Have We Given God the Praise He Deserves

 The Lord Our Help and Our Shield

 Book of Psalms 115

 We have just witnessed nature's power, and those folks in Florida have seen much more of nature's power than we have seen.

 No doubt many will blame God, and most others will question God's love and concern for people.

 Some will sneer at the mention of the existence of God.

 When many of our brothers and sisters are affected, the unbelievers will mock our faith.

 We know our God is righteous so everything He does was the right thing to do.

 Did God send these Hurricanes, my answer would be no.

 Could God have stopped these mighty storms from causing devastation then certainly my answer is yes.

 We know that Satan has some powers even over storms just read the Book of Job where a tornado or something similar causes all of Job's children to die at the same time. There were ten of them.

 When tragedy strikes, our first response should not be "Where is God"!

 Today's lesson will teach us that God is great in His moral excellence.

 "Mercy and truth" are the foundation of moral greatness!

 This was the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ!

 Jhn_1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

 A man may be capable of making some laws for people to live by, but most of them are seldom based upon righteousness.

 Grace and truth came from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 The question we should ask when tragedy comes is, how have we treated our Savior?

 Have we given Him the glory that He deserves?

 *****Psa 115:1  Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. 

 Our faith must be based upon the truth or reality.

 Without love, we will live in a world of selfishness which we see today.

 Selfishness is the essence of sin!

 Selfishness is contrary to the law of God!

 The reality is that we have no right to question God for any action He might take!

 We can ask the Lord any question, but we will not always be pleased with His answers.

 We must not show any lack of faith when we are talking to the Lord our God!

 If the Lord does not interfere on behalf of His people, we must not think that His attributes of love and faithfulness have vanished.

 No matter what is happening in our world, we must give God the glory!

 Here in Anderson during the last storm, five deaths were storm related.

 We must not condemn God for those deaths, we must give God the glory that there were no more than five deaths here where we live.

 When Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, we can be sure that many unbelievers were mocking God, but the truth is that God was using the Babylonians to discipline Israel.

 Israel had turned to idols but after the conquest by the Babylonians, Israel never turned to idols again.

 Sometimes God's methods may seem harsh, but they are effective. Harsh does not ever mean abuse!

 As God's people, we will suffer through trials and tribulations, and unbelievers will mock us, but we must never retreat from our goal of serving the Lord until we get to Heaven.

 Why should anyone question our loyalty to God?

 We must always do our very best to look like Jesus Christ!

 *****Psa 115:2  Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 

Psa 115:3  But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 

 When we go about our daily routine looking defeated our enemies will ask us, "Where is your God now, when you need Him so desperately?

 If we look back at the Jews, we know that they had endured the taunts of the idolatrous nations.

 We do not have to go that far today as our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are blasphemed today.

 On that day, the heathen had scoffed at the invisible God.

 Keep in mind those who scoffed had to go home and wipe the dust off of some idol who could not even talk to them.

 When the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they made a strong confession of their faith and even though they were far from perfect they were not called idol worshipers again.

 Though they struggled to put their lives back together they knew to go to God and not go to man.

 We have seen over and over again that when we pray, we need to tell God what we are going through.

 Yes, He already knows, but He wants us to understand that that is nothing too hard for God!

 They happily proclaimed the superiority of the Living God to all who had ears!

 When we are true to the Lord, He will be true to us!

 It angers the Lord for His name to be blasphemed, and He will show His power by His people much of the time.

 If God does not help His children, then Satan and his children will triumph!

 Where is God? He is in the Heavens in a place where He can see all His people.

 The truth is God does as He pleases all the time.

 There is never a time that Jehovah God is wondering what He is going to do next!

 Our dearly loved Savior always, ALWAYS wants to help us through this life and He has already prepared for our future non-ending life in Glory.

 God not only has the will to help those who love Him, He also has the power to make sure what He does is done right!

 Mic 7:10  Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 

 Another thing we must understand is that, if we are suffering then it is the will of God and He has a good reason for that suffering.

 In most cases it is to bring us closer to Him!

 God never lacks the power to end our suffering.

 Isa 55:11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

 There are no gods who can hinder the work of God!

 False gods are either a figment of their imagination or they are pieces of wood, gold, silver, or some other handmade object that can do nothing.

 *****Psa 115:4  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 

Psa 115:5  They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 

Psa 115:6  They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 

Psa 115:7  They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 

Psa 115:8  They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. 

 Anyone who comes to us questioning our God, we should ask them about their god!

 People may scoff, which is mockery and ridicule, at Jehovah who we worship but the fact remains that He is alive, but He is invisible.

 He is invisible for the reason that if He had shown Himself without His glory people would have made an idol of Him and they would have worshipped that idol instead of the invisible God just as people did the pole with a serpent of brass.

 Num 21:6  And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 

Num 21:7  Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 

Num 21:8  And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 

Num 21:9  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. 

 What happened?

 This brazen serpent known as Nehushtan, became on object of idolatry and King Hezakiah destroyed it.

 2Ki 18:4  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

 This brazen serpent upon a pole had a reality as a type of the Lord Jesus upon the cross, when He died for our salvation.

 Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 

Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 

 Idols cannot speak, see. hear, smell, feel, or walk.

 Yet even today some people still worship idols.

 Psa 135:18  They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them. 

 An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.

 Many today have made themselves to be idols such as so-called movie stars, or some sports figures, and yes, some political figures think they should be worshipped, and we certainly cannot leave out those who worship Satan.

 Then there is the idol of money/material things:

 We already know what God says about this.

 1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 

1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 

1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 

1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 Money is the root of all the evil of today. Most all our politicians are bought out in one way or another.

 Other modern idols include, status, physical appearance, entertainment, influence, and yes sex has become an idol which is why abortion is fought so hard along with the LBGTQ is prevalent in our nation and now sex change.

 These are all idols that are worshipped by the “now” generation and God is tossed aside as irrelevant in today's world.

 All these people are in for a terrible surprise very soon.

