Today’s Scrip-Bit 15 August 2015 Psalm 67:1

15 Aug 2015 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 67:1. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.  Selah.

Well Friends, how goes the battle this Saturday morning in the middle of August eh? I hope we are all winning, primarily because of our strong and wonderful relationship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for He is our mainstay, our anchor, our foundation, our rock of ages! 

Without Him we can do very little, but as Bruh Paul confidently declares to the Philippians: ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ (Phil.4:13) 

Yes my brethren, when we live for Jesus, He enables us to adapt to our ever-changing circumstances. The Lord puts us through our paces, and He also gives us the wherewithal to handle them successfully. 

So there’s no need to worry when various trials and tribulations come against us, for our wonderful God will either make a way for us to escape them, or help us to bear them and come out more mature and Christ-like on the other side. Oh glory to God! 

Yes my fellow believers, we do worship a most amazing and awesome God! There is none like Him anywhere else in this whole wide universe. And how could there be eh, when He is the creator and controller of it all? That’s why it’s very unwise for us not to serve and worship Him faithfully, for He blesses those who are obedient to His will and brings the proud and arrogant to destruction. 

Consequently the psalmist cries out in our Bit: ‘God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.   Selah.’ However, it only makes sense to do that if we’re coming to Him with a humble and repentant heart, for those are the only pleas He answers. 

And for those of you who don’t know the origin of prayers like our Bit, but have only heard stuff like that intoned by a priest at the end of a service, here is a li’l history lesson. (smile) Not surprisingly, it all begins with our great God while the Israelites were travelling through the wilderness enroute to the Promised Land after their exodus from slavery in Egypt. 

‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, (the priests) saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put (invoke) my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.’ (Num.6:22-27)  

Yes Friends, that’s the origin of the priestly blessing we hear our priests use at the end of a service, and which we also ought to use with our friends and families, because a blessing is not a blessing until it is declared, spoken out loud. And believe you me, we all need plenty, plenty blessings in these very turbulent and troubled times. 

And talking about blessings mih people, the Lord left nothing to conjecture, He even spelled out the blessings obedience would bring. ‘And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.’ (Deut.28:1-2)  

Oh my people, my people, what is there not to understand about those statements eh? And since our God does not change, that means they are also applicable to us in these current times. And please note that the blessings will come upon us, will overtake us! That means we don’t have to go looking for them, but if we are obedient to the Lord’s statutes, they will run us down and overtake us. Glory to God! Now how can that not be something we take very seriously eh my people? 

Then listen to some of the particular blessings that have been promised. ‘Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shall thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body (offspring), and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine (cattle), and flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store (kneading bowl). Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shall thou be when thou goest out. (Deut.28:3-6) 

Ah Friends, how much more can you get than that eh? Not much. But there are 8 more verses of general blessings, like victory over your enemies, who ‘shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.’ (Deut.28:7) I like that, for it shows how successful we’ll be against our enemies, scattering them seven ways till Sunday. (smile) 

Everything we set our hand to will also prosper…we’ll be a holy people to the Lord, called by His name, and set fear in the hearts of the whole earth. But Friends, the great proviso is ‘if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.’ (Deut.28:9b) So no wonder our societies are all going downhill, because we are not obeying the commandments of our God, and instead are forcing Him out of our lives. 

But you know what’s interesting and somewhat amusing about all the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience? The former takes up 14 verses of chapter 28, while the latter runs from verse 15 to 68. And I’d suggest that we all read them, for they are indeed frightful, and it might just give us a different outlook on the situation. 

The scholars though have an interesting take on the great difference in space taken up by the curses. They say: ‘This is probably due to human nature. The threat of a severe judgement on the covenant-breaker seems to act as a stronger stimulus to correct behaviour than any promise of blessing.’ 

But clearly they did not take the very evil nature of this generation into consideration, for despite the many curses that are befalling us, we refuse to turn back to Almighty God, our Creator and provider, in humble repentance. We prefer to walk to the beat of our own false wisdom and the lies and deceit of the evil one, Lucifer. Therefore we shall pay the harsh price for disobedience my people. There are no ifs and s and buts about that! Much LOVE!

