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God bless us–everyone! We ask the blessing of the Numbers 24 Aaronic Benediction at the close of the worship service to go with us through days of our lives; and then the blessing spreads from us, His people, to all the nations, so that they, too, shall be glad.

In the Blessing the Lord puts His Name, His Presence, upon His people and they carry the Name, the Presence, and the Blessing of God into all the earth. He smiles on His people, and His people smile on all the peoples and nations. The blessing of God is the intensification of life to empower growth, fertility and prosperity; it is his ongoing presence of life, sustaining of peace and wellbeing, and provision of every need. Enemies are subdued and the Lord reigns.

The peoples of earth learn of God’s ways and saving work from the blessed people and they bless Him, too. Also all see that God judges with equity, that is, He sets right the things that are out of order. The people praise God, the harvest is plentiful, God blesses us, and the ends of the earth fear Him.

God is great and good, awesome and terrible, powerful and magnificent. He rules all things by His great power; by His power He makes all His enemies submit to Him. All the earth and all the rebellious nations must worship and praise Him. Therefore, I and we will praise and bless him loudly and joyfully.

In addition, I and we will also give Him thanks for the specific things he has done for us and for me. We praise him for who he is, but praise alone can tend to make God seem more distant, which is good; then we need to thank him to make God seem closer and more personal. The OT believer looks back to the Exodus Redemption Event in thanksgiving; the NT believer looks back to the Christ Redemption Event in thanksgiving. Then both OT and NT believers thank God for testing them through fire and water and bringing them to a place of abundance.

After that, the OT believer sacrifices and prays; the NT believer repents and prays (Repentance and faith is offering a sacrifice, remembering Baptism.) Thus I know I do not regard sin in my heart and God will hear my prayer. Bless God for His mercy.

God has heard our prayers, He is hearing them now, and He will always hear our prayers. God Almighty, Creator and Father, promises to hear the prayers of all the earth’s inhabitants. The specific need in the prayer of Psalm 65 is rain; and the Lord comes to bring rain in abundance. To “pray for rain” is to pray for livelihood and wellbeing: a matter of life or death.

To pray to the Hearer one must first come into His Presence; but no one is allowed into His hearing with any stain of sin and guilt. So He does it: He himself purges the sin away. Now we talk. The Hearer hears. The enemy barrier is gone.

This God of Salvation is Creator God who once defeated and still defeats chaos and turmoil, the enemies of peace in the inner man. This God of Salvation is also Provider God who sends rain and provides goodness and fatness more abundantly than we can ask or imagine.

The God Who Hears is always available, so the child of God can avail and prevail.

A lot of evil stuff goes on within human interactions that are mysterious, unsearchable and unexplainable; this stuff happens on the stage of political and international intrigues and terror plots, within small groups and communities of a few people, and even within the depths of one individual. Danger and threat lurk underneath spoken words and secret plans which can’t be traced: “Where did that come from? How did that happen?” Both international wars and family fights threaten to erupt from unknown causes.

The Bible exposes the invisible world of demons and the evil depths of the human heart. Evil enemies think no one knows the source or can see what’s really going on; and that is usually true. But our God knows and sees and He will take action against the secret evil demonic forces that pose threats; He shoots arrows that never miss their mark.

The believer, knowing God knows and sees and cares, trusts his Lord and prays for Him to preserve his life from dread of the enemy. God secretly moves in and destroys the destroyers. The one who takes refuge in Him rejoices in the victory; he can’t explain what happened but he knows who did it.

Life is good. It doesn’t get any better than this. Coming into the Presence of God and personally experiencing His Faithful Love makes full, rich and abundant, like quenching thirst and enjoying a rich banquet feast. Worshipping (blessing and thanking) Jesus enters into His Love; it can be done any time and place, early at the dawn or meditating during the night.

God’s love gives His Son, gives life, enriches life and makes life worth living in every circumstance. His love in Christ defeats the enemies who are constantly seeking to destroy the soul, life itself, and the lies that steal the enjoyment of life are stopped.

Therefore, I will lift up my hands in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, and I will open my lips to bless the Lord and give thanks with a grateful heart. The conditions of mortal life, which Sin and Death and Devil seek to further diminish with lies, are replaced with Eternal Life. God’s love is even better than life. I can see His power and glory in the sanctuary of His near presence when go through the dying and rising with Christ in remembrance of Baptism. Life is good, again.

