Psalms 103

 A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; 
 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Psalms 96 – King James Version

Psalm 96

 O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.
 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.
 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.
 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
 Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.
 O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.
 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

From “Morning Thoughts” by Winslow

“Trust you in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” Isaiah 26:4

THERE is no act of the soul more acceptable to God, because there is none that brings more glory to His great name, than this. Wherever we trace in the Scriptures of truth a trust in the Lord, there we find especial and remarkable deliverance. It is recorded of the children of Israel that the Lord delivered their enemies into their hand, “for they cried to God in the battle, and He was entreated of them; because they put their trust in Him.” Again, we read of God’s wondrous message sent by Jeremiah to Abed-melech, the Ethiopian, “I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be for a prey unto you; because you have put your trust in me, says the Lord.” The experience, too, of God’s people confirms the blessedness of trusting in the Lord. “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.” The promises connected with trusting in the Lord are equally rich and encouraging. “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You; because he trusts in You.” “None of those who trust in Him shall be desolate.” “The Lord knows those who trust in Him.” “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You; which You have wrought for those who trust in You before the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret of Your presence.” What a marvelous and precious cluster of Divine encouragements to those who trust in the Lord with all their heart, under all circumstances, and at all times! “Only trust,” is Jesus’ word. “This is all I ask of you, the utmost thing I require at your hand. I demand no costly sacrifice-no wearisome pilgrimage-no personal worthiness-no strength, or wisdom, or self-endeavors of your own. Only trust me. Only believe that I wait to answer prayer-that I am gracious-that I have all power at my command-that I have your interest at heart-that there is no good thing I am willing to withhold-that I, and I alone, can guide your present steps, can unravel the web of your difficulties, guide your perplexities, extricate you from the snares that have woven their net-work around your feet, and bring you through fire and through water into a wealthy place. Only trust me!” Beloved, is this too hard? Is the request unreasonable and impracticable? What! only to trust Jesus? Only to trust your needs to His ear-your burdens to His arm-your sorrows to His heart? Is this too hard? Is it beyond your power? Then tell Jesus so. Remind Him of His own words, “Without me you can do nothing.” And ask at His hands the faith to trust, the heart to trust, the courage to trust, and the power to trust all your interests, temporal and spiritual, for time and for eternity, into His hands.

 

 

From “Day-by-Day By Grace” Bob Hoekstra

David Confessing God as His Strength

The LORD is the strength of my life . . . The LORD is . . . my strength, in whom I will trust. (Psa_27:1 and Psa_18:2)

Living by grace involves depending upon God to work in our lives. For the greater part of his life, David was an outstanding Old Testament example of such living. This was certainly evident in the way David frequently confessed the Lord as his strength.

For each adult who lives in this fallen world, strength is demanded just to deal with every day responsibilities and challenges. When you add the calling and desire that believers have to please and honor God, much strength is needed day by day. David confessed the Lord as his strength for living. “The LORD is the strength of my life.” How wonderful to know that the Lord is with us to impart His strength in us for every aspect of our lives, whether home, or work, or ministry, or whatever.

In our earthly pilgrimage, we need strength to stay on course. The world, the flesh, and the devil want to prevent us from progressing down the Lord’s perfect path. David found in the Lord the strength for this need as well. “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect” (Psa_18:32). At times, when walking along our designated path of life, we get trapped in circumstantial nets, laid by the enemy of our souls. When David experienced these traps, he cried out to God for the necessary strength. “Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength” (Psa_31:4). At other times along our path, the problem is not a trap, but an all-out battle. Once again, David found the strength he needed in His Lord. “For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me” (Psa_18:39).

Sometimes, the need for strength pertains to what is going on within (or flowing forth from within). The thoughts we are thinking, and the words we are expressing might need to be anchored again in the will of the Lord. David also knew how to turn to God for this essential strength as well. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer” (Psa_19:14). When he weakened within and stumbled in failure, David still knew where to turn for the only help that will ever prove sufficient. “My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psa_73:26). Whatever the need for strength, David learned to rely upon the Lord. “The LORD is . . . my strength, in whom I will trust.”

