Web Theologian

>

95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”

Praise flows from a grateful heart.  In order to praise God you must know what he has done for you.  I love how this Psalm commands, sings, and provides the story!  There is nothing too high or too low for God, it is all his.

Sheep is one of those images that cuts both ways.  They are beautiful on the hillside, important to the economy, yet they are stupid and take lots of work and attention to maintain.  We are the sheep of God’s pasture.  God also warns us about those who have gone before and blown it.  Remember.  Take your time, long to enter into God’s rest.

>

16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will wipe them out.

So part one of this Psalm was all about a God who disciplines his people.  Now we move into the part I like better.  Discipline hurts, watching those who mess with me get what they desire, now that is what I am talking about.  God stands up to those folks.  This is freeing for a number of reasons, one of them is it means vengeance doesn’t even have to be on my radar.  I can worry about other things.

So if God grabs my foot when it slips why do I feel knocked around pretty good most days?  What a mystery.  His consolations cheer my soul, that’s true. 

Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?  This is a hard one.  Rhetorical? I’ll let you decide, he he.

God gets back, he wipes them out.  Not only do I need to be concerned about my mark on the world, but I need to  think about what will happen to and with my children.  Being wiped out doesn’t fare too well for their sake much less mine.