June 13–Psalm 103-105

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name”(103:1).

Is there anything in the world sweeter than a grateful child? Anything less lovely than an ungrateful one? Parents delight to give, and the joy is ten times greater when the receiving child is grateful.

I listened recently to Holly (my wife) as she coached Elliot (our first granddaughter) to say “thank you”. She repeated the lesson many times during our day together. A stranger’s compliment. A gift from her parents. At several moments, with great patience, Mimi helped Elliot recognize when a “thank you” was both necessary and lovely.

More than etiquette. David knew gratitude as a gift to God and a safeguard for his soul. In Psalm 103, he coached himself toward gratitude and praise. It is not something that comes naturally to the carnal man.

In honest self-talk, David roused his soul to shake off apathy and gloom and entitlement. The Hebrew word for bless is barak. It means, “to kneel in worship and affection and loyalty.”

Will you kneel, today, friend? Will you acknowledge your great and good God? Will you give thanks for His salvation mercies? Will you declare your love for His patience and generosity? Will you bless the Lord?

“When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams, and your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes; and you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears, don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear. Praise the Lord! He will work through those who praise Him. Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise. Praise the Lord, for the chains that seem to bind you, serve only to remind you, that they drop powerless behind you, when you praise”(Russ Taff).

“For they are without excuse, for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks” (Romans 1:20-21).

June 12–Psalm 95-102

“O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation”(95:1).

In ancient Israel, Psalm 95 was used as a call to worship. Note the word “come” in v. 1 and 6. Faith is inclusive, ever-reaching out.

People need to be invited. Need to be encouraged to gather before the Lord. Just as we are called to come, we are also called to call others to come! This Psalm is a beautiful example.

Come and sing! “Sing joyfully,” urges v. 1. Fix your eyes on a glorious, invisible reality! Don’t concentrate on yourself or your sin. No joy there! “Our Father which art in Heaven.” “Lift up your heads, O ancient gates. . .and the King of Glory will come in.” The upward look is the biblical norm for worship. Lift your eyes! Do it with enthusiasm and joy. Challenge the downward drag of your own inwardness and fears, reject the false urgency of the material world.

Come and bow! See v. 6. At some point, we must do more than sing. We must also surrender. In fresh public confession, we call others (and ourselves) to bow and declare Jesus Lord. His will is our priority. The Old Testament word barack, meant “to kneel or bow”. It also is translated as “blessing”, i.e. the blessings that come from a generous God to those who honor Him. Good news! The law-giver is also the care-giver. Those who bow before God are not harmed in doing so. His law and His love rise from the same heart.

Come and rest! See v. 8. Some scholars believe that Psalm 95 was used in the Feast of Tabernacles. It was an annual occasion to reflect on God’s goodness in providing rest for His people. For Israel, part of God’s rest was a land to live in. For us, it is union with Himself and a prepared place in His coming kingdom. Those who “put God to the test” (refuse to take Him at His word) will never enjoy this blessing.

Dear friend, do you call out to others with an invitation to worship and surrender and rest? Will you? Calling others to come is our greatest loyalty to Christ and our greatest love for others.

“O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord”(Adeste Fideles, traditional Christmas carol).

“I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’ “(Psalm 122:1).

June 11–Psalm 90-94

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth. . .even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God”(90:1-2).

It is a song of Moses. His prayer. The only one included in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 90, Moses reflects on the brevity of life and the eternality of God.

We do not know when Moses wrote these words. The mood suggests he did so in his later years. He is older. Wiser. More honest.

Three facts are certain in his mind.

1) God is eternal. Generations of humans have found refuge in Him. He is our dwelling place. Our permanent address. God is larger than time. “From everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Before the infinite past, beyond the infinite future, God is the fixed point, the steady constant.

2)Human life (in its present form) is brief and temporary. “You turn man back to dust.” “As for the days of our lives they contain seventy years or, if due to strength, eighty years.”

3) Death is God’s judgement on sin. A consequence of the rebellion of the human race. “We are consumed by your anger.”

Given these certainties, Moses prays three prayers.

1)”Teach us to number our days.” Shake us out of our denial. Remind us that life is short, valuable only as it connects to God. Human value is derivative. Gloriously, so!

2) “Return, O Lord.” Visit us with Your truth AND Your presence. “Even so, Lord Jesus, come!”

3) “Let YOUR work appear to YOUR servants.” Open our eyes to see what You are doing. Give us an assignment in Your eternal plan and let us participate in it with joy.

Friend, as you lift your eyes to an eternal God, do you find resolve and refuge? Can you trust the plans of the Great One who is from everlasting to everlasting?

“O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home” (Isaac Watts).

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you’ll get earth “thrown in”; aim at earth and you’ll get neither” (C. S. Lewis).

June 10–Psalm 84-89

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?”(85:6).

It is a prayer. Simple. Profound. Will you pray it with the Psalmist?

No student of history can deny God’s gracious pattern in revival. The Psalmist recalls previous days of powerful Spiritual activity among His people. He asks for God to do it again, to pour out conviction and power on His people, to call people to repentance and faith and joy.

