Category: Devotions

FRIDAY 6^th

Psalm 69

NIV (vv1-2, 14-15) – ‘Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me . . . Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.’

ESV (vv1-2, 14-15) – ‘Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me . . . Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.’

Yesterday I used a hymn in the devotion and again another hymn easily comes to  mind with these words:

I was sinking deep in sin,

Sinking to rise no more,

Overwhelm’d by guilt and sin,

Mercy I did implore,

Then the Master of the sea,

Heard my despairing cry,

Christ my Saviour lifted me,

Now safe am I.

Just reading the words of this hymn brings back memories growing up in a Church where the hymns were sung with such passion and with meaning, getting to the chorus part:

Love lifted me! Love lifted me!

When no one but Christ could help,

Love lifted me!

And such was the experience of everyone of us who have been born again by the Spirit of God, we were deep in sin, we were sinking in the sin, we were overwhelmed by guilt as we sought to fight against the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, but God’s love for us won through and by his grace we were saved, lifted up out of the sin and despair and our feet were set upon a solid rock, the Rock Christ Jesus. The one who calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee, stepped into our lives and calmed the storm that was brewing as we fought against the guilt and conviction of sin. But the same one who saved us, also continues to be with us, the Master of the sea becomes the Master of our lives, and as we fully trust in him he is with us as we go through all the various storms that life will throw at us, it may be the storm of sickness, the storm of bereavement and loss, the storm of a marriage break down, the storm of a job loss, we could add so  much more to the list, but the Master is with us to take us through safely to the other side.

It could be that today as you are reading this devotion you are feeling overwhelmed with something, perhaps you are still overwhelmed in your sin, as you have never trusted in Jesus as your Saviour, you are still a sinner who needs to be saved by his grace, perhaps there are addictions overwhelming you, call out to the Master of the sea, call out sinner to the one who can save you. Maybe for someone today you have committed your life to Jesus in the past, but at present you are not fully trusting him as you ought, and as a result you are becoming overwhelmed with issues, call out and begin to trust fully again, maybe someone is reading this today and you have a situation that seems at present to be overwhelming you, call out to the Master of your life to come to your rescue, to bring you through, whatever the situation, whatever the depths you feel you are being overwhelmed in, the Master is ready to stand in your life and to speak out ‘peace be still.’  

For eight years I was involved in recovery as an accident recovery driver, getting called out at all times of the day or night, to respond should an individual or the police call to say an accident had occurred and a vehicle or vehicles needed to be recovered. It always seemed to be just as I had got to bed and was dropping off, the phone would ring – and up I would have to get and go to do the recovery. The Master of recovery is also available 24 hours, it doesn’t matter what time of the day or night that we may feel that we are being overwhelmed with a matter, we can bring it to the master, he is available, and he is willing to come to our aid, he the Master of the sea, is also the Master of everything, so call out to him, any time, whether day or night and he will respond. Remember the song we have used recently, if it matters to you, it matters to the Master.

THURSDAY 5^th

Psalm 68

NIV (vv34-35) – ‘Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel,  whose power is in the heavens.  You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!’

ESV (vv34-35) – ‘Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!’

The words of a hymn came to my mind when I came to consider these verses, ‘I sing the almighty power of God’, (RH 124) I don’t know how many of our readers know it, I remember hearing it sang as a solo a long while back and every time the hymn comes to my mind, I can hear the solo being sang, sadly the soloist recently passed away. The words fit in with these verses as both the psalmist and the hymn writer are expressing through different mediums the power of God, his power is displayed in so many ways for all to see, but most powerfully in the message of the Cross, the place where fallen humanity can be reconciled to God.

Read through the words of this hymn (words below) and spend some time meditating upon the power of God in general, at work in the Cross and then more specifically at work in your life as you have been born again. Consider the words of the final verse in the hymn, God’s hand is my perpetual guide . . . why should I then forget the Lord . . .’ Maybe someone is reading this devotion and you have started to forget all about the Lord and his goodness, life perhaps has become burdensome or too busy, and you have neglected to keep in step with the Spirit, allow the power and the presence of God to fill you again and to put a spiritual spring in your step, draw near to God again and he will draw near to you.

