Category: Devotions

FRIDAY 20th

Psalm 79

NIV (v13) – ‘Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.’

ESV (v13) – ‘But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.’

It is a long time since I had some verses about sheep in a devotion! We are coming to an end of our second look at the psalms, this being the penultimate one for now. How good to have a timely reminder that we as the body of Christ are the sheep of his pasture. There is a generational connection here, in that as we saw yesterday, the words of the law were passed on from one generation to another so also is the praise from the lips of the people of God, as the previous generation had the word of God and knew the blessing of God and praised him for it, so does the next generation and so on. The praise which comes from the lips of those who are the sheep of his pasture is eternal praise to an eternal God.

In 2 Timothy we see something of generational blessing, as Paul identifies the sincere faith that he sees in Timothy something which was also in his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois, all sheep of God’s pasture, yet from three different generations whose lips brought praise to the eternal God. It is great to see the generations of a family continuing in the things of God, their example is a natural progression of generations, they were natural family, but, at the same time they were spiritual family. I personally think it is great to have a Church that is mixed with its age groups, the older generation right down to the youngest generation, being together, worshipping together, each generation praising God together and each generation that follows continuing the same practise.

When we first went to Rhyl back in 2006 someone in the Church  came up to me and asked me a question in a rather unpleasant manner, and it was something like this ‘Are you going to do the same as ****** did in *****?’ Now I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, it turned out it was about a certain pastor (who I had never met and knew absolutely nothing about) and a certain Church (again which I had never heard of and knew nothing about) but what had happened was that apparently the pastor had decided he only wanted a youthful Church, so everything he was going to do was going to be oriented to the youth and the older folk could move on and find somewhere else to go. How sad! And yet it seems to be becoming common place, where the heritage and experience of the older generation seems to count as nothing to some in the younger generation, and there is one thing for sure I would never want to be a part of a Church where certain generations were not wanted, and what this person was asking me back then was never going to happen, I thank God for every generation in the body of Christ, for we need each other, the older generation needs the younger and the younger needs the older, the different generations need to be together, to worship together, to fellowship together, to be the sheep of God’s pasture together. We need each other, may we value each other in the body of Christ, may we value the experience and the wisdom of those who are older and at the same time may the older generation appreciate the younger and may we always seek ways to be an encouragement and a blessing to each other.

As the shepherd in Emmanuel, I want to put it on record, I appreciate, love and care for each one of you, the sheep that God has put under my care, from the eldest way up there in the nineties to the youngest just a few months old, God has brought us together, as sheep together, so that we may praise him together. May we always be united, together in the pasture where he has set us, as one for the praise of God, as one for the purpose of God and as one for the promotion of the gospel.

THURSDAY 19^th

Psalm 78

NIV (vv1-4) – ‘My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— things we have heard and known,  things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.’

ESV (vv1-4) – ‘Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.’

There is a similarity today with the verses that I have chosen from this psalm to yesterdays in that the psalmist is talking of the importance of recalling and passing on the things from the past. It is a passing on from one generation to another, a principle which was an important part of the history and life of the children of Israel, we will remember that as they were coming out of Egypt and making there way toward the promised land that they were instructed; ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’ Deuteronomy 6:4–9

I want to bring from this devotion today a renewed call to the importance of the passing on of the things of God, yes, the good things he has done, but more importantly the passing on of his Word, essentially the importance of the need to be preaching and teaching the Word of God. It must be one of my top priorities as a pastor, an individual called to shepherd the flock of God that I pass on to the sheep the pure food of the Word of God. I personally am forever grateful for all those who I have sat under as they have ministered faithfully the Word of God, realising that especially in my youth it gave me a good spiritual grounding as I grew, developed, and matured spiritually, we should be grateful for the Scripture, we should have a desire to read and meditate upon it and we also should be eager to come and hear it being preached, expounded or taught. In my recent personal study times in preparing ministry to bring  to the Church family, a couple of verses which I will also quote when we come together on a Wednesday evening for our look at the first epistle of Peter that have guided me are from 2 Timothy—‘Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching’ Paul continues to say why the preaching of the word is so vital, ‘For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions . . .’ that is people will look for those who will preach what they want to hear rather than to hear what the Word of God actually says!

May God help us to remain faithful as a local Church in Gateshead to the sound preaching of the Word of God, as it says in Ephesians 4 ‘. . . until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning by craftiness of schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’ Ephesians 4:13-16

WEDNESDAY 18^th

Psalm 77

NIV (vv11-15) – ‘I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph’.

