Psalm 40 ~ YOU are my help and my deliverer

 

Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord;

    He inclined to me and heard my cry.

2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

    out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

    making my steps secure.

3 He put a new song in my mouth,

    a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

    and put their trust in the Lord.

4 Blessed is the man who makes

    the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

    to those who go astray after a lie!

5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

    Your wondrous deeds and Your thoughts toward us;

    none can compare with You!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

    yet they are more than can be told.

6 In sacrifice and offering You have not delighted,

    but You have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

    You have not required.

7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

    in the Scroll of the Book it is written of me:

8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;

    Your law is within my heart.”

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance

    in the great congregation;

behold, I have not restrained my lips,

    as you know, O Lord.

10 I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart;

    I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;

I have not concealed Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness

    from the great congregation.

11 As for you, O Lord, You will not restrain

    Your mercy from me;

Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness will

    ever preserve me!

12 For evils have encompassed me

    beyond number;

my iniquities have overtaken me,

    and I cannot see;

they are more than the hairs of my head;

    my heart fails me.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!

    O Lord, make haste to help me!

14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

    who seek to snatch away my life;

let those be turned back and brought to dishonor

    who delight in my hurt!

15 Let those be appalled because of their shame

    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

16 But may all who seek You

    Rejoice and be glad in You;

may those who love Your salvation

    say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

17 As for me, I am poor and needy,

    but the Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

    do not delay, O my God!

We often think of the story of Job as unparalleled. Job wasn't formally anointed by God.  Yet Job was constantly in God's thoughts.  There are 42 Chapters in The Book of Job. 

David does parallel Job to some extent. King David's life story is included in 4  Biblical Books, in 90 Chapters of historical narrative. David authored half of the Book of Psalms.  David is discussed in 28 different Books across the Bible.

David Psalm 54

Job protests he is not a sinner. David proves he is a sinner.  God proves Job is a sinner. Yet both David and Job survive their struggles with patience. And faith, believing God will help. David is barely a groom as his troubles begin and he has no children, but as the solutions arrive, he is the father of many grown adults as his problems begin to heal.  At least 20 years, if not more. David is crowned 4 times as Israel becomes ruled by our anointed David.

God Loves Joshua and Caleb during the 40 years of the Exodus. They patiently waited in faith. Jeremiah waits faithfully. Habakkuk was patient to survive with joy and gratitude.

The Lucy Charlie Brown portion is just tiring. And really sorta boring. The unblessing isn't where we want to stay. 

To survive in life, we have to have God to rely upon when the rest of the world runs around without much need for kindness. I always thought the movies about evil, like the original with Clint Eastwood and the devils. And the Keanu Reeves movies about evil, that evil would eventually tire of evil. And circumstances change. To rely on God and His Promises seems the way to make sense of the world. The world changes; God is always steadfast Love.  The Light is always reliable to be more joy, more love, more comfort, more hope and the best way to live life. God is Light and in Him we find Strength, Intelligence and the Forever Plan. 

How would God deal with years of struggles? 

Ezekiel spoke with The Lord about Job. And included some of David's situations and ours.

Ezekiel 14:13,14

“Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God."

James 5

10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

We always pray

for the Mercy of God

And this will

Arrive

Daily

and

also Forever

So David, faced famine. Could David fix this famine? Famine usually means a hunger for life staples. But famine means starvation and this is on many levels. David did not fix the famine. God did. David did his part by acting as God explained to David. The instructions would not make David seem wiser to the world, but David expected God's Mercy and received. David made sure the plan of God was fulfilled. David many times jumped in as Abraham did, but still the Victory is the Lord's.

The Lord has said Ecclesiastes 3

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

And in this time, reading the Post, we have taken time to look at the overcoming of the world and the troubles Jesus said we would have. And the history of war is good and evil. The valor we want to live. The peace we wish to experience, basically, constantly.  The meaning of war is to overcome evil. Not to become evil.

We would hope our days, our history of the culture we live ... is becoming more worthy and having valor and bravery.  To meet our challenges and to become more worthy of building a future for our children and their children. Not to denigrate what has been our blessing to participate in. 

In gratitude, we thank God for the Blessings we have participated in.

In Strength, we will not fall and bring down our children and our children's children in the ease and drama of violence.  Usurping the law, which is, the very workings of peace. 

In Joy, we will live lives of Valor and Courage.

In anticipation of the Plan of God, we give mercy. Living eternity, in this moment, and the minutes of all of our days.

For every life, there is but one time and one season,

let us draw Strength from the Goodness of God and go forth. 

These are the days given to us, let us do good. 