I sing the almighty power of God,

That made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing seas abroad,

And built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained

The sun to rule the day;

The moon shines full at God’s command,

And all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord,

Who filled the earth with food,

Who formed the creatures thru the Word,

And then pronounced them good.

Lord, how thy wonders are displayed,

Where’er I turn my eye,

If I survey the ground I tread,

Or gaze upon the sky.

There’s not a plant or flower below,

But makes thy glories known,

And clouds arise, and tempests blow,

By order from thy throne;

God’s hand is my perpetual guard,

He guides me with his eye,

Why should I then forget the Lord,

Whose love is ever nigh?

WEDNESDAY 4^th

Psalm 67

NIV (vv1-2) – ‘May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.’

ESV (vv1-2) – ‘May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.’

The opening verses of this psalm take my mind back to Numbers 6:22-27 where the LORD spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to Aaron with what we call the Aaronic blessing. ‘“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,  The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”’

In this psalm the author is invoking the same blessing upon the people of God. The reason being that as God blesses his people it will become a testimony to those all around them, in fact as verse 2 says ‘that your way may be known on earth’ that is everywhere! The response being as we see in verse 7 ‘let all the ends of the earth fear him!’

There is something powerful in this blessing, it invokes God’s favour upon his people, it invokes his protection and his peace. We can so easily think that God’s blessing is automatic, but just as we personally need to be in a place of right relationship with God to know his blessing, so also with a nation, for we are reminded in Proverbs 14:34 that ‘righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ again we know that in the life of Israel as a nation the plea went to them from God himself, ‘. . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.’ 2 Chronicles 7:14

We who are the people of God need to position ourselves in the place where we can intercede on behalf of our nation, that it would humble itself, turn from its sin so that God will hear from heaven, forgive the sin, and heal the land.

We need the Church to rise like a powerful and prayerful army, seeking God that he will come and visit us again, that we as a nation will be positioned in a place where we can rightfully and righteously pray the same prayer as this psalm contains, ‘May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.’

In the words of Hosea, the prophet to Ephraim, ‘Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.’ (Hosea 10:12)

TUESDAY 3^rd

Psalm 66

NIV (v16) – ‘Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.’

ESV (v16) – ‘Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.’

As we have continued through the psalms thus far, I have found it difficult to decide which verses to concentrate on as to try to cover a whole chapter especially the longer ones would take us forever, in this psalm, the author mentions the deeds and the works of God, and then gives an instruction ‘Come and hear’, hear what? ‘What he has done for my soul.’

Let’s look at some of the things the author has already said, first verse 3, ‘Say to God, how awesome are your deeds!’ verse 4 ‘Come and see what God has done, he is awesome in all his deeds towards the children of men’. He wants to highlight how awesome God has been with his dealings toward mankind, so much so that the enemies of God cringe before him, (v3) he highlights some of the awesome deeds, He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot . . . his eyes keep watch over nations . . . he has kept us, tried us, and brought us to a place of abundance. It is all about God’s provision for his people the Children of Israel. His awesome deeds towards them, but then the author changes it to where we come to with our verse, ‘Come and hear . . . I will tell you what he has done for my soul.’ The first verses was his providential care toward a people, a group or community, now it is personal, his providential care toward a person, the individual

We can continue to rejoice in what God has done providentially to mankind in general, and we can define it further to those who are the people of God, the Church, and as we look back through the ages since the Church commenced on the day of Pentecost and see how good God has been, the book of Acts is an amazing story of the early history of the Church and we can move through the ages and highlight particular times and seasons of reformation, refreshing and revival, we can look back over more recent history and talk of all that God has done through modern missionary enterprise as the good news of the gospel has gone around the world, reaching into even the darkest and remotest of places. We can call men and women to come and to see how awesome God has been towards the church, but then we need to become a little more personal and declare ‘Come and hear . . . I will tell you what he has done for my soul’, for every one of us who have been touched by the Spirit of God, born again and renewed have a story to tell of the awesome deeds of Almighty God in our own lives. What he has done for ME.