 Such gods drag down their worshippers to a level of senseless stupidity!

 Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 

 God does not play around with idol worshippers!

 We must trust in the Lord!

*****Psa 115:9  O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

Psa 115:10  O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. 

Psa 115:11  Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. 

 Trust means we are reliant upon God for all things including life, justice, and our love for one another.

 We do not worship a god we have made, but we worship the God who has made us, our Creator, our Maker!

 There is only one true God.

 There are many today that say all religions worship the same God, but nothing could be further from the truth! They just do not know Jehovah.

 God has revealed Himself to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible if you have a true Bible.

 It is true that once we come to know Christ as our Savior, we need to constantly examine our hearts for spiritual idolatry.

 Jehovah is also a jealous God! The lost do what lost people do, but anyone that claims Christ as their Savior and falls into the trap of idolatry could come under the truth of God's jealousy.

 Three times these verses say the word trust.

 1) God is our help and our shield.

 God is safe to depend upon for defense and for offense for all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

 God is also our shield to cover us from danger and to protect us from assault and injury.

 2) For all those who preach the truth of the Scriptures, God is also their help and their shield.

 3) The Lord has had His mind on us since our creation. The remnant of this world who love the salvation gift of God.

 Mat_7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

 This one verse should tell all those who think we all worship the same God that it is simply not true. By the way, this was the lord Jesus Himself that was speaking. He knows everything.

 We could look at this passage as God's invitation for Israel to join the Church because it is the Church that God is protecting in this world.

 The battles of Israel will show that only the Church is on their side along with Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Even this week our administration has sent a unit to Israel that can intercept missiles from Iran to try to keep Israel from going after the oil and nuclear sites of Iran.

 This is only bribery when Israel should destroy Iran, and this world would be a little bit better because of it.

 We cannot trust man, but we can trust God to do the right things.

Many scientists and archaeologists wonder what happened to many old civilizations, but they are not around, and many have no history because God knew no one needed to know how wicked they were.

 We should not forget that Iran is that part of old Persia and the other part Iraq is trying its best to get away from the USA and then they will join Iran and Persia will be again and war mongering nation.

 God will only bless those who trust Him!

 You cannot trust idols because they cannot do anything at all!

 The Holy Spirit wants us to grasp the importance of trusting God!

 We will face persecution, but we must not falter in our trust for the Almighty God!

 If we are worried about what is going on in our nation and in this world, then we do not trust the God of all creation and His plan which He has given us a copy of.

 We must have confidence in our Holy God and His Word salvaged by the Holy Spirit and is the truth.

 Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 

Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

 We were once a part of the world but now if you love the Lord Jesus, we are part of Heaven. Ambassadors to this world.

 We are always on the mind of our God!

 *****Psa 115:12  The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. 

Psa 115:13  He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. 

Psa 115:14  The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. 

Psa 115:15  Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. 

 Who does the Lord bless?

 He blesses those who trust Him!

 Even though Israel does not trust the Son of God, most of them do trust Jehovah (Yahweh).

They reject that they are the same God!

 They are wrong to not accept the Messiah, but they will eventually, at least a remnant of them will.

 We should keep in mind that this Psalm was probably written for the dedication of the Second Temple after the return from Babylon.

 They had been released by the King of Persia who had defeated Babylon.

 We could say that God would bless those who had returned with many children for only about fifty thousand had returned of those who were captured.

 Israel began to see just how great their God is.

 God is always, ALWAYS, working to do good to His people!

 God is always, ALWAYS, mindful of the covenants He has made with all His children!

 God is always, ALWAYS, mindful of the promises He has made, and He will never break a promise He has made to anyone.

 Why is God able to bless so much?

 It is pretty simple, God is our Creator, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and God can do anything He wants to His creation, but He cannot go against His Word!

 Notice that Israel is back in a part of the land God had given to them and God will get the remainder of that land that was promised back to Israel.

 We may be seeing this today, the Lord giving Israel their entire homeland and the world cannot stop it!

 No, there will never be a Palestinian nation within the boundaries of the land God gave to Abraham, the same land God gave to Israel!

 When those who hate God scoff at us, we need to stand firm in our confidence in the Lord.

 We may go through trials.

We may go through persecution.

We may go through attacks.

We may be oppressed.

 God's purpose for us cannot be defeated!

 Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

 Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 

Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 *****Psa 115:16  The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. 

 Verse fifteen says it is our LORD who is the Creator of the heavens, and we know of three heavens.

 The first heaven is the space where we get our air to breathe and the place where the birds fly.

The second heaven is what we call outer space, a place where all planets, all stars, and anything we find in outer space, and it is immense.

The third Heaven is the place where God dwells with His angels and all those souls who are in that Heaven today.

 Notice the Earth is mentioned as the only place God has given mankind to live.

 We know the earth is also the Lord’s:

 Psa 24:1 The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 

 This Psalmist has said that God has given the earth to mankind to live upon.

 Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

Gen 1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 

Gen 1:30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 

 God has not given mankind any other planet, moon, or star to live.

 This earth is where we belong, where we live and work and where our future lies unless we believe all these things and our Creator who made all these things, then our future lies in the third Heaven with our God.

 We know that mankind has not cooperated with God on the development of all the resources of this Earth, but they are all gifts from God for our use.

 God has given the occupants of Earth the responsibility of overseeing the resources of Earth.

 This Earth is the only planet that God gave to be inhabited!

 Isa 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 

 We need to be sure to know that God only declares things that are right and not wrong!

 Isa 45:19  I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. 

 The trouble today is that a few greedy people have tried their best to gain control of the earth's resources and for the most part they have, and the governments control the rest.

 But you see God has reconciled the world back to Himself by the Lord Jesus Christ.

 2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 

2Co 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 

 Now I cannot explain the meaning of all these things, but I know that these words are true.

 Jesus Christ (Messiah) came to this earth to establish the only means of salvation which is available to all people.