John 21

Thank you, Jesus, our Lord Christ

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Bless the Lord Jesus

Thank You, Jesus

Psalm 67 ~ Gracious to us

Psalm 67

May God 

Be Gracious to us 

and 

Bless us

and 

Make His Face to Shine upon us, 

Selah

That Your Way 

May be known on earth,

Your Saving Power among 

all 

nations.

Let the peoples praise You, 

O God;

Let all the peoples praise You!

Let the nations be Glad 

and 

Sing for joy,

For You judge the peoples with equity

and 

Guide the nations upon earth. 

Selah

Let the peoples praise You, O God;

Let all the peoples praise You!

The earth has yielded its increase;

God, 

Our God, 

Shall Bless us.

God shall bless us;

Let all the ends of the earth fear Him!

We are so happy to proclaim the birth of our first grandchild, a granddaughter born after a long labor. A mighty reason to rejoice.  Her name is a combination of my grandmothers names.  A joyful and loving name! A Blessing!

Definitely an Answered Prayer!

Abba, Father,

To know 

The Love of Christ 

Surpassing all the books ever written, 

fully know,

We are filled with all the fullness of God

Your Promises,

Father,

Are Sure.

Dwell in me

Dwell in us

Dwell in those I love

Help us to seek You first

and

we will finish well

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Help us seek and find

and

bring

to

become

more Heaven

on this earth.

In Jesus Christ,

we live and move and

have our being.

Amen!

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

You are The Lord Jesus

Thank You, for hearing us

Job 10 ~ Cheer before we go †

 

Van Gogh

Job 10

“I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.

3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the designs of the wicked?

4 Have you eyes of flesh?
    Do you see as man sees?

5 Are your days as the days of man,
    or your years as a man's years,
6 that you seek out my iniquity
    and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty,
    and there is none to deliver out of your hand?

8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
    and now you have destroyed me altogether.

9 Remember that you have made me like clay;
    and will you return me to the dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?

11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
    I know that this was your purpose.

14 If I sin, you watch me
    and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am guilty, woe to me!
    If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
    and look on my affliction.
16 And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion
    and again work wonders against me.

17 You renew your witnesses against me
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.

18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few?

    Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21 before I go—and I shall not return—
    to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
    like deep shadow without any order,
    where light is as thick darkness.”

Job lived about the same time as Jacob, the man God renamed Israel.  

Circa 2000 B.C.  

No one could say Jacob lived an easy life.  And we probably see some of the famine in Israel, in "The Book of Job", that we read about Jacob and his family experiencing.  Jacob also lost a child, Joseph.   Jacob just didn't protest as much about his innocence, yet Jacob didn't have an overwhelmingly Exodus style plan towards him. For the good of Job and the millenniums, multiple and unfathomable millions of us reading living Scripture. 

Moses had an Exodus style plan in his life. 

And he and his wife had such a fight, God recorded He intervened. That was quite the fight.  Jacob didn't feel as married, which is odd considering the number of wives he had and fathered. The purpose of the details God gives allows us to see into their lives. 

The Scriptures live. Live. 

We all know Job Chapter 10 is for All the people who despair and feel God has abandoned. Some days, we all feel cast down. Something lived and felt very deeply.

Tyranny is a subject read in the news each day. 

Especially in the worldwide news. 

The Book of Habakkuk is parallel to the well known book of Jeremiah. The Chaldean Neo-Babylonian Empire had defeated Nineveh. Nineveh had been in love with God; Jonah had brought them.  Nineveh became the Chaldean Neo-Babylonian. Nebuchadnezzar II's beloved wife, Amytis, was Chaldean, uniting the new Empire. She was the inspiration for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  And Nebudnezzar, like his forefathers, loved the Scriptures and read the Hebrew God. Nebuchadnezzar believed Isaiah had written of Nebuchadnezzar in Isaiah 10.

Habakkuk 

wrote of the downfall of the culture 

as a people who were a law unto themselves ran the nation into death, 

Verses 1:7. 

In fact, Habakkuk wrote about the path they were on to be taken over. And Habakkuk was correct.  

There was nothing to do but live the Life God had given them. 

We will all walk the path God gives us. Today, people have dementia and Alzheimer's, and much of witnessing people in the Memory Loss Wards has extreme anger in this.  I will never forget having been the Guardian of my cousin Maxine, who had 23 strokes, seeing the antipsychotic meds popped in mouths like M&Ms, then seeing people, patients, list sideways. (We had to rescue Maxine from antipsychotic meds unneeded when Maxine began to lean sideways. Maxine was not in need, did not require that type of medicine. Maxine had been given a choice of life at home with home care; instead, Maxine opted for Memory Loss instead of invasion.)

Then, in the youth group, we had the darkness recede,

one of the youth said her grandmother had lived with them through Alzheimer's. Her grandmother always wanted to be of service. And had folded clothes until the very last week of her life. They had purchased a huge amount of towels to have clothes to wash constantly. And had gone through 2 sets of washers and dryers to have their grandmother with them.