We used to sing a Sunday School chorus, ‘STOP! And let me tell you what the Lord has done for me. STOP! And let me tell you, what the good Lord’s done for me, he has healed my body, saved my soul, baptised me and made me whole, STOP! And let me tell you what the Lord has done for me.

I have a story to tell, and the amazing thing is that it is my own story, unique to me, it may not be as dramatic as the story of many others but it is still just as powerful because it is all about how the grace of God came into my life and saved me and has kept me and continues to lead me, it is my story of what the Lord has done for me, it is a story that demonstrates the awesome power of God in saving a sinner that was lost and hell bound, it is a story that tells of a sinner saved by grace. What is your story, but in the context of the devotion today are you willing to tell it, to share with others what our awesome God has done in your life?

MONDAY August 2^nd

Psalm  65

NIV (v9) – ‘You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.’

ESV (v9) – ‘You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.’

One of the marvels of creation (it is all marvellous) is the ability for kind and species to reproduce, and for me I love to see it happening before my very eyes in the garden, to take a seed that has been produced by a plant and to place it into the soil and allow nature to play its part in the darkness of the earth before at last a sign of life pokes up through the soil and what was planted begins to grow and to mature until eventually it is a reproduction of the plant the seed had been taken from. I love going out into the garden every day to see how what we have planted is growing and to watch how the fruit or the vegetable is maturing and the flowers displaying their glorious beauty. (I am also sometimes guilty of poking a little below the soil to see what is going on!)

Our text is found within a cluster of verses that portray the wonder of this reproduction and reminds us that it happens because it is God who as the great gardener sends the water and sunshine that is required to enrich all that has been planted. To allow that DNA which God the Great Creator embedded into all that he had created to reproduce so that mankind could continue to reap the benefits of a regular harvest, a replenished earth. If you have come to this devotion today and just read the verse that I have highlighted above, turn to the chapter, and read verses 9-13, and in doing so wonder about the amazing provision of God that we can enjoy every day and give him thanks from a grateful heart. Even give thanks for the rain! But what I want to share is that these verses demonstrate to us that God is a bountiful God, he is lavish with his provision on both the just and the unjust, we all benefit from that which is reproduced in nature year after year as each season follow the other. But a further and perhaps more important reminder is that the greatest and most lavish provision of all that God has given is that which is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, provision that allows us as created beings through the means of human reproduction to also become recreated individuals through new birth. For sin tarnished the DNA that God had embedded into human kind so that as we read in Romans 6:23 we ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, that which is reproduced every time a child is born is tarnished by sin, but God had a master plan, a plan in which he would allow that which was tarnished and tainted by sin to be renewed, recreated and it takes place through the means of a new birth, being born again by the Spirit of God.

Where do you stand before God today, are you still living as a sinner tainted and ruined by sin or have you been born again, recreated by the Spirit of God, the message and the work of the Cross of the Lord Jesus is powerful, powerful unto salvation for all who will believe, and I through this devotion want to give to you, present to you the wonderful news that just as God has provided for your natural needs, the air you breathe the food you eat, the sunshine and the rain, the beauty of all that is around us, so also he has also provided for you soul, he has provided it through the Lord Jesus Christ, the invitation is open to all to ‘believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.’ Acts 16:31 That is you will be recreated.

I close with a reminder of 2 Corinthians 5:17, my favourite verse of Scripture, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’

FRIDAY 30^th

Psalm 64

NIV (v6) – ‘They plot injustice and say, “We have devised a perfect plan!” Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.’

ESV (v6) – ‘They search out injustice, saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.” For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.’