 The desire to let the whole redeemed world know of its redemption should move in the heart of every man but the world is tied up with greed for the resources of our planet, corrupt governments, and immorality.

 *****Psa 115:17  The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. 

Psa 115:18  But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.

It should be obvious that those who are dead cannot praise anyone.

When we die our voices are silenced.

In fact, those who are dead lose all communication with the Lord who died for them.

Isa 38:18  For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

I must never forget my job is to praise my Lord.

No matter what I'm going through, I need to praise the Lord, and I know I do not praise Him enough.

Even when the Lost World scoffs at me, I will praise the Lord!

My opportunities to praise the Lord will cease when I take my last breath, but my blessings will continue because I am a child of God!

Psa 118:17  I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. 

Psa 118:18  The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. 

Psa 118:19  Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD: 

Psa 118:20  This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter. 

Psa 118:21  I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

Rev 5:13  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 

 Amen

The Lord Jesus never Has to Change Anything He Has Already Said

 Praise and Trust from the Past for Today

 Book of Psalms 108

 When we study the Book of Psalms, we will see that Psalm 108 combines Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 and David is credited for all three of them, even though he was not alive when Psalm 108 was composed.

 David composed Psalm 57 while hiding in a cave from King Saul.

David composed Psalm 60 about his battle with the Edomites.

 We may not know the purpose of this Psalmist in doing this, but we all know that we may remember and sing a song that brought us comfort in our past during our own stress.

 The one thing we can understand is the fact that the Holy Spirit decided that this new psalm should be included in the Book we call the Bible.

 1)We must completely understand that the Word of God is relevant in any age!

 2)The lessons from the Bible are applicable in every situation we may come to in every generation.

 3)The Word of God gives of the wisdom of God so we can make the right decisions.

 4) The Word of God is always fresh and always gives us encouragement to move forward in life.

 Even today the Psalms of David, in fact all the Psalms, bring us to the reality of this wicked and evil world we live in, and the knowledge that we need the Lord Jesus Christ to be in charge of our lives, every day!

 We must ask for God's help in every situation we face if we expect to have triumph in our Christian life!

 Every question we have of God should begin with praise.

 *****Psa 108:1  A Song or Psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. 

 Notice that this praise comes from a confident heart.

 God will not take the time to answer any of our requests if we do not have enough faith that He can.

 Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

 Our hearts must be fixed upon the reality of the existence of our Savior!

 Our soul, the one that God has given to us, that is now saved by His power, is the most glorious thing that we have in our relationship with God.

 We must make our flesh understand that it also belongs to God.

 2Co_4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

 We should also understand that the Psalms were intended for the worship service and our praise of the Lord Jesus is designed to be in a public manner.

 Rom_10:11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

 We should understand that before we offer up our praise, we should have already offered up our prayers.

 When our hearts are affixed to praise the Lord, they will exalt Him to the highest degree.

 *****Psa 108:2  Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

 It is usually the dawn that awakens us, but this psalmist says he will awaken all the instruments that had been silent, and he will awaken the dawn by his praises before daybreak.

 The Lord never sleeps.

 Even when the Lord Jesus was taken off that cross and laid in a borrowed tomb, He was very busy.

 What did Paul say by the Holy Spirit?

 Eph 4:8  Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 

Eph 4:9  (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 

Eph 4:10  He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

 The Lord Jesus descended into Hell to get the keys that the devil once had.

 Rev_1:18  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

 Our Lord is always busy, so we are foolish to limit the Lord to our hours and days.

 We must praise Him with all that we have, any time of the day or night.

 We can always at any time turn to the Lord for help and most of the time He is as near as opening up our Bibles to see what He has already said because He never changes.

 This is exactly what this psalmist did. He took part of two psalms of David, and he made a new psalm by listening to the Holy Spirit who wrote all the Books of the Bible.

 The same God that led David to victory will lead us to victory!

 *****Psa 108:3  I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

 If we study the Bible, we will realize that there is a new day coming if we trust the Lord and the words, He has given us.

 We must praise the Lord when we are alone.

We must praise the Lord in our congregations.

We must praise the Lord in our cities.

We must praise the lord in our nations.

 Mal 1:11  For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts. 

 Instead of a great falling away, we need a regathering of the children of God!

 It is not time to flee from the truth, but to gather together because we have the truth and are not ashamed to say so!

 *****Psa 108:4  For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. 

 You can take the word "mercy" away and substitute "Jesus" to have a better understanding of what mercy truly means.

 Why did the Lord first come to this place called Earth?

 Luk 1:72  To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 

Luk 1:73  The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 

 Psa 98:3  He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 

Psa 98:4  Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 

 Mercy is compassion for the miserable!

 The object of this world and now the government of our nation, is for us all to live in misery.

I am not going to live in misery!

 The atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is the way to open up the exercise of "mercy" to all mankind.

 It is wicked governments who are trying to stop what they cannot stop.

 They only win when we forsake the Lord!

 Psa 86:14  O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. 

Psa 86:15  But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

 As Christians we can depend upon the "mercy" of God to bring us to victory.

 *****Psa 108:5  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth; 

Psa 108:6  That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me. 

 Psa 21:13  Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power. 

 The Christian life is a warfare!

 We have to battle our flesh and our own evil tendencies daily.

We have to battle corrupt opinions of us and our practices in society, which is hard to say society today because societies have forsaken all godly principles to live by immorality and corruption and they seem to be proud of it.

We also have to deal with the temptations of the Devil.

 We must be aware that every renewed child of God is assured of ultimate victory in all these conflicts.

 The truth is, we have already won we just do not realize it, which shows a lack of faith on our part.

 The strength of God cannot be overcome, and His plan continues to move according to the things He has directed.

 Once we get to Heaven we may look back and see that all these things had taken place just as God has said they would.

 The Word of God is the truth in this wicked world, and we can lean on this truth while we are praising the One God who has the complete truth.

 We are a delivered people; we just have not arrived at our destination yet.

