Psalm 100 ~ Blessed

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

I was at a lovely and large, fairly dressy, engagement/wedding party in 1991. There were about 75 people and a man came up to me to give me the Christian Prophetic Word. The 35-year-old man started out telling me facts correlating with my life at present and thoughts far down the road. Then the message became harsh. He snarled with sarcasm and said we would not be friends. Later in the evening, he was more rude about 'more Word." As the evening closed, about eleven p.m., his friends were saying he loved to find believers and pump them up with false prophecies. He said he loved to do prophecies to people who are Christian because of the utter belief on their faces. I asked him how he could pick out a believer - you know - he had no response and for a moment became speechless and shrugged.

... I can tell you 27 years later - that is a very unusual response - a "party trick" or "party conversation." We went to another entirely different engagement/wedding party and a couple arrived and said they were the heirs to the local milk farm (we lived in a very large city.) I could tell they were telling about being wealthy and people were melting all over them. I was having a conversation with an old friend and this was much more fun. Later in the evening, I was introduced to them and came to find out they were saying the Dairy Huge, Huge Farm belonging to my mother's good high school friend. I said, "That's great you are the child of ----. You must love Santa Fe!!! How fortunate you are to spend so much time in your new house there! Tell me all about Santa Fe!!!" The whole room became aware by their utterly horrified faces - this was Not True At All. And the pretenders promptly departed in about 1.5 minutes. Don't know whatever happened to the good looking prophetic guy - the pretenders were good friends of friends and were said to have settled down and done well in life - not pretending to be other people again.

Look at that: One group found it hysterical a man goes around compelled to give "prophecies." Which turned out to be true. The other group pretended to be wealthy and they ran like the Police would be called.

It's funny how we respond to the gifts God gives us - because some of what he said to me is absolutely true. He responded to an urge to Prophesy and not care about the soul or the emotion of what he puts down. That gift can be prophetic and even self-prophetic in the absence of Spiritual mercy and the desire to shelter or pray.






The Psalm is interesting. It's about long life and it's about trees.


We'd assume the trees in the photos were Psalm 100 - never hit by drought, fire, famine, beetles, disease and timber harvest, bird feeders with nails and screws, girdling/mulching the tree, staking the tree, concreting the holes, over fruitfulness, tying an animal to the trunk, power lines, overcrowding, over salt/pesticide. The tree has a very 'Jabez' life. Blessed and nothing to report.





When you are in the room with Believers of Jesus Christ, they will tell you of answered prayer. Warm assurances when faith is needed. Miracles that just become part of life. Prayer requests. Times dreams led them to peace and a new understanding of their soul to Jesus. And if you know them well, they will tell you if they actually hear Jesus. Some people are blessed like Abraham.

I knew a very, very bible study and a virtuous woman cried out to God and asked Him about misfortune. He replied with what was then learned to be Psalm 50. And that was VERY UNLIKELY. "It came to pass." The phrase occurs again and again in the Old Testament. "It came to pass after four hundred and thirty years that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt," and, "It came to pass."


I know a man who praised God for his good fortune and the good fortune showed itself to be life and gut-wrenching unfortunate. God Spoke Blessings. Blessings came to pass. The man asked God to move on. And the man moved on. And God was not going to let the man alone. Much to the man's chagrin. We can believe God will bring to pass all God plans.



When God says, "No withering, all prosperity." I'd have to tell you - we planted 6 tiny trees to grow into massive trees in my childhood newly built house in the 1960s. The Trees met different fates. One hit a chalk rock in the soil and died. One was stunted to just never grow. It sat while the other trees grew 40 and 50 feet tall. My father and I would look at the oak tree and wonder. Maybe it's because it's near the swing set and it thinks it should be a child tree. My father said maybe it needs iron, it looks a little yellow. So iron was applied. Maybe it needs water. Maybe it's a dwarf. My father went to the library and said no such tree variety. We wondered if it was a variation of the regular variety and we should propagate it. My brother was born and my father said maybe the tree people should see the Oak Tree. That year it grew some in the spring. About 3 feet on the 10 feet of a 16-year-old tree. And the next year it doubled. Now we started complaining about how to move the swing set. People. And in the next four years, we were telling bored people about the amazing growth of the tree. Uh-huh. And if someone showed up who knew about the dwarf Oak Tree we all got very, very excited and the story went on and on.



Knowing Jesus, I think Psalm 100 is never, ever intended to make us feel poorly about agricultural seasons in our lives. I do not believe Jesus would tell us a Psalm story of Daniel and then say ... and then there is ... - - - you.


I believe that to God - Peter had a pretty good idea. And just as shade trees begin to give us thoughts about patios and hammocks, cushions and places to read and bbq - we have this:



2 Peter 3:8-9

Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice:

 With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Revelation 2:7
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 22:2
Down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:14
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

Redemption. Sweet beautiful little girls grow into unlikely teenagers. Drug addicts recover. Sponsors make wonderful friends. Grandmothers come from the wise who remained with solutions. Old men tell young men. Young men listen to middle-aged men who listen to older men.

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

Let the Circle Be Unbroken
By and By Lord By and By.

And it cams to pass.

Let the Circle Be Unbroken
By and By Lord By and By.

To live and move and have our being
in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †