Tag: Psalms

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How Must We in All Things Give Thanks?

June17

Psalm 111.9
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! 

How Must We in All Things Give Thanks? | by William Cooper

Stop and reflect upon every mercy coming to you in the stream of Christ’s blood, and through the covenant of grace. Because God’s mercy is in line with His covenant, every mercy is a token of the Lord’s favor to his favored: it is that which makes even common mercies become special mercies.

Carnal men, though they enjoy mercies, mind not which way they come — so long they have them. But a child of God knows that every thing that comes through Christ’s hands is the better for it, and tastes the sweeter by far.

A crust of brown bread, coming in mercy is better than a purse full of gold another way. As a king’s kiss to one friend was said to be better gold than a cup of gold which he gave another friend.

Look on mercies as answers to you prayers, and bless the Lord for them on that account. All our mercies we get by prayer should be the more solemnly dedicated to the Lord by thanksgiving. Such a frame of a thankful heart is a spiritual frame; that God has inclined and directed your heart to beg such a mercy is a special act of the Spirit of adoption.

If the chief Shepherd seeks us together, and keeps us from straggling, and brings us under command, this is a mercy to Christ’s sheep. Mercies are drawing-cords, afflictions are whip-— bot drive us and by both we are brought nearer to God. It is a special mercy when any of God’s dealings draw or drive us nearer to Him. 

That storm that sinks and splits some ships, drives others faster into the haven: so do the troubles of this world make a true Christian’s voyage towards heaven the speedier. Thank him.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 22 (Listen – 4:13)
Psalms 110-111 (Listen – 1:57)

*Today’s devotional is abridged, and language updated from, “How Must We in All Things Give Thanks?” Part of Cooper’s argument was removed, as he believed answered prayer was “a sign that God ”accepts you.” This is clearly not the case in scripture or Christ’s experience Gethsemane would have gone radically different as he prayed, “remove this cup.”

Questions of Faith
Part 3 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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How Can We Find Spiritual Rest?

June16

Psalm 109.1, 4

Be not silent, O God of my praise! .. I give myself to prayer. 

How Can We Find Spiritual Rest? | by Samuel Annesley (c. 1620–1696)

How can we live with a conscience that is pacified by the blood of Christ? Christians, be persuaded to practice these:

1. Take heed of every sin, count no sin small.

2. Set upon the healing duty of repentance.

3. Compose thyself to live as under God. You cannot deceive him, for he is Infinite Wisdom; you cannot fly from him, for he is everywhere; you cannot bribe him, for he is Righteousness itself.

4. Be serious and frequent in the examination of your heart and life. This is so necessary to the getting and keeping of a right and peaceable conscience, that it is impossible to have either without it. 

5. Be much in prayer, in all manner of prayer, but especially in private prayer. 

6. Let your whole life be a preparation for heaven. Strip yourself of all encumbrances, that thou mayest attend unto piety. Pleasures may tickle you for a while; but they have an heart-aching farewell. You may call your riches good; but within a few days, what good will they do you? Men may flatter you for your greatness; but with God your account will be the greater. 

7. Live more upon Christ than upon inherent grace. Do not venture upon sin because Christ hath purchased a pardon; that is a most horrible and impious abuse of Christ. 

8. Be, every way, nothing in your own eyes. It is the humble soul that thrives exceedingly. “And, alas! what have we to be proud of?

9. Entertain good thoughts of God. We never arrive to any considerable holiness or peace till we lose ourselves in Deity;

10. Do all you do out of love to God. Spiritual love-sickness is the soul’s most healthy constitution. When love to God is the cause, means, motive, and end of all our activity then the soul takes flight towards rest.

O my soul, you are so little, why won’t you open all your little doors; why wont you extend your utmost capacity, that you mayest be wholly possessed, wholly satiated, wholly ravished with the sweetness of so great love? 

O, therefore, my most loving God, I beseech thee, tell me what may most effectually draw out my love to thee, considering what prevention of love, what privative, positive good things I receive from thee, infinite in greatness, infinite in multitude!

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 21 (Listen – 3:33)
Psalms 108-109 (Listen – 4:28)

*Today’s devotional is abridged from, “How May We Be Universally and Exactly Conscientious?”

