Praise Power

Background: Ps 8:2 "From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger."

Lesson
It doesnt matter who is praising. It doesn't matter the size od the person praising. It doesn't matter the language of the person praising. It doesn't matter the fluency in a multitude of ornate words used for praising. The Word of God says that God ordains: meaning "confer holy orders upon/to establish by law/to decree/to destine" even infants, the Amplified Bible says "unweaned infants" to praise God in the face of His enemies and you know what the impact of that is "to silence the foe and the avenger." God can silence His enemies not by great macho praise people, but from unweaned infants. What an Awesome God we serve. Ordaining glorious abilities on people whom we may think incapable/weak. That is our God Who empowers the praise of His people, no matter how low, tiny, small you feel before the enemy. Your God thinks BIG of you and empowers you to be BIG before our enemies.

Conclusion: Our God is a powerful God. Able to transform people by one utterance of His Word. When God ordains/establishes praise from infants, they receive the power to silence the enemy. God is able to impart to YOU the power needed to silence the enemy. Don't fret about how tiny, incapable, weak, babyish, helpless you are, but rejoice and Praise in God, Praise our Living Lord Jesus and God will empower you to put your enemies to silence.

Love
Godzheart

Righteous Judge

Background: Psalm 7 David is crying out to God for His righteous judgment in a situation when he was hurt by his own. In your Bibles you will notice the chapter begins with a short heading "[A shiggaion[a] of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite.]"

For better understanding shiggaion from the verb shagah, "to reel about through drink," occurs in the title of Ps. 7. The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Hab. 3:1. The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode.

Lessons I learnt

1. Voiced all his fears to the Lord - God knows us full well, but it is when we speak up to the One Whom we cannot see, we activate our faith on our Living God, engaging His power to work on our behalf. I guess thats the deal with praying aloud, we hear for ourselves as the Holy Spirit puts word in our mouths to help us pray, mixing with our faith, and we begin to realize in our minds as we listen - God has indeed stretched out His hand for us. David spared nothing to tell God, his Friend.
2. Inward Cleanliness - "v3 O LORD my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands-v4 if I have done evil to him who is at peace with me or without cause have robbed my foe..." We go great lengths to make ourselves presentable before people around us, David was constantly checking his heart to make sure his heart was pure and clean before God. Most all his psalms talks about being pure, being holy, being righteous before God, hiding God's Word in his heart so he may not sin. He made sure he kept his inner self clean.
3. Righteous Judge - The world may deal judgments in the favor of the one who has more money, irrespective of the truth of the matter, but David knew a Judge and based all of his life before him, because his Judge judged rightly. God our Judge knows ANY situation from the inside out and what would be better than to pour out all our energy in bringing our cases before this Righteous Judge, than to go to anybody else?

Conclusion-David exerted all of his energy in serving the One Who had and Who could make a difference in his life and therefore the life of this man who lived centuries ago, speaks to us so profoundly. He knew how ordinary and how broken he alone is, but he also knew the One God Who could change His life immensely. He made sure his life stayed right with our Living God, so that he would have constant connection-a live connection with our Living God. How much more do we need to keep our inner beings in constant check and purity, to make sure we are not lured by bathing Bathsheba's - satan's bait of the flesh to pull us down from the place of closeness with our Lord Jesus.

Desperate Tears

Background: Psalm 6 David cries out to God in a very profuse, heart rendering cry. Desperate for a change, an intervention, redemption, deliverance from his enemies. He is so desperate for the relief that, unrestrained and unstoppable tears flow down his eyes. They're sore, for he has cried for long. You should read the Amplified Version to get the intensity of his supplication. This psalm of David's ignites in me a passion for God.

Lessons I learnt

• Desperate to reconnect-v3-43 "My [inner] self [as well as my body] is also exceedingly disturbed and troubled. But You, O Lord, how long [until You return and speak peace to me]?
  No matter what error David made, he cried out passionately to God to forgive him and take him back. His heart longed for reconnecting with God always.
• Desperate for intervention-v4"Return [to my relief], O Lord, "David desperately desired God to be a part of his life. He needed God to guide his life in the way God would have it go.
• Desperate for deliverance-"4deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love and mercy." David did not sit complacently when enemies surrounded him and he always had enemies right from the time he was anointed king. He knew God can deliver, but he also needed to pray and so he did. Not just casually, he poured his heart out in his prayers with such passion and fervor. Would not God deliver His anointed king? He can and He could, but David's prayers engaged God's power to action on his life. An affirmation saying-"Lord come work on my life. I need You Lord."

