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JennyW: Hello Everyone! Just checking in to see if anyone wants to get this group going again! Hope all is well where ever you live! 2024-08-14, 08:21:59

Oldiesmann: I'm not aware of any Jenny. Not sure why activity has died down on this site so much though 2023-06-12, 00:06:36

JennyW: Also, does anyone know other photo sharing sites that are Christian? 2023-05-16, 08:47:03

JennyW: Hello Everyone! I really miss activity on this site. I've been discouraged by photography sites where you have to sort through so much explicit content in order to see photos that truly glorify God. I'd love to see this site pick up again. 2023-05-16, 08:46:36

Janet: Carol, I am just reading this.  So sorry for your loss, glad your beloved Don knew the Lord and you have the assurance of his eternity  and that you WILL see him again.  Much love to you.  Janet 2022-06-18, 08:49:36

Oldiesmann: So sorry for your loss Carol. Praying for you and your family :( 2022-05-01, 17:13:05

Carol: My husband Don is with the angels.....Our family was able to hold  ourselves together for the last moments.  Juar rhoufhr you might want to know. 2022-04-29, 23:35:15

Carol: Thankful:  Don is home from hospital.  I found him unconscious with head outside on the floor and the rest was in the shower.  At the same moment, one son was walking through the front door to visit.  Two fire trucks came racing in and they took over After 2021-12-29, 22:01:26

JennyW: Autumn is shaping up to be quite beautiful this year! 2021-10-02, 12:24:03

JudyB: I will be back this evening to start July's thoughts..... The wedding was beautiful! 2021-07-02, 11:51:09


 

SONGS OF WORSHIP



Psalm 41

Al Moak

Our Lord rules the earth according to definite and righteous principles. They are: 1) He blesses those who love Him and care for others, and 2) He curses those whose hearts are hard toward God and man.


David loves, admires and worships a God like that. In fact he absolutely delights in Him. The result is that he wants to be like Him - he too wants to "consider the poor." A further result is that God also blesses David. So David was called "a man after God's own heart." As David himself puts it - "The Lord will deliver (such a man) him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies." God delights in the man who delights in Him.


Because David loves such a God, he therefore loves the people of that God as well, so of course he wants them to know Him and rejoice in Him. So he has them repeat in song the words of this psalm as they begin their day, with the hope that, when they leave the temple, their lives, too, will be characterized by love to God and service to His people that day.


With that in mind, David sings of prayer and answered prayer - a loving relationship that God sustains to those who love him and who love and serve His people. The particular prayer that David was thinking of was prayed in an especially perilous situation, the situation of his own sickness. He describes it when he says, "I said, 'Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.'" He tells of his enemies' hatred and of their hope that he will never rise again from his sickbed - even though they had been his "own familiar friends in whom I trusted."


But David particularly wanted to remind the people that the Lord did answer his prayer and help him. So he sings, "By this I know that You are well pleased with me, because my enemy does not triumph over me. As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me before Your Face forever!" David would not have realized how much the Lord loved him if it had not been for just such a perilous time - the Lord used the trial to open David's eyes to that love. He does the same for us. He often opens our own eyes to His love by means of the trouble we experience.


Next, after describing how God blessed him and answered his prayer, he finally and simply leads the people in praise to the God Who deals in such a merciful way with His people. He sings,"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen."


How's your own relationship to God? Does it affect your relationship to other people? Do you love them because you love Him? Do you "consider the poor (poor in this world's goods, poor in spirit, poor by lack of friends)?" Do you therefore feel free to call on the Lord in all your own trials? Not that you've earned His favor by your "goodness" - but He's glorified by the work of His own Spirit within you - and you'll experience how much He loves you! It's a happy relationship with God, a relationship you evidence by loving God and caring for His people. If this is your case, then bless your graciously loving God today!




Next "Songs of Worship" >Psalm 42 >

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Trinidad AM

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