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My heart is fixed: I will definitely praise the Lord early and often; I will praise Him with music and gusto; I will praise Him whether I am among believers or unbelievers. I will praise the Lord because His love, His faithfulness, and His glory is so big and grand the whole earth cannot contain them. Love, faithfulness and glory reaches to the heavens and beyond. The love of Christ is so high and deep and broad and wide that we can’t comprehend it or believe it; so ask Him to show you.

Once I have the proper perspective on the size of God’s Love I confidently ask for His help from trouble caused by my enemies. My spiritual enemies are trying to take away my peace (they actually can’t) by my surrendering it through unbelief. They seek to steal my joy of living (they actually can’t) by drawing my attention away from Jesus alone.

Man’s help is vain: “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put me together again.” But with the Lord we will do valiantly: it is He who will tread down our enemies. Praise Him for his love: it restores peace and joy.

 

 

 

 

The faithful love of God redeems from Devil, delivers from Sin, and saves from Death; mercy endures forever, the three enemies do not. The eternal love of the Lord rescues from death, caused by sin; this salvation is described in four metaphors, within this pattern: crisis of dying, prayer for help, salvation by God, call to praise.

First, God brings us from the desert of imminent death, the world, into the inhabited city of God’s Kingdom.

Second, He sets us free from the prison of sin and death, sentenced there for rebellion, into the freedom of life and light.

Third, He heals us from sicknesses, reminding of and approaching death, restoring life and health.

Fourth, He stills the storms of the sea of life, with its ups and downs and dangers, by bringing us into the safe haven of his eternal presence.

The Lord wounds and heals, kills and makes alive, allows weal and woe; all of life is under His control, no piece of life is unnoticed. And more, we ask and He gives the wisdom to observe the hand of God and to understand the steadfast love, the lovingkindness, of the Lord in everything.

The confession of the sins of the people over a period of time makes a long list. The Sin List is a recounting of the history of Israel from the Salvation from Egypt to the Exile in Babylon. The rebellion, the idolatry, the unbelief is staggering and startling in its depth and scope. But then, a confession of the sins of our own lifetimes could just as revealing. We also confess our sins and sincerely repent of them.

The purpose of this laundry list is to beg the mercy of God and ask for salvation and deliverance from exile; once again. The implicit hope is that the Lord will see how sorry we are and take pity. This is a false hope because, while sincere repentance is necessary, it is not the sincerity or sorrow or the penitence itself that moves God to forgiveness and salvation; it is the compassion and lovingkindness of God himself. For us, it is the blood of Jesus that causes Him to forgive and save.

“He repented according to the multitude of his mercies.” It is always “for the sake of Christ” and not because of our repentance that God repents. In this way the great Enemy, Sin, is overcome.

 

 

 

 

God keeps His promises; he made a covenant and he was faithful to fulfill it. This Psalm recounts that history. The covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was to give Land, Offspring and Blessing to the nations. The covenant is fulfilled in spades in Jesus Christ in the NT.

The emphasis in this Psalm is on the Land that was promised to God’s people. The Lord took care of the Patriarchs, sent Joseph, then Moses, gave judgments, did miracles, took the Promised Land. God did all that so that you on your part would “keep his laws.”

The fulfillment of Promised Land goes through and comes out in the NT as: eternal life, inheritance of heaven, forgiveness of sins and salvation, the kingdom of God ruling in the hearts of believers, resurrection, Paradise, new heaven and new earth, and such.

In order to keep covenant the Lord had to bring judgment, overcome, and drive out the Enemy (the gods of Egypt and the heathen gods of Canaan). So also judgment had to come upon Sin, Death and Devil in gentleness on the cross and in violence at the tomb. So also judgment comes in daily repentance and faith. Now: Keep His Laws, by the power of the Gospel.

 

 

 

 

 

The wonder and glory of God’s creation, provision, preservation, and sustenance of all living things on a beautifully organized and controlled earth inspires awe and praise from its inhabitants.

The poetic account of Creation praises God for taking and maintaining control of the earth for the peaceful and enjoyable habitation of all living things. First, the Creator brought order out of chaos by pushing back and confining the dangerous and unruly waters in one place called ocean. Then He turned water into a life-giving blessing of rain and springs and streams for the continued susrenance of life on earth.

This action is a picture of the continued care of our Lord daily turning impending chaos in our lives into order and stability: God can make something out of nothing, and He can bring good things out of a bad situation.

After all the beautiful descriptions of God’s creative care one blot shows up: Sin. Sin has entered Paradise and he still seeks to destroy the good life God gives. Sin finally must be taken care of and gotten rid of. And that’s the rest of the story: the Cross and the Tomb and the Judgment Day. So, Hallelujah!

