Category: Devotions

TUESDAY 2nd

Psalm 86

NIV (v15) – ‘But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’

ESV (v15) – ‘But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’

I wonder if you felt a personal application of the psalm as you used it as a prayer yesterday, maybe there were certain phrases that were more relevant to your own circumstances or situation.

The psalmist seemed to cover a lot of bases, from being poor and needy (that is spiritually speaking) it reminds us of Matthew 5:3 where Jesus speaking says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. And there is a sense in which we should always be aware of our spiritual poverty outside of Christ and our need of his daily grace and provision in our lives. He felt at risk as far as his life was concerned, this reminds us of our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith, and should inspire us to pray for them, he wanted to be gladdened in his soul, and especially after the long period of pandemic that we have been through, and are still going through, we could all do with being gladdened in our spirit, and as we come before God, he gives us joy in our hearts enabling us to rejoice in the Lord, as Paul says in Philippians 4, ‘always’. In the prayer we are reminded that the Lord is a good God and a forgiving God and abounding in his steadfast love and faithfulness. Even when we are in trouble, he comes to our aid, he comes to assist us.

Surely, we can only respond in the same way as the psalmist did, ‘There is none like you among the gods, O LORD, nor are there any works like yours.’ (v8) And as the psalmist continues ‘All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O LORD, and shall glorify your name.’ (v9) So we can say, ‘I will come and worship before you, O LORD, and I will glorify your name.’ and  ‘I give thanks to you, O LORD my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.’ (v12)

God is so good, as verse 15 says which I have already quoted, ‘But you, O LORD, are a God, merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’ He is our God, all the other gods of this world are but idols, they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, mouths but cannot speak, but our God, he is the One who has created all things, he is the One who sustains all things, he is the One who has reached down to sinful humanity with love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, he is the One to whom we turn to and make our requests with thanksgiving in our hearts. ‘O taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD , you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.’ (Psalm 34:8-10)

MONDAY November 1st

Psalm 86

The psalm before us today is a prayer of David, as I read it through, I concluded that it is a good prayer that we could all make and am going to suggest today that it is read through as a psalm firstly and then take it and use it as a personal prayer. I will make the space for this devotion to contain the psalm, using the ESV and verses 1-13, 15-17.

I will share some further thoughts from this psalm tomorrow.

            1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,

      for I am poor and needy.

            2  Preserve my life, for I am godly;

      save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.

            3  Be gracious to me, O Lord,

      for to you do I cry all the day.

            4  Gladden the soul of your servant,

      for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

            5  For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,

      abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

            6  Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

      listen to my plea for grace.

            7  In the day of my trouble I call upon you,

      for you answer me.

            8  There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

      nor are there any works like yours.

            9   All the nations you have made shall come

      and worship before you, O Lord,

      and shall glorify your name.

            10  For you are great and do wondrous things;

      you alone are God.

            11 Teach me your way, O LORD,

      that I may walk in your truth;

      unite my heart to fear your name.

            12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

      and I will glorify your name forever.

            13 For great is your steadfast love toward me;

      you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

            14  O God, insolent men have risen up against me;

      a band of ruthless men seeks my life,

      and they do not set you before them.

            15  But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,

      slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

            16  Turn to me and be gracious to me;

      give your strength to your servant,

      and save the son of your maidservant.

            17 Show me a sign of your favor,

      that those who hate me may see and be put to shame

      because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

           The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 86:1–17). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

FRIDAY 29^th

Psalm 85

NIV & ESV (v6) – ‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’

The heading in the ESV which I use has above this psalm the words ‘Revive Us Again’.

In verses 1-2 the author remembers that God had been favourable towards the land of Israel, Jacob, and had restored the fortunes of Jacob, they had known the forgiveness of God and that he had covered all their sin, but when we get to verse 3, we see the psalmists request to God to ‘Restore us again’, and in verse 6, ‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’ Something had gone wrong in their relationship with God, and the psalmist wanted what had been to be revived, restored among them again, to know again God’s favour and blessing.