Questions of Faith
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Why We Want Objective Good

June8

Psalm 97.10
O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 
Our post-modern culture may teach that there is no such thing as an objective good or an objective evil, but no one really wants to believe that this is true. For when there is no objective standard, then “might makes right” — and that is unacceptable.
When there is an objective standard, John Piper says, “the simplest peasant in Russia, the simplest Jew in Germany, the simplest slave in Georgia or the simplest Christian prisoner in Rome can say to the most powerful Stalin, the most powerful Hitler, the most powerful plantation owner or the most powerful Caesar, ‘Excuse me. No, sir, this is wrong. Your power does not make it right. There is a God above you and there is a right and a wrong outside of you and your might does not make it right.’”
God defines objective good and objective evil. Good is that which honors Him and helps others, and evil is that which dishonors Him and hurts others. And He calls us to conform our emotions to this reality.
Yet loving an objective good and hating an objective evil – although somewhat easy to talk about when it comes to international injustices – gets complicated when we start talking about our own hearts.
In the Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn reflected, “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts … even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.”
Prayer
Lord, Jesus himself is the ultimate objective good. There is nothing better for us than him. In light of this reality, we beg you to give us your mercy for the miracle of new affections. Help us love good and hate evil, especially the evil in our hearts. Lift our eyes to Jesus, who died at the hands of evil to bring us the ultimate good. Let us not merely reject evil and choose good; let us hate evil and cling to good. Change our affections and, thereby, change our lives. Amen.
Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 12 (Listen – 5:11)
Psalms 97-98 (Listen – 2:11)
Life and Eternity
Part 1 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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All of Life: Enshrouded in Mystery

June5

Psalm 92.5-6
How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand. 

Ironically, one thing that we can know about God is how little we can know about Him. In large part, he is a mystery – not because he chooses to withhold himself, but rather because he is God and we are not.

As A.W. Tozer puts it in The Knowledge of the Holy, “Exactly what He is He cannot tell us. Of what God is conscious when He is conscious of self, only He knows. ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ Only to an equal could God communicate the mystery of His Godhead; and to think of God as having an equal is to fall into an intellectual absurdity.”

In Psalm 92, the Psalmist sings praise to God and rejoices, “How great are your works, O Lord!” Then he continues by describing those things that the fool cannot understand—namely, the ways and judgments of God.

When we approach the Lord, how often are we conscious of his “deep thoughts”? Even his personhood is mysterious! 

Tozer continues, “Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption. Some persons who reject all they cannot explain have denied that God is a Trinity. Subjecting the Most High to their cold, level-eyed scrutiny, they conclude that it is impossible that he could be both One and Three. 

“These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead. Every man lives by faith, the nonbeliever as well as the saint; the one by faith in natural laws and the other by faith in God.”

Prayer
Lord, like the Psalmist, we look upon your creation and see your mysterious glory. Our world is full of the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual. It is a wonder that we are not constantly overwhelmed by even the simplest phenomenon in nature. We marvel in your presence. Fill us with wonder for knowing you. Let us not be arrogant or presumptuous for we live by faith. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 9 (Listen – 5:06)
Psalms 92-93 (Listen – 1:28)

Investing With Your Life
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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This Weekend’s Readings

Saturday: Deuteronomy 10 (Listen – 3:12); Psalm 94 (Listen – 2:08)
Sunday: Deuteronomy 11 (Listen – 4:38); Psalms 95-96 (Listen – 1:09)

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What it Means to Trust in God

June4

Psalm 91.1-2
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 

TBT: What it Means to Trust in God | by Thomas Lye (c. 1675 C.E.)

To trust in God, is to cast our burden on the Lord, when it is too heavy for our own shoulder; to dwell “in the secret place of the Most High,” when we know not where to lay our heads on earth. It is to “look to our Maker,” and to “have respect to the Holy One of Israel;” to lean on our Beloved; to stay ourselves, when sinking, on the Lord our God. 

In a word, trust in God is that high act or exercise of faith, whereby the soul, looking upon God, and casting of itself on his goodness, power, promises, faithfulness, and providence, is lifted up above carnal fears and discouragements, above perplexing doubts and disquietments. These acts are either for the obtaining and continuance of that which is good, or for the preventing or removing of that which is evil.

More particularly, there are three ingredients of trust in God:

1. A clear knowledge or right apprehension of God, as revealed in his word and works. Knowledge of God is of such necessity to a right trust, that it is put as a synonym for trust: “I will set him on high, because he hath known,” that is, trusted in, “my name.”

2. A full assent of the understanding, and consent of the will, to those divine revelations, as true and good, wherein the Lord proposes himself as an adequate object for our trust.

3. A firm and fixed reliance, resting, or recumbency of the whole soul on God. Or a firm persuasion, and special confidence of the heart, whereby a believer particularly applies to himself the faithful promises of God, and certainly concludes and determines with himself, that the Lord is able and willing to make good to him the good promises he hath made. This indeed is the very formality of trust; one of the highest and noblest acts of faith.

Prayers from the Past
Lord Jesus Christ, you created heaven and earth; you never forsake those who put their trust in you. Thanks be to you: you have made us fit to live in your city in heaven and share your kingdom.

Give your servants rest; turn the violence of their enemies to me.

Give your church peace; deliver it from the tyranny of the devil.

— Theodotus of Ancyra, prior to his martyrdom c. 302 (excerpted from a longer prayer).

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 8 (Listen – 2:58)
Psalm 91 (Listen – 1:39)

Investing With Your Life
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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