O Lord, my strength, I need Your strength for daily responsibilities, strength for staying on track with You, strength for periodic battles, strength for weaknesses within, strength to please You. You are my strength; I trust in You!

My Prayer to the Father, August 12, 2012

Heavenly Father
I come before You, Father,
So thankful for another day
Of the breath of life.
Darkness and suffering
Came in the night,
But joy has come
With the morning.

Heavenly Father
I thank You for being the Eternal God;
The great and gracious God
Who in Your compassion and mercy
Have given me that
Which I needed in the way
Of strength and courage
To pass through
The storm once again.

Heavenly Father
I want to thank You for answering
The prayers of my family
Who lifted me up to You
And petitioned You on my behalf.
Thank You
For being Faithful and True
To the promises
You have given to me
And to all
Through Your Holy Word.

Heavenly Father
I give You praise and worship
For You are the only one
Worthy and deserving
Of the best that is in me.
I give You my all
And ask You
To do with me
As You desire,
And that I might live my life
Today and every day
According to Your will
To accomplish that
Which You decree.

Heavenly Father
I pray that You would give
Those who pass their nights,
Who are in the midst
Of the storm,
That which You
Have given to me
Courage and strength.
I pray that You
Will shower Your love
Upon them all,
And like Paul
Will affirm for them
That Your grace is more
Than sufficient
To sustain them.

Heavenly Father
I pray that You would give to
Those who are tired,
Who are struggling,
Who are enduring trials,
Who are carrying burdens
That are way to heavy to bear,
Those who are suffering
Through the worst that
Life in this world can bring
What we all need;
Your presence.
You, in the form of
Someone who will walk
With us and share
What we carry
And bear.

Heavenly Father
Thank You; Thank You
For sending to me those who
Could lift me up
Who could hold me up
When I had no strength,
When I could not even
Find the will to call
Out Your name.
I pray Father that You
Will use me
To give to others
What You gave me
Through them
Today.

Thank You for my Lord Jesus,
In His name, I pray.
Amen.

 

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FOCUS?

Sometimes after “giving it your all,” you can end up totally drained.  Look at Elijah.  God used him on Mt. Carmel to call down fire from heaven on the prophets of Baal.  Yet he fell apart under Jezebel’s threats.  Fleeing for his life, he “sad down under a broom tree… and said, ‘It is enough!  Now, Lord, take my life.'”  The moment his focus changed from God to the enemy, he became overwhelmed.  So God spoke to him again.  This time it wasn’t in a spectacular display.  Instead, He spoke in a “still small voice” (v. 12 NKJV), drawing him aside to rest and spend time with God.  The next time the nation saw Elijah he was spiritually on top again.  So  answer this: has your focus shifted from God to all the “stuff you have to do”?  If so, you need time out, time alone with God.  When He calls you aside to rest, do it!  Vic Pentz says, “Nothing fails so totally, as success without God.”  The twofold danger in the aftermath of any success is: (1) spending too much time listening to the accolades of others; (2) presuming you have what it takes to succeed on your own.  As a result you disconnect from God, Who is the source of your strength.  David said, “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  (Ps 27:1).  Fearlessness is foolishness, unless it’s based on faith in God.  And one more thought: God sent Elisha to assist Elijah, and he can send the right person to help you too.  He knows what to do to get you moving again.

From “Music For The Soul” by Alexander Maclaren

CONTINUOUS STRENGTH

He giveth more grace. – Jam_4:6.

God ‘s strength, poured into our hearts, if we wait upon Him,  shall fit us for the moments of special hard effort.  ” They shall run and not be weary,” for the crises which require more than an ordinary amount of energy to be put forth; and for the long dreary hours which require nothing but keeping doggedly at monotonous duties, ” They shall walk and not faint.”

It is a great deal easier to be up to the occasion in some shining moment of a man’s life when he knows that a supreme hour has come than it is to keep that high tone when plodding over all the dreary plateaux of uneventful, monotonous travel and dull duties. It is easier to run fast for a minute than to grind along the dusty road for a day.