It was the last sentence in our verse today that caught my attention, as the psalmist describes the scheming and planning of those who are plotting against him, he concludes that the inward mind and heart of a man are deep or cunning as the NIV puts it. Another word we could use is crafty, devising a strategy to come as David’s enemy to destroy him, you can hear them after their discussion saying, ‘we have a crafty or cunning plan, nobody will ever outfox us.’ Mankind often thinks like this, deep in his heart or in his thoughts, thinking that what is deep in the heart and in the mind will never be exposed or known by anyone else unless he himself spills the beans. Even when we may think that we can read what is going on in the heart and mind of our nearest and dearest the more we get to know them by their demeanour or actions, we can never know, uncover or expose their deepest thoughts, but there is One who can!

In Hebrews 4:12 we read about the powerful and the living word of God and it continues to say that the word of God is so powerful that it can discern the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, and then it says that ‘no creature is hidden from his (God’s) sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account’. (v13) We may try to hide our thoughts and cover up our intentions, we may try to mask the reasons behind some of the things we say or do, we may try to find reasons to justify our behaviour when it is counter to the standard that God sets in his word, but at the end of the day, we cannot hide from God, he knows the deep inner recesses of our hearts and minds and will one day expose the deception of everything that we have tried to mask or hide. Even those things that we never uncover or make known, those wrong thoughts, the lust we may have harboured, the murderous thoughts we may have played out in our minds etc. God knows all about them and one day we will have to give an account before him of all that we have failed to bring to him beforehand in repentance.

Going right back to the book of Genesis we have the account of the moment when Adam and Eve transgressed, they had chosen to listen to the lie, to the craftiness and the subtlety of the devil, but the record of Scripture says that immediately that they had transgressed they became aware of their wrongdoing,

It says ‘that immediately their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths.’ (Genesis 3:7) And then what did they do? They tried to hide from God! It says, ‘they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.’ (v8) Imagine trying to hide from the all-knowing and the all-seeing God! He called out to them, not because he did not know where they were, or what they had done, but it gave them an opportunity to confess up to it all. Let me rewind, imagine trying to hide from the all-knowing and the all-seeing God! And yet how often do we try to do this? You may even be doing this today as you are reading this devotion! We think deep in our hearts, we try to make excuses, no one else will know, no one else will see what is in my mind and on my heart, but there is One who does. We cannot hide from him, we cannot hide anything from him, and one day it will all be exposed. Surely this should lead each one of us to want to live the best that we possibly can with integrity and righteousness not only with our external actions but within the deep recesses of our hearts and minds before the Almighty God to whom one day we will have to give an account.

One of the marvels of modern medicine is the ability to x-ray and to do CT scans etc, to look for and to identify disease and cancers etc. We are so grateful for these modern inventions that enable that which is internal and hidden from the human eye to be exposed and then hopefully treated, in Psalm 139 David prays ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thought!’ he is as it continues to say asking God to see if there is any grievous way in him, that is to take up my analogy, asking God to x-ray his heart and mind and to see if there is any spiritual disease that needs to be exposed and dealt with, may we (yes take note that I said WE, for I speak to myself as I prepare these devotions as well) may we likewise do the same, allow the thoughts and intentions which are counter to what they should be, to be exposed and dealt with now, rather than having to be uncovered when we stand before Almighty God.

THURSDAY 29^th

Psalm 63

NIV (v1) – ‘You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.’

ESV (v1) – ‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.’

I always think back in the psalms to Psalm 42 and verse 1 when I read this psalm, ‘As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God’ and then forward to Matthew 5 verse 6 where Jesus is giving what we call the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and says, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.’ Is the answer to both psalms found here in this statement of Jesus? I am inclined to say yes, that is that we will never truly be satisfied, we will never know our spiritual thirst being quenched and our spiritual hunger being met unless we earnestly seek after righteousness. This I believe is expressed first in hungering for salvation, where the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us and then to continue to hunger for righteousness by seeking to live lives that are truly set apart to God, this will require a genuine determination on our part to live separate from the ways of the world. We cannot drink from the cisterns of this world and expect at the same time to draw water from the well of salvation.