ESV (vv11-15) – ‘I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.’ Selah

‘I will remember’ – the memory is an incredible faculty, to be able to remember and to recall things from the past. I wonder what your earliest memories are, I suppose the older we get the more likely we are to forget, or our memories will fade, for me there are specific things I can remember from around the age of 3 onward, memories that are special, perhaps one of the most precious earlier memories is that I can remember seeing my granny just days before she died when I was just six years old. A granny who I would only know for a short space of time. We cherish the good memories. Unfortunately, our minds remember things that we wish we could forget, the sad times, the bad times, the difficult times.

The psalmist here today is recalling and remembering the good things that God had done, the wonders of old, the mighty works, his demonstrations of power among his people and as he remembered the past, bringing the good things God had done to memory it gave him confidence and hope for the future.  

Remembering what God has done in the past is a positive action, for it encourages us, it inspires us and gives us reason to declare to others the goodness of God.

I mentioned that we also remember things we would rather forget, the wonder of God is that he chooses to forget those things that we want to forget, he chooses to remember them no more, so all that we did that was unholy, unrighteous and unacceptable in God’s eyes before we came to faith, things that perhaps we would be ashamed about if they were ever brought into the open are forgotten, not remembered any more by God because the shed precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to blot it all out, that is good news.

There is an important aspect of remembering in the Christian faith, I touched on it yesterday concerning the cup of blessing, the sacrament of communion, those precious moments when we draw together as God’s family, usually on a Sunday morning to share in communion, an act where we remember what Christ has accomplished for us. We remember through our partaking of the bread of his body that was bruised, beaten, and broken on our behalf and cruelly hung with nails upon the Cross and we remember through our partaking of the cup, his blood that was shed, making atonement for our sin. Our remembrance of these things are so important, it keeps us focused on what God has done through Christ in reconciling the world to himself, and more personally in reconciling us as individuals and can I add here because the subject is the precious blood, when the devil tries to dig up your past, trying to get you to remember the things that you don’t want to remember, trying to bring to your mind those things that God has chosen not to remember and has blotted out, think about the blood, think of its efficiency, and begin to give praise that ‘God has blotted them out, remember;

God has blotted them out,

My sins like a cloud hung over me,

He blotted them out and has set me free,

His word I now proclaim,

How thro’ faith in Jesu’s name,

You too may know this pardon full and free;

And then with me you’ll shout,

Your sins are blotted out,

Oh, come and find your all in all in Jesus.

TUESDAY 17^th

Psalm 75 & 76

NIV (75:8, 76:7) – ‘In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.’

‘It is you alone who are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry?’

ESV (75:8, 76:7) – ‘For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.’

‘But you, you are to be feared! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused?’

This is a startling and frightening text on its own, try and imagine it in your mind, the Lord God is standing in heaven with a cup in his hand, full of foaming wine and spices, the previous verse informs us that it will be a cup of judgement, judgment that will be poured out upon the wicked of the earth, who in turn will drink it down to its very last dregs. The next psalm (76) in v7 says that the anger of the Lord is roused, and that from heaven he will not only pour out judgment but will also utter judgment and the question is asked, who will stand? There is an earlier verse in Psalm 75, v2 that says that God will judge with equity, so we know that the cup of foaming wine mixed with spices will be a cup of righteous judgement, God will only ever do that which is right. It is a clear reminder that humanity needs to fear God, for he alone will judge mankind, and what a fearsome day it is going to be. But, thank God for another cup, it is called the cup of blessing in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, but before it could become the cup of blessing it needed to be a cup of suffering, and the Lord Jesus took up that cup and began to drink from it as he prepared himself to go to Calvary,* the place where he was going to take upon himself our sin, and the punishment that we deserved for that sin, the place where he was going to allow the cup of God’s fury to be poured upon himself on our behalf, so that as we come to believe in him by faith we would not have to face the cup filled with wine and mixed with spices, but instead be able to enjoy the cup of blessing, the cup we partake of when we come to share in communion together, to give thanks for his body that was broken and his blood that was shed.

Let us be sure about this, the day of God’s wrath, the day of his judgement upon sin and the sinner is coming and the outcome is not a very pleasant one, if we have rejected his incredible offer of salvation then the verdict will be ‘Depart from me’ and the command given to cast into the place prepared for the devil and his angels, but today while there is still opportunity, while his grace is still available we can come to the foot of the Cross, where Jesus died in our place and take all that he has made available to all who would believe and know that when God comes in judgement, we will be safe for eternity because we stand in the robes of righteousness, given to us because there was one who stood condemned in our place, ‘He took my sins and my sorrows, he made them his very own, he bore the burden to calvary and suffered and died alone.’