The present hour is evil. The forces of decay are rapidly eroding truth. The people of God are discouraged and lukewarm. Friend, does your heart hope for revival? Will you cry out to God for His help?

Nature, itself, proves the possibility! The harshest winter cannot prevent spring from coming. In the same way, evil’s darkness cannot stop the forward movement of God’s grace. The Father holds sufficient strength. He is the source of life, able to help us!

Revival is a free gift with a set price. We must turn to God. We must hear Him again. See v. 8. Our lives (so busy with the pursuit of other things) must be repented. We must pursue God as our ONLY value. An ease-loving, complacent church will never walk through the door of God’s offered grace. “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord,” says Hosea 10:12.

Friend, will you pray for the good GIFT whereby God restores vision and strength and boldness and blessing to His people? See Proverbs 29:18.

“There has never been a revival in any country that has not begun in united prayer and no revival has continued beyond the duration of those prayer meetings” (A. T. Pierson).

“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait on what the Father had promised. . .And they returned to Jerusalem. . .These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:4, 12, 14).

June 9–Psalm 79-83

“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout joyfully to the God of Jacob”(81:1).

Asaph had a difficult assignment. He was a worship leader in Israel in the days after Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed. See Psalm 79. It was a time of great grief.

Knowing this, are you amazed that Asaph calls the people to joyful song? What?! How could anyone expect them to shout joyfully in the midst of such disappointment and loss? How insensitive and tone-deaf!

Without apology, Scripture teaches us “REJOICE IN THE LORD”. True joy does not rise from ease or success or personal safety. It does not rise from material or emotional circumstance. Ours is a confidence fueled by an insight into Spiritual truth, Spiritual reality. God is good. God is glorious. Note Asaph’s confidence that “even now” if Israel repented, God would rescue them (v 13-14). His eyes are focused on the infinite possibilities of the Spirit! Can these bones live? Yes! Yes, they can!

Recently, during a particularly hard time, my wife Holly heard a song that filled her heart with hope. “Even when it feels like my world is shaken, even when I’ve had all that I can take, I know, You’ll never let me go. Even when the waters won’t stop rising, even when I’m caught in dead of night, I know, no matter how it feels, You’re with me even then”(Micah Tyler).

When Holly hears this song, she often dances. The trouble is that she wants me to dance with her! Scriptural duty, I think. Asaph would want me to dance, too!

As you read Psalm 81 today, will you reflect on a God who is eternally and essentially good? “I know the plans I have for you,” whispers the Great One. Even when disaster comes, He has infinite possibilities for blessing you. Even when our lives and hopes collapse, He calls us to faithful, joyful praise. It is our statement of faith, even when. . .

“Joy is a decision, a really brave one, about how you will respond to life” (Wess Stafford).

“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you” (Philippians 3:1).

June 8–Psalm 75-78

“For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children. . . that they should put their confidence in God. . .and not be like their fathers”(78:5,7-8).

Maybe you have seen it on social media. Many versions of this familiar form. “Bob is on the internet. Bob sees something that offends him. Bob stops what he is doing to post how offended he is. Don’t be like Bob.”

In Psalm 78, Asaph reviews the history of Israel with a similar bottom line. “Don’t be like your fathers,” he says in v. 8. Learn from their mistakes. Avoid their losses.

The failures of Israel are obvious. Again and again, they “put God to the test”(v. 18). Dodging God’s call to trust, they claimed to need more proof as a condition. They balked and refused to go further until their demands were met. (Sound familiar in your own life?)

It did not go well. God knows the difference between struggling faith and self-willed unbelief! Why should God reward a tantrum? When they put God to the test, severe discipline came. The same will be true for us.

A repeated cycle, sadly. “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Again, and again they tempted God, and pained the holy One of Israel” (v. 40).

Friend, as you read their story do you see yourself, our nation, every nation? Will you find courage to embrace God’s call, God’s Spirit, to effectively BREAK this long human pattern? Will you teach your children this dream? See v. 5.

It is the long, undeniable history of our race! God is faithful to us. We are NOT faithful to Him.

In the Spirit, we are to break from the past. Those who are like Jesus will NOT be like their fathers. Can we change? The Spirit says YES!

“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it” (Rick Warren).

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. . .nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. . .nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer” 1 Corinthians 10:1, 5-6, 10).

June 7–Psalm 70-74

“Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation”(71:18).

In January, 2019, Holly and I retired from 45 years in the pastorate. We moved to a new city and a new chapter of life.

Almost immediately, opportunities came to serve as an interim Pastor. A church in Austin. Then, for two years, in our home-church in Plano. Surprises, both! Opportunities to continue to serve.

Retirement, I have discovered, brings a temptation to self-centeredness. The cultural narrative, “Relax! Travel! See your grandkids! You earned this,” has been louder than I expected. The still, small voice of the Spirit, however, has steadily called both Holly and me to continued service. Circumstances of our lives change. The central story does not. “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” With each new assignment we have discovered joy!