Conclusion: Thats the making of a man after God's own heart. Man full of passion regarding his life, his struggles, his deliverance. We have an enemy too and if we look around, we'll see him pressing down on our lives from all sides. Social degradation, moral degradation, economic meltdown, family break-ups. Its our time to be desperate and not just watch while the enemy takes all. Our time to stand up, cry profusely to our Living Lord Jesus, to reconnect with our Lord and ask Him to intervene in our lives in His everlasting mercy and give us victory in all corners. Now is the time to live passionately for our Lord, right NOW!!

Good Morning Daddy, I have a problem!

Background: Psalm 5 A prayer, a declaration and a great lesson. I liked this chapter as it taught a wonderful lesson on how the psalmist converses with God. No matter what we're struggling with in life or what the enemy is threatening us with, we've got a way before our Father in heaven.

Lessons I learnt

1. Directing the prayers rightly-v2 "Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. "
2. First to God-"v3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you". The Psalmist specifically mentions, that in the morning, in the first light of day. The first thing of the day, he does is, goes before God with his requests. Giving God a place of honour and respect similar to how we'd like to see our most precious person/persons first thing in the morning. More than that, going first to God at a time of trouble, shows that he trusts God with his problem and knows He's the best person to share it with.
3. Expectant-"v3b and wait in expectation." He doesn't go there just pouring out his requests, he even waits for God's intervention. Waits!!! He knows God CAN DO something about his situation and he waits.
4. Knows his God-v4-v6. The key to having peace at troubled times and when praying, is knowing WHO you are praying to. If we have no clue WHO God is and WHAT He can do, then we'll have no effect in our prayer, for we will be unable to expect anything.
5. Doing his part, while he waits-v7-v8Goes to the house of the Lord, worships and lives righteously.
6. Venting frustrations- I could have never thought, how a person can go and speak like that about their enemies before God. Its like a small child going before his father and complaining about the bully who threatens him at school everyday. The child is free to share his feelings with his father. Not scared that his dad will think of him to be a wimp. He knows his father would take action on behalf of him to protect him. Surely our Heavenly Father knows much better than an earthly dad, to protect His children. We have the opening to go share our happy, sad, frustrated, joyful, worried or whatever else kind of heart, with our Heavenly Father as He avenges us, isn't that what friends do?

Conclusion: No matter what we're facing in this point of time in our lives, the surest thing I have learnt from this Psalm is that our God is a patient listener, a fervent deliverer and a terrific avenger. He will work in a manner who knows, even our enemies will see and be delivered from sin and come into righteousness. Take heart and share your burdens with your Living God who IS ABLE to work out all your situations for your good and His glory.

Blessings in Distress

Background: A study on Psalm 4 (Amp). It is amazing how the Psalmist finds himself describing his blessings in he midst of trouble. He begins with a plea for God to hear his cry and then his tone(as usual) changes over to one as if prophesying to himself of what his God can do. The powerful blessings that follow a one who follows God rightly.

What the Psalmist does in a time of distress?

1. Calls God in Prayer(v1)
2. Offers "right" sacrifices(v5)-Its easy to do the right thing when everyone is doing the right thing. But when everyone is doing the wrong thing, it can be pretty difficult to do the right thing when someone has wronged you or you are in a tough situation. Hence the bible refers to it as a "sacrifice". When it costs us to do the right thing.
3. Trusts the Lord(v5)

What God does for His people in times of distress?

1. Frees his people-"v1 You have freed me when I was hemmed in ". The situation was pretty tight(hemming) and God frees his people
2. Enlarges or Increases-"v1...enlarged me when I was in distress". Did you see that. God enlarges people even in the middle of distress. Do you remember how the Israelites multiplied exceedingly in the time of slavery and when the egyptian king was killing infant boys!!! Thats the kind of God we have.
3. Sets apart His people-"v3 set apart for Himself [and given distinction to] him who is godly [the man of loving-kindness]. " In the midst of adversity people will still be able to recognise who you belong to. God shows in marvellous ways to other people, that You belong to Him.
4. Joy and Peace-"v7You have put more joy and rejoicing in my heart than [they know] when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly." Even if it may seem like we've got nothing in distress, our God is able to fill our lives with such joy and peace it values much more than the seeming abundance the enemy has.

Conclusion: What have we got to do in times of distress? In the midst of distress when you think life can not get any worse. Nothing seems to work. Right then and there our Living God is at work in our lives, IF ONLY WE WILL SEE, how we've been set apart(shown distinctively as His kid), how our boundaries have been enlarged and how we're at peace. The psalmist ends this chapter wonderfully."v8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust." Be so sure and confident in the Lord that He is able to perfect everything that concerns you. He never does an incomplete project. He who has started the good work in you WILL bring it to completion.