‘Man of sorrow,’  what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruin’d sinners to reclaim! Hallelujah! What a Saviour. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood; sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah! What a Saviour.

Today as you read this devotion, if you have not yet accepted the offer of salvation that God offers you and which has been provided by the Lord Jesus Christ, think about it, without Christ you will have to drink of the cup that is filled with the wine of God’s fury, it will have a bitter taste and an even bitter ending, choose instead to come and to receive Jesus, who drank from the cup of God’s wrath on your behalf so that you can enjoy the cup of blessing.

*(Luke 20:22 ‘. . . are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? See also Luke 22:42)

MONDAY 16^th

Psalm 74

NIV (v12) – ‘But God is my King from long ago; he brings salvation on the earth.’

ESV (v12) – ‘Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.’

If we take the NIV rendering, we see that God brings or has brought salvation on earth and then from the ESV rendering, God has and is still working salvation on earth. What an amazing God who in eternity past prepared a plan for salvation, who came stepping into time to bring the plan of salvation into reality at Calvary and has continued to work that plan of salvation in the earth through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and granting individuals faith to believe, and who will one day bring it to its full fruition in eternity when the redeemed of the Lord, those who have received this grand and great salvation on offer will be gathered around his throne.

I am going to include the words of a hymn again today that helps us to contemplate the wonder of this grand salvation that God is working out in the earth, ever since the gospel was first proclaimed, countless numbers have heard the message and responded by faith, have been washed in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb, and should the Lord continue to tarry, until he does come, many more will hear and respond, may we be individuals who will share the good news, the wonder of redeeming grace, so that those we know in many different ways will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus and be partakers of this the same ‘full salvation’. May we be encouraged that despite the darkness in this world, God is still saving the souls of men and women.

Full salvation! Full salvation!

Lo, the fountain opened wide,

Streams through every land and nation

From the Saviour’s wounded side.

Full salvation! Full salvation!

Streams an endless crimson tide.

Oh, the glorious revelation!

See the cleansing current flow,

Washing stains of condemnation

Whiter than the driven snow:

Full salvation! Full salvation!

Oh, the rapturous bliss to know.

Love’s resistless current sweeping

All the regions deep within;

Thought, and wish, and senses keeping

Now, and every instant, clean:

Full salvation! Full salvation!

From the guilt and power of sin.

Life immortal, Christ descending,

Lo! my heart the Spirit’s shrine:

God and man in oneness blending,

Oh, what fellowship is mine!

Full salvation! Full salvation!

Raised in Christ to life divine!

Care and doubting, gloom and sorrow,

Fear and shame are mine no more;

Faith knows naught of dark tomorrow,

For my Savior goes before:

Full salvation! Full salvation!

Full and free for evermore!

FRIDAY 13^th

Psalm 73

NIV (vv25-26) – ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’

ESV (vv25-26) – ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’

We are in the same psalm as yesterday, and the psalmist is rejoicing in the protection that he has known from God, in verse 23 he says, ‘I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.’ You can only hold someone’s hand if you are with them and close to them, and we can only hold God’s hand if we are with him and close to him. And the psalmist who we are told in the heading is Asaph is meditating upon the goodness and the faithfulness of God who has been with him, holding his hand as he has walked through his troubles and at the same time has kept him from falling, guiding him with counsel (v24) As a result he knew he was safe and would one day be received in glory (v24). If we too want to one day be found in glory then we need to keep hold of the hand of God and allow him to guide us, to counsel us and to keep us from falling. Asaph then makes the declaration in our text, ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.’ In other words, he was satisfied with God, satisfied with the things of God, and satisfied with the ways of God, nothing else would satisfy him or could ever meet the deepest longings of his heart. What a place to be found in, a place of contentment and a place of satisfaction, which also would have been a place of peace. He concludes in verse 28 ‘But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the LORD God my refuge, that I may tell of your works.’ In his letter to the Philippians 3:8-11 Paul expresses his desire to be completely satisfied with God and God alone, he counts everything else as dung, and we too need to make Him our hearts sole desire, ‘Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.’

THURSDAY 12^th

Psalm 73

NIV (v2) – ‘But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.’

ESV (v2) – ‘But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.’

