May 5

Psalm 148 tells who should praise the Lord – EVERYBODY, and Psalm 150 tells how – with EVERYTHING! Praise here is Halal – to boast, praise, shout. We are NOT suppose to hold anything back when we praise. We are expected to go all out and boast about God with shouting and loud noises. I know that sometimes I just don’t want to shout, I am not in the mood. It doesn’t say in Psalm 150 to shout if you feel like it, it commands us to shout! For me that gets me out of “me mode” and gets me in God mode. Praise isn’t about me and how I feel all the time. When I am in doubt and struggling, perhaps that is when I should shout and dance, declaring what He has for me!

I so needed Psalm 145 today. Honestly, I am in a season of struggle. I am unsure how God wants to provide for my family. I am struggling to walk in faith – but I so want to! Today I read that God is faithful to all His promises (I know that, but I need to hear that today), He lifts up those who fall down, He gives food at His proper time and He will satisfy my desires. I know that He loves me, but sometimes you are wondering what He is doing. Whatever it is, it is o.k. with me, I just want to know what I should do. I should praise! Praise loud, praise with instruments, praise with dancing and boast of the Lord! That is what I KNOW to do, the rest will follow in its due time.

May 4

The first several Psalms encouraged me to praise the Lord all the more! It is my habit several times a week and on Saturday night as well to lift of praise to the Lord in the church for an extended period of time. I turn the music on loud and praise him. I will praise you all the more Lord! I will praise you MORE!

Psalm 122:9 (NIV)
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.

This verse popped out at me. The word prosperity can also be translated; 1) practical, economic, or material good, 2) abstract goodness such as desirability, pleasantness, and beauty, 3) quality or expense, 4) moral goodness, and 5) technical philosophical good. For the sake of His house (which is me by the way – He doesn’t dwell in buildings, He dwells in us), I will seek these things. For the sake of ME I will seek these things! It is NOT self-centered because the reason that I seek them is because God dwells in me! It is Him I want to satisfy and bring glory to, not me. If I get anything as a result, PRAISE THE LORD! My focus is to seek for Him, even when it benefits me. Honestly, doesn’t that bring Him glory, when I prosper? I think it does.

May 3

What a great Psalm! Primary it talks about all of the benefits of the Word of God, His commandments, His law and statutes and His decrees. It really is a great Psalm to encourage oneself to stay in His word. There is great benefit! If His law brings freedom, then how much more freedom will we enjoy from His word and His Spirit!

It was verse 5 and 6 that stood out to me:

5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.

Nobody enjoys being put to shame, especially me. However this shame is coming when I compare my life with His commands, or more aptly put for my life, when I consider my day and what I got accomplished coupled with how my life was lived out when compared to His plan for that day. There is a shame that accompanies me when I squander a day or when it is a lot less fruitful than it should have been. It could be that it was tremendously fruitful as far as accomplishments, but now I live in the stress and anxiety of it all that evening. Either way, there is shame when I compare my day to His expectation for my day and there is a huge gulf. (shame- disconcerted, disappointed, dismayed)

“That my ways were steadfast” (established, prepared or firmly prepared and established). God spoke to me about the discipline of my life and my day. If I would only discipline myself and order (establish) my day according to the decree (will and plan) of God, when the day is over, I would be glad and at peace with the results! It takes discipline! There is no way around it – it will take effort – it will take sacrifice at times (to my own will) – but I will reap a reward if it will do it!

May 1

It is days like this that I think, what will I choose? Will it be that God cures my anxiety with joy, or that his judgment is coming and that should bring me joy, or should I write a song from Psalm 98? Not to mention one of my favorite Psalms as a worship leader is Psalm 100 which has spawned and inspired 10’s of songs and possibly more. Honestly, I feel like the Word is beckoning the worshipper in me. He deserves my SINGING and PLAYING my instrument (not to mention SHOUTING) more than I give Him. My heart is stirred to play and sing and write a “new” song for Him.

The priests of the pre Jesus time would ascend into the temple carefully and with song and Psalm. They would recite the Psalms of Accent before they came into the presence of God to worship Him. These Psalms would accurately describe the who and the why of worship. The who is understood by many, but the why – all of the why – slips by me. He is mighty and glorious and holds my life and the nation’s life in His hands. He is our creator and sustainer, my discipliner and lover. How can I NOT sing? How can I NOT play? (Now let’s add it in) How can I NOT shout? I can – I must – I will!