I wonder how often we are found in a similar place where our relationship with God has waned, we have departed from our first love, we have allowed ourselves to be distracted, or our lives to be filled with other things that have taken over the place that rightly belongs to God? Yes, we have known God’s favour and blessing in the past, we have walked in close communion with him, we have known what it is to be forgiven as we have knelt at the foot of the Cross, but something has crept in and caused the relationship to have cooled down, dwindle, our desire to pray, our desire to worship, our desire for fellowship, our desire to seek after the things of God has either slowed down or is petering out.

If this is you today as you read this devotion, or if you feel that some of this applies, then pray the prayer that this psalmist wrote and pray for yourself, change the language used to be more personal, ‘Restore me again, O God of my salvation, will you revive me again, that I may rejoice in you, show me your steadfast love again, and grant me your salvation.’

There is a wider application for the Church, the body of Christ, that we together will cry out to the Lord God to restore the Church, to revive the Church so that it will begin again to have an impact upon our own nation and also the nations of the world, cause us to be restored to what you want us to be, the Church universal and the Church local, us at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, come by the power of your Holy Spirit with the Spirit of revival, that we will know the powerful presence of God amongst us in all his glory, touching our hearts and touching us as a fellowship so that we will have an impact on the community around us.

The final verses in this psalm indicate that God will give what is good, and in asking to be revived we are asking for what is good, it continues, that the land will yield its increase, righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. As God revives us, we will know increase, and he will lead us in the way that we should be going as we move forward in his divine purpose.

Revive us, restore us O Lord, revive us as individuals, revive us as a Church, cause your face to shine upon us, cause your favour to be upon us.

THURSDAY 28^th

Psalm 84

NIV (vv1-2) – ‘How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.’

ESV (vv1-2) – ‘How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.’

The psalmist is expressing his delight, joy in being able to have the time to spend in the house of God, he describes it has lovely, and that his soul longs, faints to be found there. He concludes that a day in the house of God is far better than a thousand days elsewhere, and that it is far better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the places of wickedness. (v10)

In other words, to be in God’s house was his priority, it was as essential to him as it is for a sparrow finding a home and a swallow having a nest for itself. The psalmist knew that it was the place where he was going to be in close communion with the LORD God, it was the place where he would feel and know his presence, it was the place where he was going to get that which he would need to empower and to strengthen him through the week, ‘For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly, O LORD of host, blessed is the one who trusts in you!’ (vv11-12)

Now we know that God can bless and bestow upon us even when we are not in the house of the LORD, he is constantly with us, he is constantly giving and providing for us, but I believe there is a particular and special blessing to be found in our coming together in the house of the Lord, to the place which has been designated as the place for believers to gather together to meet with God and to have fellowship with one another, how many times can we look back and recall that in the gathered Church God has blessed in a special way, we have felt his presence, we have known his presence and we have left knowing that we have truly met with God.

How lovely to us is God’s dwelling place? How much do our souls truly long for the courts of the Lord, do our hearts and our flesh sing for joy to the living God, so much so that we long to be in the meeting place, with the gathered Church to worship the Lord and to receive from him? Just as finding a home and building a nest is the priority of the sparrow and the swallow, so our priority should be to be found with the gathered Church every Sunday morning, to be meeting together with God, our hearts to be longing for the courts of God, to be desiring to meet with others to worship the Lord, to honour him with our lips and to receive from him.

WEDNESDAY 27^th

Psalm 83

NIV (vv17-18) – ‘May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD— that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.’

ESV (vv17-18) – ‘Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.’

In this psalm, the psalmist has surveyed what is going on in the nations with their attitude and behaviour towards the Children of Israel and the outworking of God’s plans toward them and he recalls what the enemies of God and of Israel are doing to seek to frustrate and to ‘destroy God’s treasured ones’ (vv2-4) He then calls upon God to take action, ‘Don’t let them get away with it’ ‘Do what you have done to others and destroy them’ (v9-10) In other words, he is asking the LORD God, to exact revenge, to punish them for their attitude and behaviour. But he has reason behind it all, not just to punish for punishments sake, but as it says in verse 18 ‘that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.’