When we moved to Rhyl back in 2006, some friends of ours from Hereford also moved to Llandudno at around the same time, so on one occasion I went with our daughter Laura to visit them and to go for a walk on what is known as the Little Orme, they had a dog and used to go there for his walks. While we were walking around the perimeter, I stepped a little too close to the edge and lost my footing and slipped, fortunately I managed to grab the ground with my hands as I was falling and prevented myself from falling over the cliff edge and to go crashing down onto the rocks below or even into the sea. It was a scary moment in time! Now, it was my own fault for three reasons, one, I should not have walked so close to the edge, two, I had not worn proper footwear for such an occasion and three, as a forty something year old bloke I should have known better. I put myself at risk of slipping and the consequences that could have been do not bear thinking about!

 I wonder how often we have put ourselves at risk of slipping in our Christian walk, we should have known better but we have walked a little to close to the edge, we have acted foolishly, we have been somewhere or done something we know is foolish, we had almost slipped, we had nearly lost our foothold, but thank God that he was there to grab us by the hand and to pull us back, to draw us to a place of safety.

I simply just want to leave a challenge to one and all today, how is your Christian walk, how close are you genuinely walking with God or are you putting yourself at risk by walking too close to the edge, perhaps flirting with the world, maybe neglecting good daily Christian habits, may we all examine our ways and as a result put our feet firmly upon the solid Rock, Christ Jesus, and remind ourselves that it is the steps of the GOOD or the GODLY man and woman that are ordered by the Lord, when he delights in His way. (Psalm 37:23) ‘Oh that my ways may be steadfast  in keeping your statutes!’ Psalm 119:5 Interestingly if you continue into Psalm 73, we read in verse 18, ‘Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away by terrors.’ The fate of those who choose to walk in the ways of the world instead of the ways of God is terrifying! How much better to ensure we are walking close with God.

Did I learn my lesson, up to a point yes, but I have acted recklessly since, a few years ago in Rhyl we had an enormous storm, there was widespread flooding as the sea defences broke and the sea came gushing through the sea walls, the waves were like nothing I had ever seen before or since and I decided to don a good raincoat and go and do some photography, I went up to the sea front which was only a ten minute walk away and began to walk along the sea front being blown by the wind, getting soaked and grabbing a few shots, I came to a point where there was a wall that I could hide behind or shelter behind to grab some photos of the waves crashing over the front, eventually the water began to swirl around me and the wind was forcing the waves to crash against the wall so hard that I decided to go for better cover, almost immediately after I had moved the wall came crashing down, it would have fallen over me! See I was pushing my luck so to speak, thinking it would be all okay! Excuse me using the word luck, but you understand what I mean, how often do we push our luck, move the boundaries thinking we can do this or go there, and it will be all okay while at the same time the devil is waiting to pounce, to take his opportunity to snatch us and drag us into a place of destruction. Keep close to God, do not flirt with the world, allow God to order your steps and to keep you from falling.

WEDNESDAY 11^th

Psalm 72

NIV (vv2, 18-19) – ‘May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice . . . Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvellous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.’

ESV (vv2, 18-19) – ‘May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! . . . Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!’

I’m sorry – no I’m not really, but another song came immediately to mind when I selected these verses for today, a song that reminds me of a lady who was in our Church when we were in Wrexham, if ever the opportunity went out for a choice of song she would chose this – ‘All over the world, the Spirit is moving, the song continues ‘for the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea’. And the psalmist in the verses above declares, ‘May the whole earth be filled with his glory’.

There is a sense in which the glory of the Lord is filling this earth for through the message of the gospel, the good news is being declared as it was ordained to be, from Jerusalem, to Judea, then Samaria and to the end of the earth. As the good news is being declared, men and women are being born again, and the Church is being built and established all around the world, the glory of the Lord is being declared and is being seen in those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. It is also seen in that which God has created: Psalm 24 ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above his handiwork’ the same psalm continues to speak of the law of the Lord, that which we have today as his word, and his glory is seen in this. But  there will yet be a future day when his glory will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea, when he comes in glory to establish through his Son the Lord Jesus Christ his kingdom which will know no end, as Jesus sits on the throne in Jerusalem, the glory, the majesty and the power and the might of Almighty God will be declared for all the earth to see.

And what a kingdom it will be, a kingdom of righteousness and a kingdom of peace. Every other king and kingdom has risen and fallen and until that day will yet rise and fall, but when He sits on the throne it will never be taken away from him, imagine a world with a righteous King, imagine a world where righteousness will be found in every corner, in every heart and in every home, a world which will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Imagine it, yes, but one day it will be reality, for Jesus who at this present moment sits at the right hand of God, acting as our Great High Priest will come in glory and splendour as the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Matthew 25:31 predicts this day with the words, ‘When the Son of man comes in his glory . . .’ He is coming again, first to the clouds to take the redeemed to be with himself, (Hebrews 9:28) and then to come in glory to the mount of Olivet when he will set up his throne in Jerusalem.

