New Life 3

The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

The Israelites often renewed their covenant with the Lord, The repeatedly would fall away and God would accept them back. We are often this way when we begin a new life. It is so easy to turn back to the old, or never fully commit to the new life we have begun.

Weight is always an issue for me, I'll do well for a while then, I go back to my old habits. It is a stronghold in my life. Different people have different strong holds. After hearing a sermon on Psalm 52:3-4 (lies and deceit), a man wrote the IRS, “I can’t sleep knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. Enclosed is a check for $150. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send the rest.”

Lord, thank you for giving us infinite do overs. Please help us to stick to the commitments we have made. Amen.