In Psalm 63 David continues to say, ‘So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life my lips will praise you.’ (vv2-3) I like the way that v3 is in the NASB ‘Because your favour is better than life, my lips will praise you’ That is that David had known God’s favour (which is another way of expressing God’s grace) and as a result it was far better than life, and he will praise the Lord, that is he will continually offer the sacrifice of praise from his lips.   

In Psalm 34:8 we read, ‘Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!’ David had tasted and he wanted more, therefore all that the world had to offer him was of no value; have you tasted of the Lord, have you come to know the goodness of God in your life, his salvation, his lovingkindness, the many spiritual blessings that he bestows on them that love him, then if your, and my answer is yes, then we should never be seeking to get any satisfaction from the world and the things of the world, we should be wanting to keep coming to receive from God’s bountiful supply. We should earnestly be seeking after righteousness, for it is only then that we will be filled. The obverse of this is that if we hanker after unrighteousness or all the vanity that the world has to offer, we will be empty, void of true satisfaction and joy. The things that the world has to offer may seem to satisfy for a moment, and it is but a fleeting moment, and in the end, it is here today and gone tomorrow, but the satisfaction that comes from hungering and thirsting after righteousness meets us both now and lasts into eternity.

May we all have a genuine thirst and hunger after righteousness for it will benefit us not only as individuals, but it will benefit us as a company of God’s people who come together, for the more we are filled and satisfied, the more we will be able to give out to bless others as we fellowship and worship together.

Maybe you are reading this and up to now you have never come to the place of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, you have never yet surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you are still drinking from the polluted waters of this world, then come to Jesus, allow him to come and to fill your life with his life, with the pure rivers of living water. Maybe someone may be reading this who although at one point may have committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and yet for some reason you keep dipping back into the polluted waters of the world, please consider the spiritual damage this may be doing to your soul and with your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, come back to the living water, stoop and drink again, come and draw water again from the wells of salvation. Hunger and thirst after righteousness and you will be filled.

WEDNESDAY 28^th

Psalm 62

NIV (v11) – ‘One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: “Power belongs to you, God . . .”’

ESV (v11) – ‘Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God . . .’

As I read this verse a song came to my mind which I immediately looked up, I found it in SOF and it is 131 in the combined edition of books one and two, ‘God has spoken to his people’. The psalmist says in our verse that ‘One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard’ he then announces what it was that God had spoken and the two things he had heard, ‘Power belongs to God . . .’.

What a statement to make, but even more so what a statement to believe and to stand upon. Yesterday our psalm was about standing on the Rock that is higher than I, and one of the reasons why the Rock is higher than I is because he is the all-powerful, omnipotent God. Truly we can hear the thing that was spoken, and we can believe it, ‘that power belongs to God’.

In the early days of sending out the devotions my theme was looking at how God has demonstrated his power—to remind you; 1) in salvation, 2) for such a time as this in the life of Esther, 3) to protect and to deliver in the lives of the Hebrew lads, 4) in his voice taking from Psalm 29, 5) in praise and worship as seen with Paul and Silas in Acts 16, 6) in the message of the Cross, 7) and finally we looked at God’s power in the realm of healing. There were many other ways we could have looked at the power of God, but today’s text is a reminder that ‘power belongs to God’ and sometimes we need to be reminded of this. Going back to the song that came to my mind it was the last few words in the final verse ‘Powers of darkness we remind you, of Christ’s victory on the Cross, hear the truth we are declaring, Jesus won, and you have lost.’ POWER BELONGS TO GOD’ It is in the first verse of Hebrews chapter one that we are again reminded that God has spoken, first through the prophets and then finally through his Son, and God’s speaking through his Son is the greatest demonstration of His power, for as we are reminded in another song, ‘For this purpose, Christ was revealed, to destroy all the works of the evil one’ and it continues that ‘Christ in us has overcome, so with gladness we sing and welcome his kingdom in.’