In Psalm 71, the Psalmist (unnamed) prays an inspiring prayer. He references a life-long friendship with God which began even before he was born. See v. 5 and 6. Now, as a senior adult, he prays for God’s help as he continues to serve. He desires to give his testimony to a new generation. He doesn’t fear that young ears will dismiss him as irrelevant and old fashioned. He is confident that what God taught him will be a powerful blessing to his young friends and is determined and grateful to give his testimony.

Some months before retirement, I began to call this chapter “3 T” (the third third of life). For those who live to be ninety, these thirty years are a significant part of the story. True, even for those who don’t live to be ninety! If every season of life belongs equally to God, then I must be diligent in my search for Him and His will. Even in 3T.

“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life for which the first was made” (Robert Browning). I wonder how completely I have embraced Browning’s insight. Do I believe, “the BEST is YET to be?” Eternity, yes! But this life, these years just ahead of me? Do you, dear friend?

“We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified” (Martin Luther).

June 6–Psalm 66-69

“God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us–Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations” (Psalm 67:1-2).

Audacity is a noun referring to the quality of being fearless, daring, or bold. It is the opposite of timidity or shyness.

The Lord calls His followers to live audacious lives, to pray audacious prayers. He calls us to embrace ambitions and goals on a scale impossible without His presence and help. Great things! “Greater works than these will you do because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

Psalm 67 is a fearless and bold prayer. It is a request for God’s blessing on His people, but only as it factors into a larger dream, a dream that all nations would know of God and His salvation! All nations! All peoples! A huge hope. Not safe or small or manageable. “God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him” (v. 7). The audacious goal of heaven is “that the WORLD may know”. See Matthew 28 for the words of Christ.

Believers do well to remember. When He helps us, it is not an end in itself. He is, at that moment reaching out to others! He is using us, involving us, in a plan that spans the globe and all generations. For God so loved the world! Unchanged goal!

In Matthew 25, Jesus says that the judgement at the end of time will largely be based on things not done. Duties ignored. It will be less about immorality than non-participation in the purposes of the kingdom. It is a warning to those who want to follow Him, but only as it equates to a safe and happy life. The call of Christ is to something larger. Something audacious!

Friend, do you pray Psalm 67? Will you? Have received the Spirit and dethroned self? Will you see your blessings as part of a much larger purpose? Will you take the audacious goal of God into your heart?

‘Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter”(D. L. Moody).

“It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations so that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

June 5–Psalm 59-65

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water”(Psalm 63:1).

Humans are thirsty for God. At times, barely aware of it. In other moments, desperately conscious of our need. Without God, life is dry. Dead.

It is an analogy used often by our Lord and the Scripture. “I am the water that you have been searching for all of your life,” Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4. Psalm 1 says that a man who loves God’s word will be like a tree planted by waters. Green. Fresh. Fruitful.

In Psalm 63, in a moment of actual physical dryness (the wilderness of Judah as he fled from Saul), David confessed the same reality. “My real thirst is for You!” he cried out to God.

Life easily and quickly gets dry, doesn’t it? Illness. Stress. Anxiety. Depression. Gradually a deep awareness dawns on the heart. This world is not enough! We need GOD! Not freedoms or entertainment or job or even safety. Our true thirst is for the Creator, His nearness, His approval, a real and right relationship with Him.

“All my life I had a longing for a drink from some cool spring, that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah! I have found Him whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings; through His blood I now am saved”(Clara Tear Williams).

“If I find within myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (C. S. Lewis).

Are you thirsty, my friend? Do you realize that He made you for Himself and that nothing will ever satisfy you but Him? Recognizing your need, will you seek Him?

June 4–Psalm 52-58

“The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance. . .and men will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth”(58:10-11).

We who hunger for justice must also, logically, hunger for judgement. Just as we depend on court systems to render fair verdicts and sentences, so we trust God to judge the thoughts and actions of humans. Not only trust Him to do so, we actively desire it! Rightly, we cry out for Him to reward some and punish others. See the woman’s prayer in the Jesus parable (Luke 18).

When David prays for God’s vengeance on the wicked (Psalm 58), he does so with words that are disturbing to Christians. “Shatter their teeth” (v. 6). “The righteous will REJOICE when he sees the vengeance” (v. 10).

We must read these words with caution. “Father, forgive them,” Jesus prayed over His enemies and must, therefore, be our starting place, too. Mercy is God’s preference and I must ever be aware of my tendency to presume my own righteousness and assume the evil intent of others. Only God can balance both grace and justice. I must leave the task to Him.

Even so, true love is not opposed to judgement, nor denies the need for it. God’s love and God’s judgement are not mutually exclusive. Without some care, we will take sides with the world against God, Himself. We will unconsciously, begin to believe it wrong or unjust for even God to judge. No, says the Scripture! Judgement is a necessary part of God’s holiness and government. When judgement comes, the believer must affirm that it is right and good.

When God says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” the believer receives this promise as proof that the universe is essentially moral, and ultimately accountable.

“The absence of anger, especially that sort of anger which we would call indignation, can, in my opinion, be a most alarming symptom”(C. S. Lewis).

Friend, do you believe in a God SO holy that He rightfully demands it of His whole creation? Do you believe He judges evil? Do you REJOICE in this attribute as part of His pure and righteous nature and trust Him to do it with absolute justice and fairness?