Blessing God
2008-02-19

Feeling a bit better today. I still haven't really explained all of this yet. Maybe I'll post an entry on musicman later tonight. We'll see.


Psalms for today: 19, 49, 79, 109, 139
From Psalm 49:
5Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
6those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit.

10 For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
12 Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.

13 This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts.
14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.


This passage that seems to get so dark and hopeless ends with a bang. And the last verse in the quoted passage contains two of my very favorite words in all of the Bible.

"BUT GOD..."

So many times in Scripture, we see passages that go on and on declaring the hopeless plight of humanity, but then there's a change of direction with those two little words...only six letters..."BUT GOD...

HALLELUJAH!!! Thank God for "but God!"



Day 89

Psalm 103:1-14

"Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

The author says that the Hebrew word for "bless" actually means "to kneel." So we kneel in our hearts before God and list all the things we have to bless him for. I've always read it as "praise."

There's a strong list of benefits listed...

He forgives your sins--every one.
He heals your diseases--every one.
He redeems you from hell--saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy--a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness--beauty eternal.
He renews your youth--you're always young in his presence.

That last one is really good news for a lot of us. Heh.

But wait...there's more. Here's my favorite part:

He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.

Did you get that? HE DOESN'T TREAT US AS OUR SINS DESERVE!

Go back. Read that again. I'll wait.

If you can't "bless" God for that, then you don't have a true understanding of how ugly your sin is. I know the depths of my sin. It is horrid, putrid, ugly, rotten and reeks of death.

"But God..." Hah! "BUT GOD..."

I'm bordering on ecstatic here. God does not treat me as my sins deserve. He has cast them as far as the east is from the west. That's in a straight line...get it? East and west never meet. My sins are removed from me to an infinite distance. And God's love for me is higher than the heavens are above the earth. So far, that's over 31 million light years away (and that's only as far as we have managed to see with the Hubble...we haven't found the end of the heavens yet).

Ah, yes....31 million light years away from earth, in the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy, there stands a cross. 31 million times 5.88 trillion...how many miles is that? I could be mistaken, but I believe I came up with 182.28 quintillion miles. Right smack in the middle of the Whirlpool galaxy for no one else to see (until we made that Hubble thing)...a reminder of who all this is for. Not for us. Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory.

Sorry for that rabbit trail there. Point is, God's love for me goes farther than that!

Can we rest in that love for a few minutes? Can we rest in the knowledge that he does not treat us as our sins deserve?

No matter what your life is bringing you. No matter what your circumstances are telling you. Remember the two biggest words in the Bible.

BUT GOD...

Grace and peace to you...



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