Many a ship has stood the tempest, and then has gone down in the harbor because its timbers have been gnawed to pieces by white ants. And many a man can do what is wanted in the trying moments, and yet make shipwreck of his faith in uneventful times.

Like ships that have gone down at sea,
When heaven was all tranquility.

Soldiers who could stand firm and strike with all their might in the hour of battle will fall asleep or have their courage ooze out at their fingers’ ends when they have to keep solitary watch at their posts through a long winter’s night. We have all a few moments in life of hard, glorious running; but we have days and years of walking, the uneventful discharge of small duties. We need strength for both; but paradoxical as it may sound, we need it most for the multitude of smaller duties. We know where to get it. Let us keep close to ” Christ, the Power of God,” and open our hearts to the entering in of His unwearied strength. ” Then shall the lame man leap as a hart,” and we shall ” run with patience the race that is set before us,” if we look to Jesus, and follow in His steps.

A man complains that his path is hid, his course on earth seems so sad and cloudy and weary as compared with the paths of those great stars that move without friction, effort, confusion, dust, noise, while all these things – friction, effort, confusion, dust, noise – beset our little carts as we tug them along the dreary road of life.

But, says Isaiah, His power does not show itself so nobly up there among the stars as it does down here. It is not so much to keep the strong in their strength as to give strength to the weak. It is much to “preserve the stars from wrong,” it is more to restore and to break the power into feeble men; much to uphold all them that are falling so that they may not fall, but it is more to raise up all those that are fallen and are bowed down. So, brother, what God does with a poor, weak creature like me, when He lifts up our weakness and replenishes our weariness; pouring oil and wine into our wounds and a cordial into our lips, and sending us, with the joy of pardon, upon our road again; that is a greater thing than when He rolls Neptune in its mighty orbit round the central sun, or upholds with unwearied arms, from cycle to cycle, the circle of the heavens with all its stars.  “He giveth power to the faint ” is His divinest work.

From “Faith’s Checkbook” by C. H. Spurgeon

     Nothing helps people so much as having a good example to follow.

 

“Our Holiest Example ”

 

Psa_16:8

This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. “I have set,” and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the LORD’s eye and an ear for the LORD’s voice–this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the LORD always before us! Why not?

This is the way to be safe. The LORD being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man’s right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?

From the Writings of Joseph Philpot

 

     We can learn a lesson from the willow tree.

“They will spring up… as willows by the flowing streams.”

Isa_44:4

The willow, we know, cannot exist without water; it must be near the brook or river, or it withers and dies. Take a young willow and plant it upon a mountain top or in the sandy desert, and it soon droops and perishes. But take the barest twig off the willow, and plant it near a stream, so that the water may reach it, and it will soon shoot downwards and push a vigorous stem upwards.

So it is with the child of grace — he must live by the river side; he must dip his roots into that“river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,”and by it he must be continually bathed, or he droops and dies. He cannot live in the world, away from Jesus, his word, ordinances, house, people, presence, Spirit, and grace, any more than a willow can live upon the mountain top. He cannot live among carnal men, cut off from union and communion with his great and glorious Head, any more than the willow can thrive and grow in the wilderness. How beautifully is this set forth by the prophet Jeremiah —“Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is — for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit”(Jer_17:7; Jer_17:8). The saints of God, then, grow like“willows by the flowing streams.”

How enduring, also, is the willow. What life in every branch! and even when cut down low, still reviving“through the scent of water”(Job_14:9), and shooting out its branches afresh. May we not see in this a fitting emblem of the child of God, and admire how, like the willow, he preserves life and vigor when the nobler trees of the forest are blown down by the storm or are cut down for fuel?

　

　

From “Morning and Evening” by C.H. Spurgeon

 

 

     There are times when we all struggle with our faith.  This is a reminder that God knows and understands our individual expressions of faith, and helps us to grow it into the kind of faith that can move mountains.

“The trial of your faith.”

 

1Pe_1:7

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.

 

Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.