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Tag: Lord

  • A Psalm of Thanksgiving – Psalm 100, Psalm 50

    A Psalm of Thanksgiving – Psalm 100, Psalm 50

    Psalm 100

    Who is giving thanks? And to whom? “For what do we give thanks on Thanksgiving?” 

    The New International Version tells us it is For giving grateful praise. The New King James Version calls it, A Song of Praise for the Lord’s Faithfulness to His People and the English Standard Version, borrowing from its text reminds us, His Steadfast Love Endures Forever.

    מִזְמֹור לְתֹודָה

    A Psalm of Praise, in Hebrew, תּוֹדָה, towdah, a common theme in the Psalms, means, thanksgiving.

    “Thanksgiving, done proper, is worship of the Lord God.”

    Psalm 100 for the year of our Lord, 2016

    A select version of verses 1-5

    A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

    Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

    Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

    It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
    We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

    Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
    And into His courts with praise.

    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

    For the Lord is good.
    His unfailing love continues forever,

    And His truth endures to all generations.

    תּוֹדָה tôwdâh -a definition:

    תּוֹדָה tôwdâh, to-daw’; from H3034; properly, an extension of the hand, i.e. (by implication) avowal, or (usually) adoration; specifically, a choir of worshippers:—confession, (sacrifice of) praise, thanks(-giving, offering).

    give praise to God
    thanksgiving in songs of liturgical worship, hymn of praise
    thanksgiving choir or procession or line or company
    thank-offering, sacrifice of thanksgiving
    confession

    An extension of the hand

    Psalm 100, though written for the Hebrew people speaks to all. Make a joyful shout, a joyful noise, a celebration unto the LORD, all you lands, all people, all of His creation, all of the earth. And why not? Has the Lord God not been gracious to many peoples of many lands, most especially US?

    This should be a time of joyful songs, not quiet personal celebration of what we have done. We have food, we have shelter, most of us have not been driven from our homes, like those so oppressed in lands of conflict. We are blessed!

    “Is it not appropriate for us to extend our hand of thanks to the Lord who has provided for us so abundantly?” Thanksgiving is an extension of praise and worship to our One Provider.”

    The long tradition which precedes Thursday’s annual holiday is worship, acknowledging the Lord who provides the fruits of the harvest. At times some have no food, yet even these learn to rely on the graciousness of God – all the more reason to say more than grace over our meal.

    What is our problem with God?

    It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. Even if sinful man points to a big bang without cause, reason or likelihood, we like to take credit for everything we do – all we accomplish, even the very act of creation, cell from cell or primate from amphibian. Some even would imagine alien intelligence (yet who created them) before humbly considering a God greater than man. We don’t want to be sheep and certainly resist being led by a God or a King or even someone of an opposing political persuasion.

    Know that the Lord, he is God! Acknowledge that the Lord is God! We know it in our hearts, but a certain humility must bow down to worship the One we do not understand with all power and mercy we cannot comprehend.

    Perhaps you never thought of this as a time of worship or a place to have your hands extended in praise and thanksgiving to your creator who knows each synapse of your thoughts and every pulsing of your heart. Though you resist any as King over you, even a most benevolent Lord over all of our provision, the King of the heavens and earth welcomes you through the gates of the eternal place of worship and into the courts of loving worshipers saved in the blood of His own Sacrifice for our sins.

    The LORD יְהֹוָה Yĕhovah

    Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Do you need a reason to make the Lord the center of your celebrations? It’s really quite simple: He is good. The LORD is good.

    For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever… Not only is the Lord good – the only One – God’s love endures. Whose love in your life has endured more than a season? Who truly loves you until your death… and beyond, can a mortal soul love your flawed flesh forever? The Lord will when you extend your hand in worship.

    His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. Praise the Lord with what words the Spirit will share. God is good.

    Mark this, then…

    Psalm 50:22-23

    “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

    The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”

  • A Crying Out to the Wind

    Prelude to Disaster

    When life has been comfortable for you, do you cry out in amazement at a turn of events?

    Let’s take a look at a righteous man from the oldest book in the Bible and later examine Job’s pleas to the Lord after his friends have offered no help. Should we cry out to the wind in the day of disaster? What good could possibly come of it; what good could return from a God who allows the winds of change to bring us into the place of disaster?

    Job 1:

    There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…

    …

    19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

    20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

    22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

    Job’s pain described to his friends

    Job 30:

    15 Terrors are turned upon me;
        my honor is pursued as by the wind,
        and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

    16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
        days of affliction have taken hold of me.
    17 The night racks my bones,
        and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
    18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
        it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
    19 God has cast me into the mire,
        and I have become like dust and ashes.

    When disaster strikes, when disaster even threatens, do you cry out to the wind? When terrors seem to fall upon us, when pain gives no rest, do you even blame God?

    For it is Almighty God who allows the winds of change. It is Almighty God who painfully refines us in the fire.

     Job’s plea to God

    20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
        I stand, and you only look at me.
    21 You have turned cruel to me;
        with the might of your hand you persecute me.
    22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
        and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
    23 For I know that you will bring me to death
        and to the house appointed for all living.

    24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
        and in his disaster cry for help?

    Have you been there? Has this been your prayer, perhaps even now?