 

 

 

 

God is good! Really! He is far better than we humans imagine or can adequately express, although Psalm 103 does as good a job as any words written anywhere. He is truly worthy of all the praise we can muster. In fact, we must expand the praise of the Lord to involve the invisible and innumerable mighty angels of heaven.

God’s character deserves great praise: He is full of kindness, mercy, compassion, grace, forgiveness, and faithful love. God’s deeds deserve great praise: He has forgiven our sins, healed our diseases, rescued us from death, granted abundant spiritual and material blessings, executed justice when we were weak and powerless, delivered us completely from the guilt and punishment of our sin, and even mitigated the consequences of sins.

God’s goodness and mercy, and His awesome love and forgiveness, have overcome and driven out our spiritual enemies: disease and death, sin and misery. My life is eternally and greatly blessed when my spiritual enemies are not constantly bugging and tormenting me. My only response is to thank and praise, serve and obey. He has given me eternity to praise, but I don’t want to waste a present minute not blessing the Lord. Soul, do it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the believer is suffering wasting disease and impending death, despairing loneliness, emotional turmoil, spiritual distress, and threatening enemies he turns to God in prayer begging to be heard and answered quickly.

Part of the appeal includes a description of his terrible condition, his gloating enemies and his mourning for sin. A part of that descriptive appeal includes the complaint that God his Creator is eternal, not subject to death or to change, and he is not eternal and about to die prematurely. His God is merciful and He will keep His promises to restore His people, so he prays that the Lord would restore him, too.

Part of the appeal is simply to the character of the Eternal God: He makes promises, He answers prayer, He hears the cries of the destitute and dying, He overcomes enemies, and He will create new people who will praise Him in future days. Let Him record for the next generation the salvation He brought today.

We don’t need to remind Him of our need and of His character, but we have the privilege of enjoying our faith relationship with an unseen but ever present Lord. We need the prayer response to His grace to remind ourselves.

The king sings of God’s judgment and mercy and vows that he will rule and live as an example of God’s character. He makes promises to conduct his life and his court according to high ethical and moral standards.

We also make promises, vows and resolutions to live rightly and avoid sin. When repenting before God or others we make such promises not to do it again. We will remove and avoid temptations to sin. Vows made as part of penitence are good things. The problem arises when we fail again and again to keep them; then we despair and don’t promise again so that we don’t fail again.

Failed vows and promises lead many addicts and just plain sinners to give up on God and fall away. But we must remain persistent in daily repentance and faith and forgiveness, and repeating the vows.

Sin is too big and bad an enemy, too terrible a force and so life-destroying, to just give in. We keep asking for forgiveness and we keep asking, seeking and knocking for help in overcoming: “Oh, when will you come to me?” God keeps His promises, and He can help us keep ours.

 

 

 

 

 

All God’s people and all the people on earth are called to come to Him with praise and thanks, with service and worship, with joy and gladness. Come with nothing and receive everything in His presence.

For the Lord (Jesus) is God and He is good; he is all good; he is only good; he is always good; he is forever good. To say, “God is good,” is to say that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all that makes life possible and worthwhile. Yes, I experience both good and evil, but my blessed life is dominated by “good” because it is dominated (lorded over) by God.

He created me out of nothing (I didn’t evolve, I’m not here by chance); he saved me and made me his own (I didn’t decide by myself, I didn’t earn favor); he takes care of me and provides every need (I can’t take care of myself, I don’t even know what I need); he delivers me from evil and drives away my enemies (I am too weak to fight and too dumb to know how). The only response I have to my Lord’s goodness is praise arising from a grateful and believing heart.

 

 

 

The Almighty God, the Lord, can only be praised by His created people for He is King, He is great and high above the people, He is awesome, but above all He is Holy. We, as created mortals, cannot think of God as being anything other than “Holy Other” or also “wholly other.” He is so unique in His holiness that he is so different and special  and so far above and beyond us as to be unapproachable. God can only be feared and worshiped but not known. We can’t relate.

But He loved people, so He took the initiative to come to us and reveal Himself in ways that made Him available. Moses and Aaron and Samuel, for example, were intercessors for us and the Lord heard their prsyers. He does this for us finally and continually through our great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

And through Him, in His Name, Holy God hears us. God forgives Moses, Aaron and Samuel, and us. Thus He can answer prayers. But note that this God also takes vengeance on, justly judges, their wrongdoings.

A Loving God forgives Sin; a Holy God judges it. In the Cross He did both. The Supreme Holy God deals with us through the Cross.