Psalms
81:1-16- God calls us to worship Him with joy - ‘Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!’(1). He has blessed us with His salvation - ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’. He will continue to bless us, as we keep on looking to Him for blessing - ‘Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it’(10). God wants to bless us. He wants us to seek His blessing - ‘O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in My ways!... I would feed you with the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you’(13,16). Far too often, we can’t be bothered with God and are not really interested in seeking His blessing - ‘My people did not listen to My voice; Israel would have none of me’(11). ‘You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your heart’(Jeremiah 29:13).
81:1-16- God calls us to worship Him with joy - ‘Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!’(1). He has blessed us with His salvation - ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’. He will continue to bless us, as we keep on looking to Him for blessing - ‘Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it’(10). God wants to bless us. He wants us to seek His blessing - ‘O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in My ways!... I would feed you with the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you’(13,16). Far too often, we can’t be bothered with God and are not really interested in seeking His blessing - ‘My people did not listen to My voice; Israel would have none of me’(11). ‘You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your heart’(Jeremiah 29:13).
82:1-83:18-
‘The Lord’ is ‘the Most High’(18). Through faith in Jesus Christ, we
become ‘sons of the Most High’: ‘You are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus’(82:6; Galatians 3:26). Through the great love of God,
we have received the great privilege of becoming ‘sons of the Most
High’. With this great privilege comes the great responsibility of
sharing His love with others: ‘Give justice to the weak and the
fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the desolate. Rescue
the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the
wicked’(82:3-4). Let us rejoice in our great privilege. Let us be
faithful to our great responsibility. This is the way of enjoying God’s
great blessing: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
sons of God’. This is the way of ‘giving glory to our Father in
heaven’(Matthew 5:9,16).
84:1-12-
‘How I love Your Temple, Almighty Lord! How I want to be there! I long
to be in the Lord’s Temple. With my whole being I sing for joy to the
living God’(1-2). This is much more than paying lip-service to the Lord.
This is real. Worshipping the Lord meant everything to the Psalmist: ‘I
long for You, O God. I thirst for You, the living God; when can I go
and worship in Your presence’(42:1-2). He found great joy in worshipping
the Lord: ‘Let Your light and Your truth guide me... to the place where
You dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my
delight...’(43:4). He worshipped God with his whole heart: ‘O God, You
are my God, and I long for You. My whole being desires You... my soul is
thirsty for You’(63:1). This is real worship, joyful worship,
heartfetlt worship. May God help us to worship Him like that!
85:1-13-
We are to pray for revival - ‘Restore us again, O God our Saviour...
Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?’(4,6).
We are to pray that God will ‘grant us His salvation’. We are to pray
that ‘His saving presence will remain in our land’. We must pray that
‘His glory may dwell in our land’(7,9). We are to pray for real
listening - ‘I will listen to what God the Lord will say’- , a real
turning to the Lord - ‘turning to Him in our hearts’- , and a real sense
of His blessing - ‘He will speak peace to His people’(8). Prayer for
revival does not begin as a prayer for others. It begins with ourselves:
‘O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee; send a revival - start the work in me’. It begins with this prayer: “Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine; fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine’(Mission Praise, 587).
86:1-17-
‘You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call
to you... Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth... I
will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart... For great is Your
love towards me’(5,11-13). God loves us. He forgives our sins. We
receive His love. We want to love Him more. His love inspires our praise
- ‘I will praise You...’. His love inspires our prayer - ‘Teach me Your
way...’. Our whole life is to be a celebration of His love - ‘Great is
Your love towards me’. We are to celebrate His love with ‘joy’(4). We
rejoice in the Lord because of who He is- ‘You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness’- and what He has done for us - ‘You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me’(15,17).
87:1-7-
‘Glorious things are said of you, O city of God... The Lord will write
in the register of the peoples: “This one was born in Zion”. As they
make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in You”’(3,6-7). The
‘city of God’ is our glorious destination - ‘we are looking for the city
that is to come’, ‘the Holy City’(Hebrews 13:14; Revelation 21:2). It
is also the place of our heavenly birth - ‘This one was born in Zion’.
The heavenly birth - This is where our journey to the ‘city of God’
begins: ‘No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from
above’(John 3:3). Between our heavenly birth and our glorious
destination, there is life in the Spirit: The Psalmist says, ‘All my
fountains are in You’. Jesus says, ‘Rivers of living water shall flow
from the heart of anyone who believes in Me’(John7:38).
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