Where We’re At

Some of us were talking tonight about our Psalm study.  Tammy mentioned that as we go further into the book, the studying gets deeper or more intense, which is causing some/most/all of us to slow down with it.  This is just fine.  We are not all at the same lesson or day but I hope we are all still working through it.  It has been a blessing to me, and everyone I have talked with about it.

Just to let you know where I am, I finished Day 2 of Lesson Six today.  Some are still in Lesson Five and I know of at least one in Lesson Seven.  It doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you don’t give up on it.  Even if you only look up one verse a day, but you think about it and really let it sink in, and you keep coming back to it regularly, then you are doing well.  All of us are in different seasons and can accomplish different amounts of studying in a day and week. 

If you ever want to share any of your thoughts, please do!  Do not ever feel like you say too much or that maybe what you have to say isn’t good enough.  Everyone is encouraged by YOU when you share how God is working in your life.  A little or a lot, it doesn’t matter.  Please share with your sisters if you have even only an inkling of a desire to.

Commentary on Psalm 79, 80 and 81

79 “Asaph’s psalm is an appeal to God’s honor.”

80 “Just as prayer adds nothing to God’s knowledge and yet plays a large part in His economy, so the impassioned pleas for His attention, that He will rouse Himself and act, have a proper place within prayer, although they add nothing to His will to help.”

“It was mostly the king who was called the people’s shepherd: this prayer acknowledges that there is ultimately only one who lives up to such a title” (God–the True Shepherd of Israel).

This psalm is  either a psalm of concern from the tribe of Judah for the kingdom of Israel (called Ephraim) or a prayer of devout refugees from the tribes of Israel.

81Probably written for the Feast of Tabernacles. 

“God looks for listeners as well as singers on whom the lessons of the wilderness will not be lost.”

The preceding quotes are from Derek Kidner’s Psalms 73-150 commentary.

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“But My people would not heed my voice and Israel would have none of me.  So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart to walk in their own counsels.  Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways” Psalm 81:11-13!

Their hearts were already hardened by sin, and God gave them over to it.  He didn’t make their hearts hard, but He took away His restraining hand of mercy and grace.  This reminds me of Romans 1:18-32.  See also Acts 7:38-43, and Hebrews 3:7-19.  Please read these Scriptures!  I know it is so easy to just see them on the computer screen, but then neglect to read them.  I think you will be blessed to compare these Scriptures with the Psalms we’ve been studying.

 

Does God protect believers from all His judgments?

Day 2, #2

Since we know that God hears and cares for individuals, does that mean that if God is bringing judgment on a group or nation that He will not let true believers be hurt or impacted?

See Exodus 9:22-26 and 10:21-23 and refer back to Malachi 3:16-18 and 2 Kings 22:11-20.

God’s care for us is so multi-faceted!

Day One #1-b

In Psalm 79:9-10, 13 we see that God is our Shepherd/we are His sheep, God is our Savior, and we are His people.  What are some other facets of our relationship with God?  The following are some Scriptures to help you answer.  List God’s part and our part (Shepherd/Sheep of His pasture, etc.).

Psalm 50:21, Romans 9:20

Psalm 79:13, Hebrews 13:20-21

Psalm 80:15, John 15

Psalm 86:4, 2 Timothy 2:24

Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12

Isaiah 29:16, 64:8, Romans 9:21

Isaiah 62:5, Luke 5:34-35

Psalm 24:8, Matthew 21:5

Titus 1:1, James 1:1

Ecclesiastes 12:1, 1 Peter 4:19

 

In light of these, will you spend more time meditating on the truths each relationship facet reveals?  This will help equip you to better think, pray, obey, and disciple others.

What should be our greatest concern when we pray?

Day One #1-a

In Psalm 79, Asaph lists several reasons for God to help His people

1. the nations have come into Your inheritance
2. they have defiled Your holy temple
3. they have destroyed Jerusalem
4. they have fed the birds with the dead bodies of the saints and beasts
5. so many people died that their blood flows like water around Jerusalem

When it comes to prayer, all of these are strong and effective grounds for appealing to God.  Do you think one of these holds more importance with God than the others? If so, which one and why?  See Psalm 79:9, Isaiah 42:8 and Matthew 6:9-13.

What should be our greatest concern when we pray? 

 

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

I woke with this hymn in my mind–it fits very well with our study in Psalms.

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Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

 

Listen to tune at http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/t/pttlta.htm

Discipline from Hebrews

How are you all doing with the study?  I’ve slowed way down with lesson five.  Three Psalms in one lesson is a bit much to do in only one or two weeks, because I love to read through them over and over, to become really familiar with each one.  Once I got to the section from Hebrews 12: I parked there–seems to be where the Lord has had me.  Another section may have stood out more for you. 

I was reading in a commentary on Hebrews 12 today and found that:

• Discipline of sons was expected in that culture (Roman and Jewish)–only the children of concubines and prostitutes were not disciplined–so discipline reveals that we are heirs and children of God.  We should be encouraged, rather than discouraged by it.
• A father would discipline his son to make him become of the same character as himself.
• That the earthly fathers’ discipline was for “a little while” or “a few days” indicates the discipline that happens in the short days of childhood.
• Human fathers sometimes make mistakes in their discipline, “as seemed best to them”. They do the best they can.
• But God’s discipline is always perfect and leads to us becoming partakers in His holiness and growing in the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
• We are trained by discipline, so this is an ongoing thing that takes time.  We have to endure the discipline, suffering, and trials that come with patience.
• It is easy to become irritable and quarrelsome when suffering, but those who have been trained by it exhibit peaceableness.
• It is possible that “resisting to bloodshed” refers not only to what Jesus did for us on the cross, but also the persecution of believers that was so common in that culture.

James talks about the fruit of righteousness in 3:17-18:

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those how make peace.

The peaceable fruit of righteousness refers to our relationship to God (pure), and then our relationship to others.  This wisdom is from above, from the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-26 says:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

The goal of the discipline is to make us like Jesus.  Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly, and the law is summed up in this rule: Do to others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).  The greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).

Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul (Matthew 16:24-26)?

Our Christian moto could be: love God above all, love others above self, deny self.  When we go through trials that help us grow in these areas we ought to give thanks to God for His grace in our lives.  He loves us.  We belong to Him and He is working for our good. 

 

Any thoughts on Lesson Five?

post them here!