As I read this psalm the words of a song came to mind, ‘Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered’, based upon another psalm, Psalm 68

Let God arise

And let His enemies

Be scattered

And let those who hate Him

Flee before Him

Let God arise

And let His enemies

Be scattered

And let those who hate Him

Flee away

(Men)

But let the righteous be glad

Let them exult before God

Let them rejoice with gladness

Building up a highway for the King

We go in the name of the Lord

Let the shout go up

In the name of the Lord

Since the birth of the Church, the enemies of God and the enemies of the gospel have sought to frustrate and to destroy we who have become God’s treasured ones who have been washed in his Sons precious blood, as we consider the crafty plans of the evil one which he seeks to put into action through governing authorities and other active organizations that seek to supress the Christian faith and persecute believers, may we make the same prayer that the psalmist made, ‘Lord, Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.’ It is a timely reminder again for us to pray for our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

TUESDAY 26^th

Psalm 82

NIV (vv3-4) – ‘Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’

ESV (vv3-4) – ‘Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’

As soon as I read this psalm and the verses that I have highlighted for today my mind went to the book of James and verse 27 of the first chapter, ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.’ There are other verses that also speak of the need to speak up for those who are suffering in some way, for example:

Psalm 10:18 ‘to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed . . .’

Psalm 41:1 ‘Blessed is the one who considers the poor!’

Jeremiah 22:3 ‘Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.’

We live in a world where there is a lot of injustice, a world where many are in poverty, many are being inflicted and many are suffering in some way because of the terror of the rule they are living under and many because of their faith in Christ.

We who are the people of God are called to help and to give assistance to those who are less fortunate, and it can be done in many ways, we can pray for circumstances to be changed we can give out of what we have, however little it may be, we can come alongside and give support, we can befriend and we can seek to share the good news of the gospel for it is the power of God at work to save men and women and as a result will help to turn their lives around.

It doesn’t mean that we should put ourselves in circumstances where we can be taken advantage of, but we need to use common sense and discern where our help that we give would best be served. May God help us to be aware of that which he wants us to support, that out of what we have, others may be blessed.

MONDAY 25^th

Psalm 81

NIV (v13) – ‘If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways . . .’

ESV (v13) – ‘Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!’

This psalm commences with a call for Israel to worship God and in verses 6-7 he recalls what the LORD God had done for them, but they had become obstinate and had failed to listen to God and so he handed them over to their stubborn hearts (v12)

Three times in this psalm the LORD says something to the effect that his people did not listen to him! Verse 8, 11 and 13.

The difference between listening to God or ignoring his voice was immense, listen and I will bless, ignore and you will suffer the consequences. Listen and you will know victory, ignore me and you will be full of trouble! Surely there is a lesson we can learn from this, that when God speaks, we also need to listen, we cannot afford to ignore the voice or the call of God, for it is only when we follow in obedience that we will be truly blessed. God has spoken, in the Old Testament economy he spoke through the patriarchs and through the prophets, but in these the last days he has spoken to us through his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. He has spoken through the Cross, declaring his love for fallen mankind, extending his hand of mercy, and standing ready to dispense grace and forgiveness to all who will listen and respond. In doing so we receive manifold spiritual blessing, in ignoring we face the wrath of God.

There is also another sense in which when we have responded to his first call, the call of salvation, God continues to speak, he speaks in many ways, it may be the still small voice in our hearts, it may be through our reading of his Word, it may be through a circumstance, it can come through the preaching of the Word, and when he speaks we should not only listen but obey, do whatever it is he is speaking into our hearts about. Obedience his essential if we want to know his blessing upon our lives.

Lastly today let’s just look at the last verse in this psalm, verse 16 – ‘But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’

How were the Children of Israel going to know what it was to have the finest of wheat and the finest of honey? Only through obedience in listening to the voice of God. It wasn’t a given, it wasn’t going to be something they could take for granted, they needed to listen to God and trust him fully. May we not take anything for granted, but always be in the place where we are walking in total surrender and obedience to God.

FRIDAY 22^nd

Ezra 7:10

NIV (v10) – ‘For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.’

ESV (v10) – ‘For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.’

