Web Theologian

>118:1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let Israel say,“His steadfast love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say,“His steadfast love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord say,“His steadfast love endures forever.”
5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord;the Lord answered me and set me free.
6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.What can man do to me?
7 The Lord is on my side as my helper;I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lordthan to trust in man.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.
10 All nations surrounded me;in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;in the name of the Lord I cut them off!12 They surrounded me like bees;they went out like a fire among thorns;in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,but the Lord helped me.

This Psalm is the party over here…party over there psalm. God’s steadfast love endures forever, let’s hear it from the ladies…how about the ol’ folks, you house of Aaron, all of Israel. You can almost picture a MC with his microphone pumping up the crowd to this one. You say hey I say ha…HEY..ha…HEY…ha. Can you picture it? Yeah alittle silly I know but sure helps me get is more.

Then comes the verse. In distress call on the Lord, he answered and set me free. Sounds like a good song. When he is with me I’m not afraid for no one can mess with me. All the haters get what’s coming to them, because God has my back.

The “it is better’s” are almost a bridge to the song. Better than trusting in man, and better than trusting in princes. Men will let you down, and princes will be overthrown. God is steadfast and his love endures forever.

The “they surrounded me’s” come at it again, talking about those times of trouble. All around they had me, and yet in God’s name they are cut off. They plan to trap me fell through and I made it out. They are like bees, not a pretty picture, yet they still got cut off. In my own strength I couldn’t get out of the situation but rather had God there to help me. On my own all I did was fall, but God helped.

>117:1 Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us,and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.Praise the Lord!

Great encouragement for me this morning. One of those days that the bed feels really good and it is easy to image staying in it all day. God faithfulness and love reminds me there is a reason to get up in the morning.

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116:1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

10 I believed, even when I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”

Learning to be selfless is part of growth in spirituality, but there are some (many) personal benefits to being a Christian. Such as the guarantee that God will hear you. Now what kind of person would worship a God that doesn’t hear them? Sadly I see it around me all the time. People may not call it worship, or the thing they have based their life around a god, but that is what they do and that is what the house of cards their life is based on is functioning as. He hears me and rescues me from death.

I have never been the smartest guy in the room. Often times I have to work a little harder just to understand what for some people is very simple. Thankfully God takes care of the simple. He shows mercy to them. My goal is to do what wants me to do, to please him, and be found righteous.

This life can be very hard at times. In sales we say, “Buyers are liars.” That means don’t take people’s word for it, sometimes they don’t even know what they want. Here the scripture says “All mankind are liars.” That sounds harsh but that can be the reality in which we live. It hurts and it hurts deeply.

>12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
14 May the Lord give you increase, you and your children!
15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
16 The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord,nor do any who go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.Praise the Lord!

Even God’s blessing to us is bigger than ourselves as we normally think abou it. It is for our children as well. Now this would have been on the greatest concerns in the Ancient Near East. The concern would be that you would make it each day, and that your name would be carried on throughout the generations. Both equally important.

Why can God do this? Because he is the one who made the heaven and earth. He has the power, and it is in his advantage to take care of you so that you praise and honor him. Only alive people can do that. What a great way to start your day by remembering God’s desire to bless you before heading off.

>115:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2 Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;he does all that he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;feet, but do not walk;and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them;so do all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.

Glory hounds, our world is full of them. In the Gospel of Mark you find that Mark presents Jesus as doing serious business in healing away from the crowds. One of the reason is He didn’t want to have all the attention on the fact that he can heal, there was more to his ministry, and he wanted people to give him glory for the entire package, not just that he was a interesting faith healer.

The glory of God is interesting. Like you see it all around you in creation, to me I see point to all this stuff, it is hard for me to imagine there not being one other than my own imagination. Yet it is incomplete. God is the Grandparent hiding behind the curtains and we only see the feet. Perhaps this plays into the OT theme of God’s glory being beyond our comprehension and killing us if we saw it face to face. Even in Jesus that glory is present, yet people cried on his feat and carried his dead body. Strange.

This passage on idolatry is a great one! They are empty. These things that we give attention to, the type of attention that only God deserves in our life. Our liturgy this week at church had a great part of Luther’s Catechism, I think it was question #1, unfortunately the bulletin is now in the recycling and I cannot find it. It explain really beautifully how God is to be our first love.

Now whenever I hear the word shield I think of faith because I taught the passage from Ephesians to the Communicans class. Feeling unprotected? Take up the shield of faith, you won’t regret it.

>114:1 When Israel went out from Egypt,the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Israel for being God’s chosen people sure has issues related to racism and prejudice. You find it throughout all the scripture, and I talked about it a little in my sermon yesterday. What is pretty funning is that they are calling Egypt strange. Egypt was one of those times where they may not have wanted to end up there, but their butts were saved because they went there and they flourished. Calling them people of a strange language is funny to me.

The imagery here seems to be both that of the parting of the Red Sea and the nation’s time in the desert where God gave them water from a rock. Not even the physical challenges of the land will keep God’s people from fulfilling his promises. He allows us to overcome.

>113:1 Praise the Lord!Praise, O servants of the Lord,praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,the name of the Lord is to be praised!
4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Let God know how good he is! If you know it let him know. He has been bringing it for a very long time. Forth and forevermore, it doesn’t matter what time it is. There is no one as high as he is, not even Ricky Waters, hehe. He is above all else. And his crew is not who you would expect. the poor, the needy, they get seats of honor. Those ladies which are broken hearted because they can’t have kids, everything changes. Isn’t it good.