 If we increase our faith, then there is no reason we cannot enjoy the trip instead of moping around like a bunch of losers.

 My God is powerful, you should check to see if your god is as powerful as mine!

 *****Psa 108:7  God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. 

 It may be that right now God is dividing Shechem.

 It is at Shechem where Jesus Christ had a conversation with a Samaritan woman who was saved and is now in Heaven, her past forgotten.

 God always speaks in His holiness.

 God is holy, entirely set apart from sin and sinners. This is the reason God's Spirit is the Holy Spirit and the third person of the Holy Trinity.

 This also means that the Lord Jesus Christ is Holy because as the Son of God He is part of the Holy Trinity, and we are to defend His holiness.

 We can only become holy when we are set apart from sin and sinners!

 Succoth is the name of the first encampment in the Exodus of God's people from Egypt.

 Succoth is also the place where the brass foundries were located in the building of the first Temple in Jerusalem.

 In fact, every time Succoth is mentioned in the Bible, it is a place where God's people come to victory.

 Jacob had a victory there.

Gideon had a victory there.

 Succoth represents the anticipation of victory, but Succoth also reminds us of worldly success when we might look down upon our enemies as the world does and this goes against the teachings of God.

 Haughtiness is pride mingled with contempt or we could say arrogance.

 We must be aware that we have victory when it comes by the Lord.

 We do not necessarily have the same victory when it comes by our own hands.

 Pro 16:17  The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. 

Pro 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. 

Pro 16:19  Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. 

Pro 16:20  He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. 

 What is happening in America today?

 A certain group looks down upon Christians and our cling to freedoms, with heartless contempt and we had better realize it.

 Our vote in this next election is more important than it has ever been, but only if we vote for Christian principles!

 *****Psa 108:8  Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 

Psa 108:9  Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph. 

 Gilead is best known as the Hill of Testimony or the Mount of Testimony.

 In reality, this verse and much of this psalm is a song in anticipation of victory.

 Verse 7 says that "God has spoken", in fact, it said "God had spoken in His holiness".

 It can also be read "God has spoken in His sanctuary".

 What God says, is at the same time, what God does!

 We should understand that our Lord had promised all this land to Abraham.

 If the Lord does not fulfill His promise, His name will be profaned.

 God would be a liar, and this is impossible.

 Now we may never understand everything that God says, but we can certainly understand His promises.

 Now to get this clear understanding of God's view of each situation, we must go to where God dwells and He dwells in the sanctuary of the true Church.

 God is nowhere near a place where false teaching occurs, and we need to know this truth.

 It is best to leave any place where the truth of the Gospel, the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not preached.

 There is victory in Jesus, but there is no victory in any false god.

 When we know how God feels about a matter we can know real joy, because God does as He feels.

 The Bible says that Ephraim is the "helmet" or better said "protection".

 Ephraim was sitting on the largest part of the land that was given to Abraham, the Northern part.

 Judah is the "scepter" and the "lawgiver".

 It is from Judah that the law will be taught and enforced during the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ and all this land promised to Abraham will be fulfilled.

 God then proclaims that He has ownership of all the territories outside of Israel.

 Moab the washpot. A washpot is a place that serves to clean feet.

 The place of Moses' death, Mount Nebo, at the top of Pisgah, is in the land of Moab.

 Deu 34:5  So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 

Deu 34:6  And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. 

Deu 34:7  And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 

 We can even see where Moses was a type of Christ Jesus.

 The Holy Spirit also names Philistia by name.

 Philistia was the land of the Philistines.

 This was a very small country from 25 to 30 miles in length with an average width of of about 15 miles.

 Just as Gaza is today there were more people than the land could bear that lived there.

 Today we hear a lot about Palestine, but in truth this was the land of the Philistines.

 There is no such people as Palestinians and never have been such a people!

 These were nations that were hostile to Israel and the people in those locations are still the enemies of Israel.

 At the victory over these enemies, the soldiers of God would take off their shoes, wash their feet in a washbowl, and then throw their shoes at the defeated enemies and proclaim this victory with great rejoicing.

 When the Messiah reigns He will have victory over all God's enemies!

 Isa 11:14  But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 

Isa 11:15  And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 

Isa 11:16  And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

 Then God asks.

 *****Psa 108:10  Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? 

Psa 108:11  Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? 

 When David first wrote this Psalm, he asked who would bring him to this strong city of Edom.

 Petra was truly a fortress.

 Because of its natural location, it was humanly impossible to conquer that city in those days of David.

 David asked; is there anyone who could lead his army to Edom?

 Then David answers his own question.

 It can be none other than God Himself.

 We must understand that God will reject Israel "prophetically" for the short time they under the rule of the Antichrist that is, until the Antichrist decides to sit on the throne of David then all Hell will break loose.

 David could write this passage because of his faith in God.

 It should be clear to all that to overcome the Antichrist, then God would have to stand with Israel once again, and He will!

 All those in distress because of the Antichrist during those seven years of tribulation with the last three and a half years being the Great Tribulation when things will be terrible, there will be a remnant who will call out to God and acknowledge their sins of the past and they will be forgiven.

 Isa 2:22  Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? 

 The Antichrist is but a mere man, "the man of sin" and he is no problem for the the Lord God our Creator.

 Even in a time of peril for Israel, faith is still the key to their success.

 In the Hebrew letter to the Jews, God makes this very clear, but there must be a show of faith!

 Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 

Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

 Those who fear God can appeal to no one else in their distress but to God alone.

 You see, if God brings you to it, then God will lead you through it!

 God has led Israel to the distress that they face today, and God will lead them through their distress to the truth!

 When we are in distress about our sin and where we will spend eternity, then there is only one place for us to go and it is to our Holy God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ!

 Only God knows which way to go!

 God has given His Word and God will never break His Word!

 *****Psa 108:12  Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. 

Psa 108:13  Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. 

God gave us the gift of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ as His promise of salvation!

Only with Him will God's people do valiantly!

