Psalms Bible Study

 Psalm 5:1-3 & 11-12

Give ear to my words, O Lord,

Consider my meditation.

2 

Give heed to the voice of my cry,

My King and my God,

For to You I will pray.

3 

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up.

11 

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

12 

For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

"Please listen to me Lord." David says this often in the Psalms. And I don't think he says it because he doesn't believe the Lord is hearing him. Quite the opposite. I think he it is more for the reader, or listener rather, since all of these were songs. It's to bring in reason. To make people think, question, and then get the answer all in the same Psalm. I used to think that David was questioning a lot. But I believe now that it was purposeful. It had a purpose. And still does. I think David really humanizes following the Lord. He made some serious mistakes along the way. He did horrible things following the flesh. And the prophet Nathan called him out on it, and he did repent. (You can read his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51.) 

And after David asked the Lord to hear his prayer, he says this: 

My voice you shall hear early in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.

The other day we talked about the first fruits of our money. Giving the Lord the first, because He deserves the first. He also deserves the first part of our day. Not Facebook, not Twitter, not the morning news, but God. He deserves to be first. Because He put you first. You don't think Jesus could've said, "Look Dad, I don't really wanna do this. These people are horrible! I've healed some, I've set some free, but let's just start over again, OK? I don't wanna die on the cross for these people. Look at them! They're not even looking for You, for Us. Why should I die for them?" And had Jesus said that, He wouldn't have been wrong. But praise God, He didn't say that. He was faithful to the end, even to the cross! So, He deserves to be first. And finally.....

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

If you're a follower of Jesus, you are a child of God, and you need to remember to rejoice and to shout for joy, because the Lord defends you! I don't know about you, but I love the name of Jesus! Sometimes I just say His name over and over and over again. Sometimes that's all I can say! Sometimes that's all I want to say. 

And don't forget that the Lord is going to bless you. What do you expect? Do you expect the worst? Or do you expect the best? Jesus prayed for a lot of people, and most all of them He would ask them, do you believe I can do this? And He was even heard saying, "According to your faith so let it be to you." What you believe, is what you will get. So we have to, on a daily basis, ask ourselves and be honest, "What do I believe? Do I believe the word of God that says that He will bless me? That His holy favor will rest upon me? Or do I believe gloom and doom...that everything's just gonna go wrong no matter what I do, so I might as well just accept it?" 

Whatever you believe, that's what you're gonna get. No amount of prayer from other people from the outside will make any difference. You will have exactly what you believe. Nothing more, & nothing less. Because as much as I love you, and I want the best for you, I cannot pray against your free will. You choose what you believe. No one else. You may pretend to believe, but you need to be honest with yourself about what you really believe. This is not a fake it till you make it kind of thing. Doesn't work that way. You either believe, or you don't. Now does that mean you're never ever ever ever ever ever going to doubt? Of course not. But, if you're doubting all the time, that's a problem. And if you are doubting, don't just accept it. Ask the Lord to remove that doubt from you. And continue in reading His word. Meeting with Him in prayer, first thing in the morning, every morning. And see if that doesn't change real quick like. 

And if anyone ever tells you that they've never doubted, they are lying to you. Perhaps they're lying to themselves too, but they are absolutely lying to you. The guys who walked with Jesus on a daily basis for 3 1/2 years. Saw all of the miracles mentioned in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) right in front of their eyes, those guys doubted! So you're not going to tell me you, who never walked in a physical sense with Jesus, and witnessed all of the miracles He did, isn't going to doubt, or hasn't ever doubted. Don't try to sell me that line of goods, because I ain't buying it. Hahahaha. Yikes! 

God is great and greatly to be praised! There is nothing, no nothing, too difficult for him. Whatever it is, just give it to the Lord and go on. James

Proverbs Bible study

 Proverbs 4:3-4

But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly;

The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

4 

Be angry, and do not sin.

Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah

So we read that in verse 3 and we may think to ourselves, "Godly? What does that mean?" The long version of the dictionary definition for that word is:

"Pious; reverencing God, and His character and laws; obedient to the commands of God from love for, and reverence of, His character; conformed to God's law; devout; righteous."

I do like that definition. To be godly means to serve the Lord because you love Him, not because you're being forced to. We live our lives according to God's word because we want to please Him in all that we say and in all that we do. I can't speak for you but I want to be a faithful child. I don't want to bring shame to the name of the Lord. Let's look at:

Colossians 3:17 

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

I know that I quote this verse often but it is very relevant to our daily lives. If we will purpose in our hearts to do this on a daily basis, everything in our lives will change. 

Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah

Being angry is not the problem, it's what we do when we're angry that's the problem. The words that come out of our mouths and perhaps physical actions we may take towards others. We're not five years old anymore. We're not supposed to act like that anymore. We're not supposed to react like that anymore. Especially as blood bought children of the Most High God. 

Being shocked at the lack of driving skills of some folks on the road, and being angry about that, is not the problem. It's beating the steering wheel or using words that we hadn't ought to be using anymore that's the problem. 

Case in point: 

A guy pulled out in front of me yesterday, and praise God I don't know how I got the car stopped, but it did. Or actually slowed down enough to a point where I could go around him. Keep in mind the speed limit on this road is 55 and I was doing that for sure. (For you locals I was traveling south on McColl Road just before you get to Sprague. And he was it exiting a driveway on the west side, that was completely blind. I couldn't see the truck at all until it came out onto the road.) Thankfully he stopped in the middle of the lane to where I could get around him without hitting him or anyone else. If I had hit that giant truck broadside there would likely be no Bible study this morning. Or any morning to come. Of course I would be rejoicing in the presence of the Lord right now, which is definitely what I prefer, but I guess the Lord has some more stuff for me to do down here. 

And it was so funny because usually, when you're involved in a situation like that, you have that apprehension you feel in your heart all the way down to the pit of your stomach. Like totally freaked out. I didn't have that. I wasn't shaking, I didn't need to catch my breath, none of that. I just said, "Thank You Lord." And I went on my way. This was right after church yesterday. 1:30 in the afternoon. 

I share that with you because sometimes things just happen that we have no control over. It wasn't really that guy's fault, as he couldn't see. Or perhaps he didn't look, I don't know. But I certainly didn't see him until his truck was in the road. Being upset or mad or even freaked out about the whole situation is not helpful. I don't know how to describe it, but more and more when I experience things like that I don't have that freak out factor anymore. I believe I'm getting to a point where I just fully trust in the Lord. I know that what happens, even just seconds in the future, is in His hands. Of course it's very possible that something similar could happen today and I'll be totally freaked out. I don't know. I just found it strange that that didn't occur yesterday. And then the more I thought about it, the less strange it seemed. I don't know if anything that I just said makes any sense or not, but there it is. 

I really like that whole meditate in your bed thing. When you're laying down at the end of the day, mentally run through the events of the day so that maybe tomorrow you can make better choices. But whatever happened that day, at the end of the day, that night before you go to sleep, give it all to the Lord. That's it. That's the whole point. Whether you got angry and sinned, or you got angry and didn't sin, whatever the case was, at the end of the day, just give it to the Lord. Don't hold onto it, don't worry about it, don't feel guilty about it. Release it all to the Lord and sleep. And hopefully, with the help of the Lord, do better the next day. I pray you're all doing well this lovely Monday morning. Have a great rest of your day and God bless you and yours. James