And this Kingdom will know no end,

And its glory shall know no bounds.

TUESDAY 10^th

Psalm 71

NIV (v22) – ‘I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.’

ESV (v22) – ‘I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre,  O Holy One of Israel.’

The word faithfulness immediately brings a hymn to mind . . . ! Can I resist it, no, here it is, well the chorus anyway!  Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided, great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

The faithfulness of God is one of his undeniable attributes, for as we look through the record of Scripture God has been and still is a faithful God. Even when his people have been unfaithful towards him, he has remained faithful to them, as undeserving of it as they were. My mind goes back to the time when the Children of Israel were wandering through the wilderness, rebelling, stiff necked, belligerent, turning to other idols, and yet God remained faithful in his lovingkindness and his provision for them, they had the water, the quails, the manna, but they also had his protection over them, and his power working toward them.

In the psalm before us today the composer had been through so much, he highlights many of his experiences and all the way through he is acknowledging his trust in God because he knew he could depend upon the faithfulness of God.

Notice some of his positive comments during all that he was going through:

V3 ‘You are my rock and fortress’

V6 ‘My praise is continually of you’

V8 ‘My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day’

V14 ‘But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more’

V19 ‘Your righteousness, O God, reaches the heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?’

V21 ‘You will increase my greatness and comfort me again’

V23 ‘My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed’

The words of the song by Matt Redman are applicable here, for despite whatever it is any one of us reading this may be going through – God is still faithful, and we can still praise him.

Even though I walk through the valley

Of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear

And even when I’m caught in the middle

Of the storms of this life

I won’t turn back; I know you are near

And I will fear no evil

For my God is with me

And if my God is with me

Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?

O no, you never let go

Through the calm and through the storm

O no, you never let go

In every high and every low

O no, you never let go – Lord, you never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming

For the heart that holds on

A glorious light beyond all compare

And there will be an end to these troubles

But until that day comes

We’ll live to know You here on the earth

And I will fear no evil

For my God is with me

And if my God is with me

Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?

MONDAY 9th

Psalm 70

NIV (v4) – ‘But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The LORD is great!”’

ESV (v4) – ‘May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”’

Friday, we talked about being overwhelmed with either sin or situations, and that the Master of the sea is the one who wants to be the Master of our lives. In this psalm the psalmist is again talking of being helped or being saved and speaks of the kind of response that should come from those who have been helped or saved, ‘rejoice and be glad’ and always say ‘The LORD is great’. And I am sure that for everyone of us who have been saved, born again by the Spirit of God we do rejoice and are glad and we do declare ‘The LORD is great’. It reminds me of the words of another hymn! Yes, I know that I had finished the hymn devotions but who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned hymn, so here it is: RH45

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,

All ye that are upright in heart;

And ye that have made him your choice,

Bid sadness and sorrow depart.

Rejoice, rejoice,

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice;

Rejoice, rejoice,

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice.

Be joyful, for he is the Lord

On earth and in Heaven supreme;

He fashions and rules by his word—

The “Mighty” and “Strong” to redeem.

What though in the conflict for right

Your enemies almost prevail?

God’s armies, just hid from your sight,

Are more than the foes which assail.

Though darkness surround you by day,

Your sky by the night be o’ercast,

Let nothing your spirit dismay,

But trust till the danger is past.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,

His praises proclaiming in song;

Let gratefulness give all a voice,

The loud hallelujahs prolong!

We who have been saved by the grace of God can say ‘The LORD is great’ and even more as the psalmist says in psalm 48 ‘. . . and greatly to be praised’ we can be glad in the Lord and rejoice because he has done great things for us whereof we are glad, he has saved us, he is keeping us, he is blessing us daily with both general and spiritual blessings, he is watching over us, he is leading and guiding us, he is everything to us and one day he is returning for us, ‘be glad and rejoice’ declare from the depths of your being ‘the LORD is great’ and follow up by saying ‘and greatly to be praised’ and then follow that up by giving him the praise and the worship he deserves. I can feel more hymns arising in my spirit, hymns of worship and hymns of praise, and why? well, because God truly is great, and truly worthy of praise, he alone is the One whom we should be seeking and longing for, may we join with the heavenly host who are gathered around the eternal throne and sing ‘Worthy are you, our lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created’ (Revelation 4:11) and ‘to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!’ (Revelation 5:13)