It is only Jesus the Messiah who can give us the strength and the courage to fight our daily battles.

Some things we should have learned from this passage, this Psalm are:

1) The Bible is still effective in this world today though it was written ages ago.

2) This passage teaches us that we can always turn to Scripture for help.

3) We can see that God is unchanging, He is always the same.

4) That we can pray and use words that we have used before.

5) We can see that we need to be continuous in our Bible study going over the same passage over and over again to gain understanding.

6) We can look to the past for hope for today!

There is never a time that the Bible will not be relevant to this world!

Amen

There Is Only One True God

 The Power and Wisdom of God

 Book of Psalms Chapter 97

 Today, even in the Bible Belt, you can hardly meet someone on the streets who knows about the Lord Jesus Christ.

 People do not know who God is!

 They think He is just another god along with many other gods. They are so wrong!

 There is not one person except maybe infants and young children who God has not revealed Himself.

Before a person dies, God will have revealed Himself to them so that no one at the White Throne of judgment can use that as an excuse

 We know that God even speaks to babies while they are in the womb.

 Jer 1:4  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 

Jer 1:5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 

Jer 1:6  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 

Jer 1:7  But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 

 Even John the Baptist knew the Lord Jesus Christ while He was in the womb of his mother.

 Luk 1:41  And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 

Luk 1:42  And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 

Luk 1:43  And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 

Luk 1:44  For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

 This proves that some babies have more wisdom than fully grown men and women, even while they are still in the womb of their mother.

This is why I will never accept that there is a right to abortion.

 The One major truth in our world is, that there is a God and He is our Creator and our Heavenly Father!

 There are not many gods there is only One True God!

 Those who reject God also reject the Word of God.

 The Word of God is just that, the Holy Ghost-inspired Word of God!

 Most people make up their minds about what a God should be like.

 They choose to believe some secular theory or something fabricated in their mind as to the origin of our universe and the origin of life.

 Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 

Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

 As you can see God knew all these things would happen.

 Many people deny the Holiness of God while declaring good to be evil and evil to be good.

 God knew these people before they were born just, as He does everyone else.

 Some people believe in God but deny the "judgment" of God.

 Our world is so confused today that some men think God made a mistake and they were supposed to be women, and some women think they were supposed to be men, but they reject that God simply does not make mistakes.

 Across the globe, countless people are trapped in false religions and those who would change are filled with so much fear they live their lives as best they can all their days afraid to speak up.

 This Psalm is an encouragement to all who would truly follow God.

 I send a message today that no matter where you are, if you claim the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and even in secret, pray that sinner’s prayer, He will hear you and He will save you.

 He knows what conditions you are under, and He will not hold that against you.

 My God can save anybody anywhere at any time!

 This Psalm is a big help to you.

 *****Psa 97:1  The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 

 If we take a logical view of our world, we will see the evidence of our earth and all we can see with our eyes or that new telescope that circles.

 We see that these things exist.

 Because something cannot come from nothing, there must be an original cause that is the reason for the world's existence.

 Because it is evident that these things exist then, there had to be a Creator of these things.

 If you have ever witnessed an accident, you will see that accidents are a cause of destruction and not creation.

 Every effect must have a cause!

 What is the truth? The Lord reigns over all His creations! Jehovah is King, He is the Almighty Ruler of His threefold kingdom.

 Psa 96:11  Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 

 The earth is in perfect balance. It has just the right amount of water and the right amount of dirt.

 In fact, we can say that the entire universe is in perfect harmony so there must be a Creator.

 God's harmony is observed throughout this universe!

 The sun is ninety-three million miles from Earth which is exactly where it needs to be for our comfort.

 The temperatures vary from location to location so everyone can find a place where they are comfortable.

 The moon is two hundred and forty thousand miles from Earth to provide tides at the proper level.

 The more we change the moon the more our sea levels will change!

 The earth's tilt provides our four seasons.

 None of these things could have happened by accident!

 Yes, our Lord reigns as King of this earth!

 Psa 8:3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 

Psa 8:4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 

 The naysayers would have you believe that we live in a universe in chaos, but this is not true.

 Psa 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 

Psa 19:2  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 

Psa 19:3  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 

Psa 19:4  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 

 The alternative is that all these things, plus all the other things we can see are no more possible than a monkey being able to create a work of Shakespeare on a typewriter by haphazard play on the keys.

 Yes, the Lord reigns upon this Earth!

 The Earth refers to the continents, all the large land masses. In contrast, with the multitude of isles are the small islands that dot the seas.

 *****Psa 97:2  Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. 

Psa 97:3  A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. 

Psa 97:4  His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. 

Psa 97:5  The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 

Psa 97:6  The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.

 Heaven, where God's throne is located,  veiled in clouds and darkness says to us that God reigns above human sight and understanding.

 God must remain in these clouds of darkness because there is a need for God to conceal His radiant glory of His holiness that would destroy us instantly.

 God is the "Judge" of this Earth and He always, ALWAYS does what is right!

 Fire is a symbol of God's judgment!

 It is a fire that will consume all the enemies of God!

 Psa 21:8  Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 

Psa 21:9  Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. 

 God bears witness to His holiness and justice through the forces of nature!

 Lightning, strong storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions with the earth melting like wax, all remind us of God's tremendous power. 

Nature is also a creation of God.

 2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 

2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 

2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 

2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

 Everything in God's creation will bear witness to His holiness.

 We are to bear the truth that God reigns over all His creations, regardless of what the world says. 

The world is full of lies and liars.

 The Lord reigns over all the things that are going on around us.

 The Lord reigns over all the unbelief and lawlessness which is in our societies.

 The Lord reigns over all things that we are forced to endure.

 The Lord reigns and there is nothing this world can do about it, except to turn to Him in repentance!

 2Th 1:6  Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 

2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 

2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 

2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 

 All those who worship false gods will become perplexed because they have been told a lie!

 The Heavens truly do declare the righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah!

 *****Psa 97:7  Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods. 

 When we mock and reject the Words of the One True God Jehovah then, we think we have become gods ourselves!

 We are not so dumb to not know that there are certain people who worship the idol of printed money and the idol of gold who are actually pulling the strings in America and most other countries in this world.

 They know which way to go to get more money printed which makes them richer and which way to go to get gold more valuable to make them richer and this little game they play is done over and over again.

 There is no regard for the people who work who actually pay the taxes.

 This little game will break out into war when those who are not so rich but are considered to be rich have to keep paying more and more of the taxes and they will rebel.

 It is the same for climate change. There are fifty-seven companies in this world that cause eighty percent of the pollution in this world and no one will talk to them about pollution and the carbon monoxide that is emitted by their companies.

 It is not even mentioned, or it would make them mad and governments just keep allowing it to take place.

 To these companies, money and gold are their gods!

 They may boast about their riches, but one day soon they will see their gods destroyed and they will be confounded.

 They are not the gods they think of themselves, but are only sinners in need of a Savior yet, they will never call on Him.

 They are like that Egyptian Pharaoh who thought he could defeat God but only perished in the Red Sea.

 Their idols are worthless!

 Isa 42:17  They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

 The Lord always knows what is going on!

 Isa 52:5  Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. 

Isa 52:6  Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. 

Isa 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

 It is not long before these who have made themselves gods will meet the only true God.

 Isa 52:10  The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 

 God will judge this world, and this judgment is not that far off!

 *****Psa 97:8  Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD. 

Psa 97:9  For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. 

 When the Lord returns to this earth the Rapture of the Church will have already taken place and the Church will return with the Lord in glorified bodies following the King of Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 It is at this time that the daughters of Judah will rejoice because the Antichrist will have been defeated and Israel will have turned to the Lord in shame because it has taken them so long to do so.

 There is so much difference between the Divine Power of God and the supposed power of the rich who have followed the Antichrist, that even they will fall in shame recognizing the power of Jehovah the triune God.

 All evildoers will be judged this day, but this is not the White Throne judgment, for the Lord Jesus will rule this earth from Zion for one thousand years.

 Php 2:9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 

Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 

Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 Because the Lord humbled Himself in humiliation and obedience to Jehovah, He has been exalted by His Father and given a name which is above every name and made Him King of kings and Lord of lords, superior majesty above every creature.

 This wicked world or what is left of it, will bow at the feet of Jesus!

 Then the Lord will remake this earth.

 The Lord Jesus will continue keeping all His promises to those who love Him.

 These will be those who have survived the seven years of the Tribulation years, the last three and one-half years known as the Great Tribulation.

 The Church will be with Him, but the Church was not the object of God's wrath but already glorified!

 *****Psa 97:10  Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 

 How do we know real love?

 If I love Jesus Christ, I will love all His people!

If I love Jesus Christ, I will love everything that He loves!

If I love Jesus Christ, I will hate what He hates which is sin!

 There is no small sin or large sin, there is only sin!

 If we love the Lord, we will hate evil!

 Psa 45:7  Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

 It is evil that separates us from our Loving God.

 It is because of evil that the wicked will be destroyed.

 It is because we do not love the Lord Jesus Christ that we are subject to the assaults of Satan!

 God watches tenderly over the souls of His saints at all times and preserves us by keeping us from destruction.

 The Lord Jesus Christ will certainly deliver us out of the hands of the wicked!

 The Lord Jesus Christ is that Light that outshines the darkness of this wicked world we live in.

 *****Psa 97:11  Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 

 Light is sown for the righteous!

 Psa 112:4  Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 

 That Light is the Lord Jesus Christ!

 Jhn_8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

 Jhn_9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

 People just love darkness far too much!

 Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

 Because the Lord loves us, He will deliver us from evil!

Because the Lord loves us, He will preserve our souls on this earth till He finally takes us home where we are preserved forever and ever.

Because the Lord loves us, He will deliver us out of the hands of the wicked!

*****Psa 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 

Psa 97:12  Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 

We know that the Light of Jesus is the Word of God!

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God. 

It is the Word of God that lights our path to righteousness!

Psa 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 

The Lord Jesus is that true Light who leads us to that path of salvation.

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. 

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 

There is no other pathway to Heaven!

Amen

Moses the Prayer Warrior

 The Prayer of Moses in the Wilderness

 Book of Psalms Chapter 90

 

 We all know that as we grow older, we become weaker, and life becomes more real!

 We look back on our lives and wonder where all those years have gone.

 Time does seem to fly away!

 Some of us have things we have wanted to do all our lives, but we have gotten too old to do them now.

 Psalm number ninety tells us how Moses felt, as he too felt he was getting too old to do the tasks God wanted him to do.

 Moses forgot that it is from God that we get our strength and most of us do the same thing.

 We forget any power we have comes from the Lord Jesus.

 Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

 Many of us will shed tears of regret over words that were not spoken or words that were spoken.

Many of us will shed tears over things we have done or things we did not do.

 In fact, these may be the tears that the Lord will wipe away when we see Him face to face.

 This is the only Psalm that was written by Moses!

 Since this Psalm was written by Moses, it makes it the oldest Psalm in the Book of Psalms.

 It is believed that Moses wrote this Psalm when Israel was wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.

 We must acknowledge God's care and God's love for us.

We must recognize the problems of human mortality.

We must appeal to God for His mercy and God's help.

 *****Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Psa 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.  

 Moses assures us that God existed before the world, which is His creation.

 God will not lie to us.

 Heb_6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

 We must never put much faith in those who say our world is billions of years old.

 Moses uses the word earth to distinguish it from the heavens.

 Only Earth is an inhabited, fruitful land, a land fitted for habitation.

 There has not been another place found that is like this earth!

 As the Children of Israel traveled in circles in the wilderness, Moses realized how little our earthly home matters.

 Israel was a nation of nomads, wanderers, travelers, people on a journey.

 Every mile they had traveled, they had been cared for and protected by God Himself.

 That forty-year travel came because of their unbelief, but at the end of those forty years, most of them were made aware of the truth of God.

 Those who refused to believe after witnessing marvelous miracles in Egypt and as they traveled, had now died off.

 In that forty years, they became a nation.

 Jehovah God had become their dwelling place in those forty years.

 They were truly strangers and pilgrims upon this earth.

 It is the same for the Church today!

 We are not citizens of this world!

 God is our home because God is our everything!

 It is this same God, Jehovah, who gave birth to this universe we see today.

 God is our home now and throughout eternity, which means forever and ever.

 For the saint of God, He has always been our dwelling place.

 This being true and it is, we can understand that the miseries that we have had in our lifetime were not of God but was of ourselves.

 God can only do good to His saints!

God can only do righteousness.

 God is our refuge.

God is our security.

God is our shelter.

 We can abide safely and peacefully in Him all the days of our lives if we have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior!

 *****Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 

Psa 90:4  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

 We must understand that our life is but for a day, compared to God who lives in eternity.

 We must also understand that it is our God who is the giver of the life that we have!

 Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 

 Psa 103:13  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 

Psa 103:14  For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 

Psa 103:15  As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 

 The sentence of death is just as a wage or a payment for our sins.

 Every one of us is going to die!

 We will die and return to the dust we are made from, or we will be Born Again and live with the Lord forever.

 Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

 Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 Each of us has an inescapable appointment with death!

 Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 

 We just do not know the day this thing will take place.

 This is the very reason we must prepare in advance for our day of death and also for the judgment that follows after death!

 If we were to live for one thousand years it would still be less than one day to God.

 Some say Moses was eighty years old when he wrote this Psalm, but he lived to be one hundred twenty years old before God took charge of his death.

 No doubt that we should look back over our years from time to time and if you are a saint of God, you will not see anything in those years that will make you want to go back to that life.

 The Israelites divided the night into three watches.

 Jdg 7:19  So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp "in the beginning of the middle watch"; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

 The middle watch shows us there were only three watches.

 It was the Romans who had four watches.

 To God there is no before and after; no past and future; all is present.

 *****Psa 90:5  Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 

Psa 90:6  In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 

 Moses compared death to being swept away in a flood.

 A flash flood comes suddenly, and it will carry away almost everything that it touches.

 When we are asleep, in a sense, time has stopped for us until we wake up in the morning, but if that morning does not come, we will wake up in Hell or Heaven.

 Jer 51:39  In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. 

 Jer 51:57  And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. 

 These were the enemies of God's people which makes them the enemies of God.

 I do not ever want to be an enemy of God again!

 We are like the dreams we have, that come to us in our sleep and fade away into the night.

 We are like the grasses that grow. Here today and withered away by tomorrow.

 *****Psa 90:7  For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

Psa 90:8  Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.  

 Human life is brief and uncertain, and we do things that make our life even shorter.

 Death is the wages of sin. What did God tell Adam?

 Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

 Adam had disobeyed God by partaking in the fruit that Eve had given to him.

 Adam was so taken up with Eve, that he would rather die with her than be left alone again, not thinking that God would supply his needs.

 Even Moses knew that man was not a victim of his circumstances.

 We do not deserve compassion, but a penalty, when we go against any part of the Word of God.

 A swift life and a swift death are not by accident in most cases, not at all, it is God's wrath against sin.

 All the Israelites that had rebelled against God in refusing to go into Canaan land were made to stay in the wilderness for forty years until the last one died off, and their children went into Canaan without their parents and grandparents.

 Even secret sins are known by God! They may be secret to all others, but not to our Holy God!

 Even the angels that sinned know the power of God's anger.

 Everyone in Hell today is a believer, but it is too late for them.

 Those in the world today who mock God do not know the power of God's wrath!

 When the Apostle Paul reflected on the time of Moses and the children of Israel, he could come to but one conclusion.

 Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

 And from the time of Adam, we get the whole truth.

 Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 

 The truth is, nothing changes with God's wrath until we have a Savior!

 *****Psa 90:9  For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. 

Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

 It does not take us long to figure out that human life is short and uncertain and that we need a Savior.

 The lives of the Israelites are still under the cloud of God's Wrath because they rejected Him, but it will not be long before this wrath turns to blessing.

 We know that Moses lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, so when he says three score and ten it seems strange.

 Aaron lived to be one hundred and three years old.

 Miriam was probably older than Moses when she died.

 Those that perished in the wilderness were all those over twenty years old and most of them did perish around seventy years old and a few of them made it to eighty, but they truly struggled with life every day.

 Many of us in this class can say that we do not really enjoy these days when we have so much pain and misery, but we can also say we will serve the Lord all the days He allows us to live.

 Ecc 12:1  Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

 The Lord knows what we all are going through young and old.

 One thing is certain, if we have a personal relationship with the Lord, then one day will truly fly away!

 There is not much pleasure in this life in those years past seventy.

 In fact, my greatest pleasure in this life is now my great-grandchildren and trying to put a lesson together for every Sunday.

 *****Psa 90:11  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

 There is no one upon this earth or in Heaven, who can know the "power of God's anger"!

 It is not so important how long we live, but at the end of our life at our death, will be the result of God's "wrath" or God's "grace"?

 Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

 No matter who we are, we should have great fear of God's power!

 God is perfect and He will execute His wrath in perfection!

 God will exercise His justice against sinners according to His fierce anger against sin!

 We see all these problems that come to the sinner, but God the Holy Spirit gives us the good news that comes in the same Bible.

 Jesus Christ solved all these issues of sin, "for us"!

 Jesus removed the sting of death to us, and He also conquered death!

 1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 

 The Lord Jesus will destroy the Devil who had the power of death over God's people!

 Heb_2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

 The generation that is living upon this earth at the return of Christ will never die and will join with all those who have gone on before us.

 Joh 11:25  Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 

Joh 11:26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 

  1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

 Those words "caught up" give us the meaning of the word Rapture.

