Sunday, September 25, 2016, 9:11 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “For Our Nation.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read Psalm 5
(ESV).
Prayer (vv.
1-3)
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my
groaning.
Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and
my God,
for to you
do I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the
morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
What is the purpose of
prayer? It is our time when we commune with our Lord, i.e. when we talk with
him and he talks with us. When we pray, we share with him our requests, we
confess our sins, we cry out to him for help in our suffering and in our difficult
circumstances, and we ask for wisdom and understanding. In prayer, we also give
praise and thanksgiving to God for who he is and for all the things he has done,
and for things promised which we know he is yet to do. As well, we seek his
face for counsel and direction, and to know his Word and how it is to be
applied to our daily lives. Sometimes, when we pray, all we can say is just “Help!”
Other times we can articulate more clearly what we want to say. In prayer, we
also grow closer to our Lord as we get to know him and his heart, and we begin
to reflect that heart in our relationships with other people. In prayer, we
also trust our Lord with our life’s circumstances, and we rest in his love and grace.
Evildoers (vv.
4-6)
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not
dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all
evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord
abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Sometimes we must cry out to
God because of all the wickedness which is going on in the world. We pray for wisdom
and understanding, so that we are not caught in a web of deceit and trickery. So
much of what is being passed off as truth these days is total or partial
fabrication, and for the purpose to deceive and to manipulate people via that
deceit. So, that is why we must pray and ask God to show us what is truth and
what is lies, so we don’t follow the lies, thinking we are following truth. We
need to ask the Lord to give us discerning spirits, and to hear his voice
clearly, and that we would not believe everything coming out of the mouths of
our politicians, our government leaders, and many who call themselves ministers
of the gospel. Just because it looks real or it sounds real does not make it
real (truthful).
We also pray for the lost
world to have their eyes and ears opened to the truth, so they may be turned
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so they may receive
forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified through faith in
Jesus Christ (See: Ac. 26:16-18). And, we pray for the church, much of which
has been caught in this web of deception, and are following after humans when
they should be following after God. We pray their eyes may opened, as well, and
that they will discern truth from lies, and that they will repent of their sins,
and will renew their walks of faith with the Lord Jesus Christ, for many are
living in spiritual adultery against their Lord and are following after the
idols of man.
Righteousness
(vv. 7-8)
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter
your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear
of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of
my enemies;
make your
way straight before me.
I think that often, when we
are faced with life’s difficulties, persecutions, and opposition to our faith and
to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that it draws us closer to our Lord, and it
makes us stronger and even more determined to follow our Lord in full obedience
and in surrender to his will for our lives. When things are going well for us,
and we don’t face much opposition, it is possible to become more complacent or
casual in our relationships with Jesus Christ. But, when we face trouble and
hardship, it leads us to call on God in our trouble and to ask him to help us,
and that is where we grow in our walks of faith and in our commitments to
service to our Lord. We need this, so that when things get even harder, which
they will, we will be prepared for the battle, and we won’t give up in defeat
at the first sign of strong opposition, which has come, and is only going to
get much worse.
No Truth (vv.
9-10)
For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost
self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter
with their tongue.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them
fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast
them out,
for they
have rebelled against you.
There are many liars and
deceivers in our world today whose words cannot be trusted. And, it takes much
godly discernment to see through all the smokes and mirrors, so that we can see
clearly the truth which lies behind all the fabrications and dramatizations.
So, I caution you quite earnestly to not believe everything you see and hear,
even if it looks real to you, because just about anything can be faked, and is
being faked. Remember, we were warned in scripture about a great time of deception
to come upon the earth, and that even the elect would be susceptible to being
deceived. And, remember that deception is called that for a reason, i.e. it is
not obvious. Clever liars and tricksters, who are great actors, are able to
make people believe lies are truth and truth is lies, so test everything in
prayer and against the Word of God, and ask the Lord to open your eyes to
truth.
Take Refuge (vv.
11-12)
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them
ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those
who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover
him with favor as with a shield.
One of the biggest problems
in our society and within the church is that this generation (post WWII) has
grown up on television, and television has become central in many homes, even in
Christian homes. TV can convince us that anything is real, even if it is totally
play acted. Reality and make-believe now often overlap each other to where it
is difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. The world is, thus,
able to manipulate human minds, via TV, so that we follow the lies instead of
the truth, and we buy into the world’s system, values, thinking and way of
behaving more so than we follow the ways of God – his values, thinking, and
actions. So, if we, the people of this world, spend most of our free time in
front of the TV instead of in the Word of God, logic says we are going to
follow and believe more of what we see and hear on TV rather than believe what
God’s Word teaches.
So, if we want to not fall
into deception, and we are praying that God will open our eyes to the truth,
then we, as the people of this world, need a serious break from entertaining
ourselves with TV, smart phones, tablets, PCs, and the like, so that we can
listen to hear God’s voice clearly without all that other “noise” interfering and
shutting out his voice. If the world lost electricity, and we had to go without
electronic instruments, I think that might just be a blessing from Almighty
God, because the people of this world would then talk with each other, and they
would call on God in their distress, and they would be able to hear God,
because all these other things would not be muffling his voice. I have been
without a TV for 8 years now, and I don’t miss it one bit! I would not want it
back for anything!
Yet, just because we take a
break from the world of make-believe does not ensure that we will call on God,
or that we will grow in our walks of faith with Christ, or that we will have
our eyes opened to the truth. We must take refuge in our Lord. We must seek his
face, and desire him above all else, and want to know his Word and his will for
our lives, and we must obey what he teaches us and not be hearers only. We must
replace what was worldly in our lives with what is godly. In place of sitting
in front of a TV every evening, and taking into our minds all the world has to
offer us, we should spend that time in prayer, in God’s word, in ministering to
the needs of others, in building personal relationships and communications with
other humans, and in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost world. We
should be sowing spiritual seed in other people’s lives, and we should be
abiding in Christ and his word abiding in us, and we should be doing his will.
For Our Nation / An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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