Their grandmother had put away anger in her life. Had found reason to love and live. Living what Habukkuk found. 

Habukkuk 3

I heard and my heart pounded,

    my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

    and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

    to come on the nation invading us.

17 Though the fig tree does not bud

    and 

there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

    and 

the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

    and 

no cattle in the stalls,

 yet 

I will rejoice in the Lord,

    I will be joyful 

in God 

my Savior

The adventure of finding our gratitude. Daily. 

In the older days, people called the forgetfulness of old age Senility. And sometimes being called Mad.  

Edward and I met Dr. Frank Adams, Dr. Adams was the Chief Medical Officer for MD Anderson Neurology and Neurosurgery.  

Dr. Frank Adams says the brain is kept healthy by enjoying word puzzles and games. Only taking 7 days of antidepressants a year. Only 7 days to avoid excessive brain shrinkage. Avoiding Benadryl.  Take Omega-3, fish oil, daily. And avoiding paths of anger and darkness.  We do that by overcoming the brain's power to run us and our power to make new pathways.  We will all have to do this as we age. Hormone loss leads to anger. We can become a perpetual gripe.  

New information is, unless you have had a traumatic brain injury, we should all take the smallest smear of over-the-counter Lithium. Not the entire capsule, a smear on your finger twice a week. The counties with naturally occurring Lithium in the water live life much more calmly, happily, and without violence. 

Now Alzheimer's with antipsychotics. 

It's an easy age to have hyperparasitism, to look at life as not having what the dream was. As we age, we either have a life worth living o r not. One grandmother felt all she had was not the light her childhood had been, and drank. The other grandmother was said to be not blessed and lived a life of gratitude. Her life was very, very blessed. Gratitude was pervasive in her life.  One of her descendants wouldn't take any of her things from her house, because she wasn't blessed. The woman sang. And she couldn't sing! From the joy in her heart.

3 Different women in our family had Alzheimer's or dementia. 

One was wealthy, one was hard working and envious. One went odd into sex. They were angry. The world had spoken unkindly to them. To be in community, saw these women have social attacks like a flock of pterodactyls.  Over jewelry, right or wrong. Weight. Effective or Ineffective as people. Family habits. Working. Not working. If they had too few with them or too many.  It was as if you could cry out, "Incoming!" Hyperparasitism.  The reaction was an anger.  Who should have done more? Why weren't the backups more perfect? What should have BEEN! Who owed them MORE! Decades of who wasn't kind. Or ... decades of I run with them and don't care for them. This is: The Age. Like Jimmy Kimmel reading what is written publicly about known people and the horror of what people will say. Hyperparasitism. Why? Because the critics have been attacked by their own dreams, expectations and pterodactyls that were, "Incoming!" They aren't having a life worth living. Attackers for this reason. Hyperparasitism.

The people who could have been angry:

Adam

Noah

Abraham

Sarah

Isaac

Jacob

Moses

Joshua

Caleb

Noah

Habakkuk

John

Mary

Thomas

and

Everyone in the Bible

Wait upon The Lord!

Job 42:10-17 

 The Lord Restores Job's Fortunes

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. 

And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. 

And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 

And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

Faith is hope unseen.

 The people who waited: Abraham and Sarah, Noah,  Joshua and Caleb, David, Isaiah and 4 kings, those waiting for the Messiah, The Christ of God. John, the Beloved Disciple. Mary. Doubting Thomas.

Luke 18:1 

 And He told them a parable to the effect 

that 

they ought always to pray 

and 

not give up heart.

Jeremiah 32:17

‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

Jeremiah 32:27 

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

Genesis 18:14

Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Matthew 19:26 

 

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Luke 1:37

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mark 10:27 

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Job 42:2 

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Isaiah 41:10 

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Abba, Father,

God of Light

You are in all things

You are Light of the world

Light of mankind

Light of Heaven

In all Things, You Create

You have given us Jesus Christ

Holy is

the Highest Name

Above

all others

Your Kingdom come

Your Good Will be done

we pray for more

on earth

just as it is in Heaven.

Give us This Day

Our Daily Bread.

Jesus the Living Bread.

Forgive us our Trespasses

as

we forgive those

who Trespass 

Against us.

Lead us not into temptation

Deliver us from Evil. 

For Thine

is the

Kingdom

and 

the Power

and 

the Glory.

Giving Thanks!!!

For the new grandchild

sometime

in early June!

WORLDWIDE
PEACE

IN

Our

Amen in Jesus Christ 

John 21

Thank you, Jesus, our Lord Christ

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Bless the Lord Jesus

Thank You, Jesus