April 30

There is a whole lot of praise going on! It strikes me that throughout these particular Psalms there was a theme of praise. The Psalmist was saying that we should praise God for who He is and we should praise Him for what He has done. If you are like me my times with the Lord tend to be a little me focused. They are where I learn about Him and ask Him to help me and others. The Lord is saying to me that my times with Him need to be more HIM focused. It is not like I don’t praise Him and extol Him, I do, it is that I don’t make PRAISE the singular focus enough! I love worshipping Him in song, but God is calling me to remember His works and praise Him for that. He is calling me to praise Him for His glory, splendor, greatness and everything else about Him. The beauty of that is it gets the focus off of me, my problems, my issues and puts my mind on His greatness and His history of greatness. My problems then fade in comparison and faith rises in me. Then instead of being worried and depressed, I am building confidence. I don’t praise Him to build confidence and trust, rather I praise Him because He is WORTHY! Confidence and trust and appreciation and many other things are just by-products. (Did I mention joy and happiness too?)

April 29

"Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." (Psalm 16:5-6, NIV)

The Lord said to me to stop fretting, worrying and wondering. I have and will take care of you. I will expand your boundaries at the proper time and they will stay where I put them. Your life isn’t by chance, it is by my design. (Me talking) It is not like my actions have no effect, they do! But the Lord has assigned me my lot and it IS and WILL be pleasant for me.

One of my all time verses is in this Psalm (16). “In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures evermore”. Wow --- that is where the joy is! When I want joy that is where I have to go – to His presence. How? I must praise, worship, adore and concentrate on Him, which means that I have to get away from distractions and give attention to Him.

One more thing – I love to be rewarded! I have even thought of becoming a bounty hunter to earn some extra money. Also, I would give my employees rewards for getting a lot of work done in a day – I love rewards!

"By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward." (Psalm 19:11, NIV)

Not only is there reward in doing what the Lord says to do, but GREAT reward! It seems to me then that I have to HEAR the voice of the Lord and OBEY Him to get the reward. I know about the keeping/obeying part, but it is the hearing part that most, including me, miss. We don’t take time to listen. Stop and listen – maybe you will hear your assigned portion and be greatly rewarded for going after it!
April

April 28

"Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you." (Psalm 84:4, NIV)

"He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; ..." (Psalm 112:7-8, NIV)

"The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”" (Psalm 92:12-15, NIV)

What a difference would be made if I just STAYED in the house of the Lord. That has got to be my goal in this life – dwelling in His house. If I am ever praising, then I am not complaining. If I am trusting and I not fearing! It doesn’t even occur to me to fear anything! I want to flourish and grow tall and strong and bear much fruit in my old age, staying fresh – that only comes when I dwell in His house! When my eyes are on Him, when His presence surrounds me, how can I help but be filled with hope, joy, love and confidence. He for sure dwells in me, the challenge is to dwell in Him. Oh the fruits of it! My soul longs for it.

Help me remove these pesky distractions, attitudes and mind-sets so I can dwell in your house.

April 27

There are definitely times that I envy the rich. I just wish I had more money so that I didn’t have to bargain hunt (although I am thrilled when I get a bargain), and shop at different stores to decrease our grocery bill. I just wish I had a few more bucks, like twice as much would be good. Then I could take my wife to Jamaica for our 25th anniversary! I could pay someone to do all the work on the house that I have to do because I don’t have the money for it. Ahh…, then I enter His sanctuary and I gain understanding of the end of the rich, and my end. I would much rather live with my wealth than have millions and have the end of those who have forsaken God in part because of their wealth and blessing. My end is life and isn’t that the most important thing? Terry, stop looking at this life like it is the most important thing – God is most important! Eternity is my future and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in this life.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." (Psalm 40:1-3, NIV)

I waited – He heard – He lifted – He set – He gave – He put - and now many will see that and put their trust in Him. May I take what He has done in my life and let is shine! I will bring glory to YOU oh Lord, my life is for your glory and is spent bringing you praise.

April 26

In Psalm 39 there seems to be some correlation between controlling my temper and tongue and understanding the brevity of my life. (Although sometimes what God spoke to me may not follow the strictest of interpretation). It does seem to me that I get the hottest and most out of control when things are not in perspective of the whole of life. It is more than frustrating when you only focus on one thing. Is that true for you? It is when I am singularly focused that I am the most infuriated over things. Whether it is not being able to find my keys, (not focusing on the fact that I have a nice car), or it is someone at church who is being very critical of me, (not focusing on the fact that God is doing great things at our church and there are many that appreciate me), when my focus is micro, it leads to my frustration. Even beyond that is the fact that I am only here on this earth for a short time. It isn’t fruitful nor does it make sense that I spend that time hot tempered, or uttering phrases that I wished I wouldn’t have! There is a saying, “life is too short for…”. In this case, I think it should go like this; life is too short for me spending my time in anguish because of others or because of circumstances. It is what it is – make the best of it! (I think I should reread that every day)

April 24

So many good things this morning! Psalm 88 was a raw as they get, and Psalm 91is as full of promise as any. But it was this verse that stood out;

"In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer."
(Psalm 109:4, NIV)

There was something about this verse that struck me and I stopped and mused. It is saying something about being a man of prayer and how that protects you. However it doesn’t protect you from being accused, so where is the benefit?

Of course you know where I am going. The benefits are vast and being a man of prayer is an answer to our prayers of protection and especially deliverance. I am convinced that God is calling me deeper into prayer. How I pray and how often I enter into deep prayer is not enough. I don’t think it is even about defeating foes or being delivered, I think it is about advancement! God is saying to me that if I want to go forward I must become MORE of a man of prayer.

I accept your word oh Lord – help me discipline my flesh to carve out the time needed to become more of a man of prayer.

April 23

"Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." (Psalm 86:11, NIV)

Could it be that only an undivided heart is able to fear God correctly? Hmm…. Something for our hearts to muse on.

It was the actions of praise and worship that stood out to me in Psalm 71. "I will ever praise you, My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, I will proclaim your righteousness, I declare your marvelous deeds, I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come. I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you, My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long” Thinking about God is NOT good enough. My mouth, my lips and my hands with my heart need to express out loud the praise of my God. The words like declare and proclaim speak loudly to me.

Oh God I will declare you loudly my God. I will tell of you, declare you, praise you – out loud, for I want all to hear of my devotion to you – even my own soul will hear and praise you!

April 22

When I am in trouble or when I am sailing wonderfully through life there are 2 things that I desire to know. However when I am in trouble my need factor rises because of my heart’s need to be reassured that I am not alone in this trial. When I am in the middle of it, my heart cries out to God for help and there are 2 things that I NEED to know.

"One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done." (Psalm 62:11-12, NIV)

I need to know and trust that God is strong and able to help me. After that, and most importantly, I need to KNOW that God is loving and more importantly, that He loves me. I need to know that He is with me in trouble - in all of life! Without His encouragement, without my knowledge of His strength and love, I am lost. So it follows then, when I am depressed, discouraged and feeling like any of life’s challenges are a hopeless case, I have forsaken that knowledge and turned to trusting myself.

You are my rock, my salvation, my fortress and my reward! In you alone will I trust!

April 21

Today’s Psalms are again about being pursued and reviled by enemies. However I noticed that in most of them there was a thread of; my enemy WAS my friend. How awful is that when a friend turns into an enemy. Someone you shared life with turns on you and raises up false witness against you and tries to bring you down in others eyes. The pain is multiplied isn’t it? Those people are wicked! (That is what David calls them).

The first thing that stuck out was;

In my integrity you uphold me
and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:12)

There is much to say about this, but God is telling me that integrity is a must. It is super important for me to have integrity in everything. In fact God uses it as a handle of sorts to uphold me and set me in His presence! In the days we live, when someone’s word means little and their character is shifted by circumstances rather than firm in principle, I must live with integrity.

I’ll end with something that is a reoccurring theme in my life. David says to himself, (paraphrased for Psalm 43), “why are you so bummed out, why are you depressed? Put your hope in God – In fact I will praise Him through all of it because He is my God and the one who saves me not only from this circumstance, but from death itself!” Talk yourself through it – that is what the Lord is saying to me. Don’t just sit in it and soak, talk yourself THROUGH it and come out the other side with priase!

April 20

Decades ago I used to vilify the “positive confession” movement. They stood for confessing things to bring them into reality. Some people abused this practice because their confession was for their desires and not the Lords, yet the there were so many who just confessed God’s Word. Today’s Psalms are one of the reasons that I came around to the positive confession of God and His Word.

In all of these Psalms, David was in trouble. In some it seemed like he was depressed and could only see the bad that was happening. It is out of this despair that he begins to confess the character of God. It is as if he is telling himself not to fear and to trust in the Lord. The reason these Psalms speak to me so much is that David is truthful with his feelings of anguish, but he ends up declaring the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness, strength and the FACT that God will rescue him! He doesn’t accuse God because he is in a tough place, he accuses his accusers and seeks help from the Almighty who is well able to deliver him.

Oh how I want to be like that! I don’t want to give up and blame God for putting me in the middle of something, nor blaming Him for not getting me out it sooner. God showed me Psalm 13’s end and this I will live by;

"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me."

I will trust in His love. I will rejoice in His salvation that I have. I will sing and I will recall the great things He has done in my past. Now that is a recipe for victory!