My focus is on God alone: Jesus Christ is everything to me. He is for me Salvation, Hope, Strength, Power, faithful Love, a Rock, a Refuge, my Defense, my Glory. Therefore, I can trust Him, and I will wait calmly for Him and expect Him to act in the time and manner that He chooses. I will pour out my thoughts and feelings to Him and give Him everything that is on my mind.

My enemies in the world and in my self would relentlessly be deceiving me and tempting me to expect other things and people to make me happy and bring the peace I need. But I wait for God alone; I will not trust in myself or anything else but Him; I will not entrust myself or my needs to anything else. For no matter how it appears everything outside of Christ is as empty as a breath. He only is solid and real and true, and loving and kind and merciful.

I pray that He will give me the wisdom to recognize the voices of the enemies and the faith to reject them; and give me patience to wait for Him and hear his Word.

It is a blessing for a believer to recognize when God seems distant, since it is easy to drift away from the presence and protection of the Lord without noticing it. Then it is an even greater blessing when the Spirit nudges us to use the means of grace in His Word to draw close. When one is at “the end of the earth and the heart is overwhelmed” it is time to cry to the Lord in prayer: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” He hears the prayer and brings him into that refuge and tower that is safe from the triple enemy: sin, death and the devil. This is abiding in the tabernacle of the Presence of God, the key to living the full life.

The move from distance to nearness, from the land of the enemy to the home of the Lord, is not a physical movement; it is a simple spiritual turning. Both God and the Enemy are constantly next to and within the Christian, but which has his attention? The gift of God is the discernment of position: am I in a place of danger or of safety? When noticed, turn.

A defeat of the believer at the hands of the Enemiy may be allowed by the Lord because he tried to win the battle by human means alone. Perhaps it was giving in to a temptation to sin that came from the Enemy Sin; perhaps it was giving himself up to discouragement that came from the Enemy Devil; or perhaps it was sadness that came from the Enemy Death.

One may complain and ask “Why?” and blame God; or he may learn the lesson, turn to God in prayer, trust Him to do it, and know that it is He who will deliver us from trouble and it is He who will tread down the Enemies. Complaining, blaming, questioning, acting the victim, and generally being negative makes the problem worse, does not bring a solution or lead to victory. Why do weak and sinful humans think they know the answers?

Vain is the help of man. Instead, one can turn to Jesus in dust and ashes, humility and dependence, prayer and faith, trust and hope; then He turns to him, delivers from trouble, and treads down the Foe. Our Friend, the Overcomer, is there.

In the invisible world surrounding us the demons of sin, death, and the devil will prowl around like a pack of dogs seeking to attack the soul and bring us down, actually to devour and destroy the joy of life in God. When we experience trouble and distress we can recognize the event as an enemy attack from the Spiritual Foe.

It is good, right and salutary to turn to my Strength, Refuge and Defense in the day of trouble. It is fitting and proper and necessary to ask the Lord in his mercy and lovingkindness to rise up and attack the attackers, to send them reeling back to hell, to silence their lying mouths, and consume them in wrath.

The mercies of God and the Blood of Jesus Christ is a sure Defense and a dependable Offense. An imprecatory prayer is useful and powerful when directed against spiritual enemies (not physical persons). God will hear those prayers and deliver us from Evil. Sin is more destructive than we are able to imagine, but the Love of God is even far more destructive than we can ever ask or imagine. Use it; pray it; believe it.

Power corrupts. Any sinful human placed in a position of influence in which his decisions affect the lives of others, for good or ill, is liable to corrupt and abuse that power. This evil condition exists in every human society or grouping of people of any size; and it is exacerbated by evil demonic powers that seek to control those persons placed in authority. This sinful and demonic condition results in rampant injustice on earth.

The only hope for peaceful and pleasant living is to pray to the only Just Judge to set things right; but when we do pray for justice terrible things may happen to terrible “judges” (anyone with any power over anybody). When The Judge judges the invisible powers, the lions and snakes, the visible misusers of power may also suffer under these judgments.

Imprecatory prayers against unjust spiritual enemies must be prayed, but be prepared to repent since selfish inclinations rule in each sinner as well and they will be judged. In fact, gossip, complaints, criticisms and judgments of others (prayers, really) should not be thought or spoken until severe self examination is rigorously applied. Then judge the sin and forgive the sinner (including yourself).