The enemy thought he had power, but all power belongs to God, the enemy thought he had authority, but all authority belongs to God, the enemy thought when he tempted the pair in the garden that he had won, but already God’s power was at work to bring about redemption and reconciliation to mankind.

And ultimately there is going to be a day when those who are the redeemed of the Lord will gather around the heavenly throne, joining with the host of heaven singing with loud voice and with a victorious shout ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb . . . Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and POWER and MIGHT be to our God forever and ever! Amen’ Revelation 7

Take heart today, take strength today, receive the peace of God today in all your circumstances for POWER BELONGS TO GOD, he is sovereign, he is in control, he is able.

TUESDAY 27^th

Psalm 61

NIV (vv1-2) – ‘Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’

ESV (vv1-2) – ‘Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I . . .’

What a place to be found, at the rock that is higher than I, that is to be found standing on the One who is the Rock, to be standing on the One that is higher than we are, and that Rock is God himself.

There is something about being at the top of a mountain, while we lived in North Wales, I only ever made it to the summit of Snowdon twice, the first time it was a long arduous climb, and even harder on the limbs to get back down, a sure sign as to how unfit I really was, the second time, common sense kicked it and I used the steam train! But there is one thing for sure the view once up there was spectacular; it was more than worth all the struggle (the first time) to get up there to be able to see on a crystal-clear day, for miles and miles.

As I have said the second time I took the train, there was a group of us together, but for me it was a godsend as I realised how weak I had been the previous time in my own effort to get to the summit. In our psalm today, the psalmist is confessing his own personal weakness, he says, ‘hear my cry, O God . . . I call to you when my heart is faint . . .’ His desire was to be led ‘to the rock that is higher than I.’ He wanted to get to the summit to be able stand on the solid Rock, the One who is a firm foundation, but he was feeling weak, maybe his circumstances were causing him to be cast down, and it can often happen to us, we know where we need to be, we know that our feet should be firmly planted on the Rock, but spiritually we are faint, we need help, and as the psalmist did, so do we, we cry out in our weakness that God himself will come to our aid and lead us, or lift us up onto the Rock that is higher than I, lift us into a place of elevation which is above our circumstance and is full of his presence, lift us out of our doldrum to a place of inexpressible joy once again. Remember I said that once I had reached the summit the view was spectacular, and so will our response be, when we have been led to the Rock that is higher than I, it will be spectacular, amazing to be in his presence and to sit at his feet.

MONDAY 26^th

Psalm 60

NIV (v12) – ‘With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.’

ESV (v12) – ‘With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.’

This verse before us today is a proclamation of absolute trust in God to bring victory. It also is a proclamation of the defeat of the enemy, the enemy WILL BE trampled down.

We as the people of God, those who are born again, and have faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ can also have the same confidence of absolute victory and know with assurance that God will trample down our enemy.

The victory has already been accomplished at Calvary, where Jesus took on the enemy of our souls and triumphed openly, and the day will come when the devil and all that work alongside him as workers of iniquity will be trampled down, but in the meantime we all still face difficulty and problems, but we can be assured of the presence of God with us, and we can triumph over them.

I don’t know what your enemy is today, that thing, circumstance, problem, whatever it may be, you can bring it before God and ask him to enable you to be victorious over it, ask him to enable you to trample it under your feet.

I am reminded of Paul and Silas in the prison, and at midnight they began to pray and sing praises to God and suddenly there was an earthquake that ultimately led to their deliverance.

I have said this before, but feel it is worth repeating, there is victory to be found not only in prayer but in song, I know for myself when I have been faced with a difficulty or a situation that has been trying, song has been a tremendous strength to me, it is as if through the song God comes to my aid and gives me victory. Song can lift our souls and cause us to gaze heavenward, and where does our help come from, it comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

So, feeling the heat of the battle, feel like the enemy is constantly throwing something at you, then join with Paul and Silas and pray and sing hymns and allow the omnipotent God to give you the victory.

‘Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”’  Psalm 118:15–16