…if obedience brings blessings…and disobedience cursing…where is the wisdom in following the latter path…as we are currently doing eh…

Today’s Scrip-Bit 13 September 2014 Psalm 67:1

13 Sep 2014 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 67:1.      God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;   Selah.

Aye Friends, do you realize that we’re already in the middle of September…and it was just last week we celebrated Labour Day? (smile) Ah brother! The days they surely seem to be passing rather quickly. I don’t know if time is actually speeding up, or it’s simply our perception that it’s going by faster; just our imagination playing tricks on us. (smile)

If I were to guess though, I’d say that it’s our imagination playing tricks on us. Our days have become so busy with work and looking after home and family and the myriad of things those tasks entail, including the presence of worry and anxiety, that the time just speeds away on us before we even realize what’s really happening.

Even a generation ago, our lives weren’t so busy. What’s happened eh? Unlike what we were led to expect and believe, in spite of all the technological innovations and modern conveniences, we seem to have lees spare time, less down time where we can just sit and relax. It seems like we’re always on the go.

Now there’s no separation between work, home and play, they all seem to have morphed into one seamless continuum. With our wonderful technological devices we now work everywhere; at home, at work and at play. We’re now constantly at the beck and call of the technology monster and its feeding frenzy. If we’re not constantly in touch with the social happenings then we feel lost and behind the times, not in the swing of things. 

And sadly, that feeling is perpetrated by the greedy business people who are just out to grab whatever they can from us, without caring even one iota about our situations. It’s all about the money. That’s a big part of the reason for the unnecessary tension, frustration, resentment, anger, selfishness and rudeness in our current society.

Our standards, including morals, work ethic, dress, education and otherwise have fallen so low, that now we glorify as superior, of superstar status, what was once considered mediocre, and even of no account.  And yet we expect to flourish.

How foolish of us Friends, for societies only flourish when truly high standards are the norm, not the exception. As standards fall, so do the societies themselves. And if you don’t believe me, just check out man’s history that’s littered with so many examples.

And before we go any further my people, let me remind us that there’s ONLY ONE SUPERSTAR in this evil, ungodly world – that’s our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! And don’t you forget it! Stop buying into the nonsense that the world is selling us; putting people on pedestals who can’t even run their lives properly.

Anyway, that’s enough pontification from me for today. (smile) Let’s see what our Bit has to say: ‘God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;   Selah.’

And yuh better believe my brethren that we desperately need such godly attention today, right now, if we’re ever going to turn this wicked and ungodly society around. As the psalmist so wisely and truthfully continues: ‘That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health (salvation) among all nations.’ (Ps.67:2)

But for that to happen, the psalmist tells us: ‘Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.   Selah.

Let all the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase (give her produce); and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.’ (Ps.67:3-7)

Yes Friends, without God’s blessings, we’re doomed, and we won’t get God’s blessings unless and until we praise and worship Him in faithful obedience and trust.

And according to the scholars: ‘Psalm 67. This national psalm of thanksgiving expresses the gratefulness of the people to their God and their confidence in His continued blessings. The point of the psalm seems to be that God’s blessing on Israel is only a harbinger of divine blessings for the entire world.

This universal outlook is revealed not only by the explicit statement of the final verse, but by the exclusive preference of the general word for God, Elohim, to the complete exclusion of the personal name of Israel’s God, Yahweh.’  

So you can see Friends, from early on, God planned to have the entire world, His entire creation, bowing at His feet, praising and worshipping Him, while He showers them with untold blessings and mercies. Unfortunately though, that plan has gone somewhat awry, because of our rebellious and disobedient nature.

But  He’s such a LOVING, generous and patient Father, that He gave us a second chance by sending Jesus to die on the old rugged cross at Calvary, so that we could be reconciled to Him. What a marvellous Deity!

That means  the ball is now in our court, my people. It’s now up to us to embrace the lifeline that He’s thrown out to us through His son Jesus. Please, let’s show heavenly wisdom and grab hold of the wonderful opportunity that has been presented to us.

And now, may the Lord bless and keep us and cause His face to shine upon us as we praise and worship Him in all truth and sincerity. Much LOVE!

…as the praise and worship of Almighty God increases…so will the blessings and mercies that are showered down upon earth…