Laud

On September 14, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 117

Praise the Lord, all nations; laud Him, all peoples! For His lovingkindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord is everlasting. Praise the Lord!

This was an easy Psalm Monday. The entire psalm is two verses and every word is wonderful. Two things struck me, though. First, this psalm is directed towards all nations and all people. Think of that. Imagine all the people of the world praising Yahweh, lauding Him with praise. Is that not a beautiful image? That day will come. We can meditate on it now, rolling that image around in our minds. All the peoples of the world will sing praises to the Lord, our God and we will praise Him in unison, many languages in harmony. Wow!

The other part of this psalm that spoke to me was, “the truth of the Lord is everlasting.” I was thinking, “All the people of the earth will know His truth, the fullness of truth.” We will have our questions answered and see truths we never perceived before. His truths are unchanging but still being revealed. Every day we can bask in more and more of His truth. We may find we didn’t have everything right but that is okay too. Our egos do not need to be right in the light of His revealed truth. It will be a joy just seeing more and more of His everlasting truth.

Of course, it is great news that His thoughts are loving and kind towards us. This is an important meditation. It might be the most important part of the psalm. We need this revelation of a God who is always loving and kind towards us. He is not hateful, angry, vengeful, or spiteful. He isn’t trying to kill us. He is salvation and grace. Hallelujah! Surely that is good news to a world struggling with any number of challenges. The ultimate answer is that God’s lovingkindness is great toward us, towards all of us; all people, all nations. That’s beyond good news. That’s great news and He is worthy of much praise. Praise the Lord, all you people. Shower Him, right now, with your message of thanksgiving. Worthy is the Lord!

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The Gold Star Standard

On March 13, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Lamentations 3: 22 – 23

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.

I hear so much junk about God and I know you do too. Here is a true introduction to our God. He is faithful to forgive, to respond compassionately to our shortcomings, failures and misguided adventures and His love for us never ceases. This is our God and Father.

Our Father is a good God. He always causes good things to happen for us. It is beyond sound reasoning for people to have construed Yahweh as an angry God or one who heaps misfortune and challenge upon us for any reason. God is love. Period. Everything He does is motivated by love. God sent His son to earth to suffer and die for us. You know that, but what are the implications of this truth? Did he allow Jesus to be bruised for us; to carry our diseases and sicknesses just so He could turn around and give us cancer? That just does not make any sense. It is crazy thinking. If His compassions never fail, then why would He send (or allow) troubles and misfortune into our lives? If He sent His son to redeem all humanity so that none should perish, then why would He make it hard to get into heaven? He sent Jesus exactly so that we could get into heaven. God isn’t trying to keep us out, He is trying to get us in.

So, what is the point to this? You will see and hear, both in the world and in the church, comments which portray God as angry and vengeful. You will hear comments which deny God’s inherent goodness. People actually believe the things they say even though it is complete lunacy. The devil has done a good job in his characterization of God and, unfortunately, we have not done a very good job in our portrayal of God as a loving and compassionate being. The point of this is to put God’s lovingkindness in the forefront of your mind. When you hear things which fly in the face of this truth, you need to refute them, at least in your own mind. If you want to go for the gold star, refute them to those misled speakers. Keep this verse in your pocket and its kinfolk as well because there are many verses which proclaim God’s love and goodness towards His people. Most of all, don’t fall for this foolishness. Your Father loves you more than you can fathom and wants only good for you.

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