    Job’s Appeal

    25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
        Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
    26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
        and when I waited for light, darkness came.
    27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
        days of affliction come to meet me.
    28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
        I stand up in the assembly and cry for help…

    There is more to the sad turn of events in the life of this righteous man, both prior to our glance at this portion of Job’s tragedy and after this chapter when Job confronts the LORD!

    If you cry out to the wind even now, will you be saved by your own righteousness?

    (I will not give away the ending, in case you have not read or do not recall the conclusion found in the remaining twelve chapters of the Book of Job.) Job faces Almighty God as a righteous man. How will you?

    Wind is a tempest we cannot see and a power we cannot control. Can a man of dust grasp the ungraspable? Will a mere mortal stand still or bow down before the LORD?

    Wind רוּחַ  ἄνεμος

    In Hebrew: wind, breath, mind, spirit; and also used in an attempt to describe the Holy Spirit of God.

    In Greek: wind, a violent agitation and stream of air; a very strong tempestuous wind; the four principal or cardinal winds, hence the four corners of heaven

    Behind the invisible imagery one must see beyond the feel, effect and cause of the wind to a more mysterious meaning of a Source for all wind; therefore a Source also of all calm.

    NOTE: Linked text to source for scripture, Hebrew & Greek definitions and other source material for Roger Harned posts on http://talkofJesus.com

    Pray for us; for we wait in the path of the tempest for the unwielding hand of God!

    Are you a righteous man or woman created by God?

    The heavens and the earth and all mankind is created by God! None is righteous; no, not one.

    Would you confront the LORD without humility and grace?

    Or do you pray to the wind?

    Do you pray to a dead prophet or powerless dead saint?

    Do you depend on the name of your dead ancestors?

    Dearly beloved, for whom Christ Jesus came to this chaotic earth as Son of Man sacrificed for your sins: pray in His Holy Name to God our heavenly Father that you will receive his Holy Spirit, the very breath of eternal life; lest the tempest of His wrath sweep your perishing soul into the abyss of darkness.

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  • Behold, the days are coming

    In case you missed the introduction to this post and if impressions of the post image below lead you to current impending events, we are continuing here in Jeremiah’s prophesies about Judah in the 7th c. B.C.

    God’s Nation under No One

    Jeremiah 8:

    Sin and Treachery

    4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
    When men fall, do they not rise again?
        If one turns away, does he not return?
    5 Why then has this people turned away
        in perpetual backsliding?
    They hold fast to deceit;
        they refuse to return.

     Jeremiah 9:

    Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
        and put no trust in any brother,
    for every brother is a deceiver,
        and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
    5 Everyone deceives his neighbor,
        and no one speaks the truth;
    they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
        they weary themselves committing iniquity.
    6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
        they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

    7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
    “Behold, I will refine them and test them,
        for what else can I do, because of my people?

    23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

    25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—

    Circumcise your hearts you people without God!

    Who do you trust?

    This message from Jeremiah is written to the political and religious leaders of Judah (the circumcised sworn to obey the Lord). The Lord’s messenger is severe in words given to the prophet by the Lord God.

    What leader will step forward to lead as the Lord would lead?

    No one, says the Lord. The Lord directs Jeremiah to be absolutely clear that it is the Lord speaking to the leaders of Judah; not just a man. The difficulty of Jeremiah’s obedience will reap earthly consequences most unpleasant at the hand of men in power.

    Yet are we not obliged to obey the Lord?

    Our leaders hope God will speak against or act against our enemies. Yet as Jeremiah’s story unfolds the Lord makes clear that Judah’s enemy in another nation is the Lord’s servant completing His will.

    Is it not right that the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth should punish His own for disobedience?

    Judah will fall, as all nations will fall. For the Lord endures while the nations fall and are no more remembered.

    Yet God is gracious. For the Lord makes a way for sinners, even the nations to come to Him in Christ Jesus.

    Righteous jews such as Daniel and others will influence leaders and others of the nations who have not known the Lord. God has purpose in this, while the Lord warns the nations (gentiles) of the futility of the worship of idols. The Lord warns even those who claim His Holy Name.

    Jeremiah 10:

    Idols and the Living God

    10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:

    “Learn not the way of the nations,
        nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
        because the nations are dismayed at them,
    3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity…

    Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
        and they cannot speak;
    they have to be carried,
        for they cannot walk.
    Do not be afraid of them,
        for they cannot do evil,
        neither is it in them to do good.”

    6 There is none like you, O Lord;
        you are great, and your name is great in might.

    7 Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
        For this is your due;
    for among all the wise ones of the nations
        and in all their kingdoms
        there is none like you.

    8 They are both stupid and foolish;
        the instruction of idols is but wood!

    Behold, a 21st c. Lesson from a Prophet from 7 centuries Before Christ

    What should we take from the warning of Jeremiah to Judah?

    In these last days the most powerful of nations turn against the Lord. We turn our backs on righteous ways and run to the power of sin in this decaying world.

    The Lord God brought even his own chosen people to destruction, because of their worship of idols.

    Do we not have more idols than the hills of Samaria?

    Vengeance is the Lord’s; he will repay! [Hebrews 10:30]

    • Who will lead your actions in this nation of sin?

    It is the question of Jeremiah. It is the question of these last days.

    What is your answer?

    The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.  [1 Timothy 1:15]

    Are you and I not two of these?

    Christ Jesus is my Lord. He saved me.

    What is your answer to the hard questions from the LORD? What is your answer, fellow sinner, to a merciful savior of souls like ours?