Over the last few months, I have taken us briefly through 15 books of the Bible plus the first 80 Psalms, there is a sense in which it has been a mammoth task, and yet at the same time an enjoyable task as I have sought to do as Ezra did in our text today to study the Word and to pass on that which I have learned. I pray that as a result we will have been encouraged in our ongoing walk with God.

The Word of God is so valuable to us, it is God’s word to us, we know so well the Scriptures which remind us that it is given to be profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that we may be complete, equipped for every good work and that it is like a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:12)

May we continue to value the Word of God and continue to be instructed and encouraged daily from it through our own personal reading of it and through any form of daily readings we may use, be it what I send out or through any other means.

Moving forward I will return to the Psalms next week and will continue through from Psalm 81 for a period, let us remind ourselves again from an earlier Psalm of the preciousness of the Word of God, Psalm 19:7-11

      The law of the LORD is perfect,

      reviving the soul;

                  the testimony of the LORD is sure,

      making wise the simple;

           the precepts of the LORD are right,

      rejoicing the heart;

                  the commandment of the LORD is pure,

      enlightening the eyes;

       the fear of the LORD is clean,

      enduring forever;

                  the rules of the LORD are true,

      and righteous altogether.

             More to be desired are they than gold,

      even much fine gold;

                  sweeter also than honey

      and drippings of the honeycomb.

        Moreover, by them is your servant warned;

      in keeping them there is great reward.

THURSDAY 21^st

2 Thessalonians 3:16-17

NIV (v17) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.’

ESV (v17) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.’

This verse would indicate that up until verse 15 of this chapter, someone else had written down what Paul had wanted to say in this letter for him, but to show it was a genuine letter from Paul himself, he was doing the greeting in his own handwriting, which we assume they would have recognised. It would have guaranteed that they knew exactly who this letter had come from. You may recall earlier in this letter Paul had said about ‘a letter seeming to be from us’ (2:2) and of spoken words that obviously had been claimed to have come from Paul which were not from him, he wanted them to know that this letter was genuine, they could be without any doubt whatsoever of where and from whom it had come.

The word genuine or genuineness are important words regarding the Christian faith, we need to ensure that what is declared and taught is genuinely grounded in the truth of Scripture, we need to ensure that we are genuine in our faith, with a good and proper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we need also to ensure that we are genuine in the way that we present ourselves to one another and to those who are outside of the Church.

The opposite to genuine would be fake or false, even fraudulent, let us ensure as we come to the end of our look at this second letter to the Thessalonians that we seek to always be genuine and are always willing to ensure that we only pursue after that which is genuine, that which is truth. Let is ensure that we are genuine with each other and before God, for it is before him one day that we will have to give an account of ourselves.

WEDNESDAY 20^th

2 Thessalonians 3:16-18

NIV (v16) – ‘Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.’

ESV (v16) – ‘Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.’

Paul is now concluding his letter, he has already asked that the Lord would encourage and strengthen them, (2:16-17), that they may be protected (3:3) in the final verse of this chapter he invokes that ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all’ and here in verse 16 he is asking that the Lord of peace himself would always give them peace in every way.

The Lord Jesus is as we know from the prophet Isaiah the ‘Prince of Peace’, (‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ 9:6) We also know from the apostle John that Jesus had given his disciples peace. (‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid’ John 14:27)

Knowing peace is one of the benefits of what being a Christian is all about, we have come to know the love of God through Christ Jesus, we have come to know his mercy and grace, we have come to know his Fatherhood toward us, and we could continue the list, I add here that we have come to know his peace. Peace with God, peace with self, peace with one another, a peace which is something that this world knows nothing about and cannot offer because it is the shalom peace of God himself, and Paul, wants the Church at Thessalonica to now this peace at all times, he continues ‘The Lord be with you’, in other words he is showing that with the Lord being with us at all times we will continually be with the one who is the Prince of Peace, knowing his peace as it accompanies us in all that we do and everywhere that we go.

Meditate upon these verses which remind us of this peace

‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33

‘And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.’ Colossians 3:15

‘And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’. Philippians 4:7