Psalm 33:1-5 ESV
Shout for joy in the
Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the
Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten
strings!
Sing to him a new
song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud
shouts.
For the word of the
Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness
and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of
the Lord.
In this world of ours, where evil reigns, and where the
church (for the most part here in America) has gone the way of the world, and
is in a massive moral and spiritual decline, we who are following Jesus with
our lives need to be proclaiming him and his truths out loud so that all can
hear.
We need to be shouting out his holiness, his righteousness,
his goodness, his mercy and his grace to us. And, by shouting I don’t mean
being obnoxious or getting right in people’s faces or being hypocritical and
legalistic, either.
What I mean is that we need to be bold in our witness, and
not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ or of our Lord Jesus, either. For,
so many, many people, including so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, are
living in immorality, impurity, unfaithfulness, idolatry, and spiritual
adultery, and they are walking according to the flesh, and not according to the
Spirit. And, many of these people are pastors and leaders within our churches,
too.
So, we need to be teaching that the Word of the Lord is
upright. It does not coddle people in their sins. It makes no room for the
flesh. It does not look the other way while God’s people live in moral decay
and spiritual adultery, either. God’s gospel of salvation saves people from
their slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin, not just from the ultimate
punishment of sin.
The gospel of our salvation, thus, demands repentance,
obedience to Christ, and submission to the cross and to the Word of God. For,
if we proclaim Jesus as Savior of our lives, but we live (conduct our lives)
according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit, we will die in our
sins, not have eternal life with God (Lu. 9:23-25; Jn. 6:35-66; Rom. 6:1-23;
Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Gal. 5:19-21; Gal. 6:7-8; Eph. 4:17-24; Tit. 2:11-14).
Psalm 33:6-9 ESV
By the word of the
Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their
host.
He gathers the waters
of the sea as a heap;
he puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear
the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand
in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it
came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
We have to realize here that our God is not sleeping. He is
not ignoring what is going on in the world. He is also not powerless to act,
either. But, he has his timing for everything, and when it is his timing, he
will do exactly what he has said all along that he will do. He will bring his
judgments on this earth, and many will die, and many will die in their sins who
thought they were going to heaven, too, and because they believed the lie and
because they refused to believe the truth and so be saved.
When I read this part about the Lord gathering the waters of
the sea as a heap, what immediately came to my mind is a tsunami. Now, I
realize this is most likely a reference to God parting the waters of the River Jordan
and the Red Sea for the children of Israel to cross over, but it also
represents God’s judgments against His enemies, too, who were drowned in the
Red Sea (See: Joshua 3:13 and Exodus 15:8 – see whole chapter).
Psalm 33:10-17 ESV
The Lord brings the
counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the
Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his
heritage!
The Lord looks down
from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits
enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the
hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved
by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great
strength.
The war horse is a
false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. Amen!
Hallelujah! For, there are so many liars and deceivers who abound these days
who are leading God’s people astray. Our government leaders are pretending one
thing while they are doing another. Nothing from their mouths can be trusted,
though not saying they never tell the truth. But, they twist the truth to their
own advantage and to our disadvantage, and in order that they may conquer the
peoples and nations and Christians of the world (via the beast).
Our church leaders… so many of them have gone the way of the
world and have departed from following their Lord in surrender to his will for
their lives. Many of them, too, are wolves in sheep’s clothing who are thieves
and robbers who are out to destroy the church and the gospel of our salvation. And,
they have largely been temporarily successful.
For, they have diluted the gospel message and turned it into
a license for lasciviousness. They teach that God requires no repentance, no
obedience, and no submission to his Lordship, and then they vilify the true
gospel and its messengers, proclaiming that the true gospel is a lie and that
it is teaching works-based salvation. And, so many have believed this, and that
is why the church is in the mess that it is in spiritually and morally.
But, this cheap grace gospel that they proclaim saves no
one, for it does not bring people to cross of Christ in humility and repentance
and in obedience to Christ and in submission to his Lordship. So, instead of
delivering people from their bondage, it coddles them in their sin and it
entertains them.
Psalm 33:18-22 ESV
Behold, the eye of the
Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver
their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the
Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad
in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast
love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Amen! The eye of the Lord is most certainly on those who
fear him. And, to fear him means to honor, respect, value, uphold, obey, and
submit to him and to his righteousness, and to his holiness, and to his truth.
For those of us who truly put our hope in him, we walk not
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, not in absolute
perfection, but in practice, in lifestyle, and in consistent and persistent
conduct which is honoring to our Lord and to his holiness. And, we have the
confident assurance that one day we will get to be with him forever. Amen!
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.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
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