 We will be yanked out of this world before anyone realizes what is taking place.

 We need for God to teach us to make what time we have left to be useful in the work He has given us to do.

 *****Psa 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

 We should understand that human life is uncertain.

 Even those with enough money to buy a hospital and the best doctors are still subject to God's timing of their death and there is nothing they can do about it.

 Israel's life today is still under the wrath of God, and this will not change until the Rapture of the Church.

 We need a heart of wisdom to cope with this wicked world and still be useful to God!

 Deu 5:29  O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

 Deu 32:29  O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 

 There is a right way to use our time and there is a wrong way to use the time that the Lord has given to us.

 One thing is certain as we grow older, we look back on our lives and see all the time we wasted doing trivial things that were truly a waste of time.

 It is the things that we cannot see that become important to us.

 Even as we grow old and having experienced a good life by our standard, we need to pray for God to teach us how to use our time better.

 The only remedy we can have in this life is "faith"! Faith in the Word of God and this is not blind faith but faith in the truth of God!

 What are the facts?

 1) Life is short.

2) Death comes speedily.

 We would be far better off to devote our time to true wisdom!

 Hear some of the wisdom from Job:

 Job 32:7  I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. 

Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. 

Job 32:9  Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. 

 Job 12:12  With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. 

 The next thing on the Lord's calendar is the Rapture and then the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth.

We will meet the Lord in the clouds!

 This is wisdom!

 *****Psa 90:13  Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 

Psa 90:14  O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

Psa 90:15  Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 

 We find in the Bible three things about repentance:

 1) A complete change of mind.

2) A complete change of purpose.

3) A change in the way we live.

 In the military, the term "about face" gives us an idea of repentance.

 We have to have a sense of guilt and our sinfulness.

We must understand God's mercy is in Jesus Christ.

We must have an absolute hatred of sin.

 It seems today that we have the attitude some sins are not that bad and others are terrible, but this is not the way of God.

 We must have the same hatred that God has toward all sin or any sin!

 Does God ever repent?

 We must understand that only those who have sinned can repent.

 God has never sinned therefore He has nothing to be repentant of.

 God commands all sinners to repent, and this would include all mankind from the time of Adam till the very last soul that is sent to Hell.

 The time to repent is that time we are alive.

 The evidence of repentance is faith, humility, prayer, and obedience.

 Zec 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 

 We should know that there is nothing that bothers God.

There is never any uneasiness with God.

God is never sitting around wondering what He is going to do.

Nothing upon this earth can a create disturbance in the mind of God!

 God has a just and holy displeasure against sin and sinners.

 The reason we can be saved is that God has more "mercy" than He has "hatred" and He loves to show all sinners His "grace" which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 God does not hate mankind, or it would go against what He teaches us.

 We are to hate the sin but not the sinner!

 For us to learn true wisdom we must pray for Divine intervention, and we must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit.

 We should also pray for the "mercy" of God because God has more "mercy" than He does wrath.

 Instead of going about our days wasting precious time, we need to pray for the forgiveness of our sins and seek an inheritance in Heaven that is gained by telling those who are lost about the Messiah, the Savior.

 Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 

Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

 God will never fail us because His love will never fail!

 *****Psa 90:16  Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. 

Psa 90:17  And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. 

 In this passage, the word beauty means favor, grace, and pleasantness.

 As long as God's favor is upon us, we will be successful in this life that we have now and gain an inheritance in Heaven.

 When we confess our sins and repent of our sin, God "promises" to forgive us and cleanse us of any unrighteousness.

 1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1Jn 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

 We must be careful and not call God a liar.

 Oftentimes when we say we do not believe in some passage God has given to us, we are in fact, calling God a liar when it is impossible for God to lie.

 When we sin, we should immediately appeal to God for His "mercy" and His "grace" and His help, and it always helps our own forgiveness by praying for all others who have done the same thing.

 Compassion and forgiveness are two of the greatest traits of our God.

 The Lord Jesus expressed these two traits many times in that little time He was upon this earth.

 Mic 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 

Mic 7:19  He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

We can see that along with the many things we know of Moses we also know that He was a prayer warrior.

I love you, Lord Jesus.

Amen

Hearing What God Has to Say

 Praise God for His Communion with Us

 Book of Psalms Chapter 84

 We should ask ourselves, are we longing to go to the House of the Lord, or do we see it as a burden?

 This Psalm begins with added words that say, "My soul longs for the courts of the Lord".

 Psa 122:1  A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. 

 We may not know who wrote this Psalm, but we can be sure that it was the Holy Ghost that led that person!

 We should all strongly desire to be in the house of God at the appointed times.

 1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

 How terrible it will be for those who use the House of God to promote their lies and falsehood!

 We know that there is a great falling away of the Gospel in America and much of this can be blamed on the false messages coming from the pulpits.

 We all need to find a place of worship where the truth of God is preached.

 We go to the House of God to hear what God has to say and not what someone who is a child of the devil has to say.

 Assembling in the House of God is a commandment of God!

 Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 

Heb 10:21  And having an high priest over the house of God; 

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

 If we love the Lord, we will go to see Him and hear what He has to say regularly.

 There are so many other places in this world where people would love to go to the House of God but cannot because of the politics in their country.

 Our souls are craving to be with the Lord Jesus and Prayer and Worship are what we have until He comes to take us home.

 Because we are filled with God's Holy Spirit, we will always have the desire to go home to Heaven!

 *****Psa 84:1  To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! 

 Here again, we see the instructions to the Head Musician to accompany this Psalm with a Harp. There was probably more than one of them.

 Who was Korah? Korah was the son of Izbar the brother of Amram. Amram was the father of Moses.

 It was this Korah who rebelled against the leadership of Moses.

 Two hundred and fifty princes who were men of renown joined with Korah and God sent down fire from Heaven and destroyed them.

 Two more, Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in rebellion at the door of their tents and God opened the earth and dropped them straight into Hell with their wives, their children, and all their possessions.

 These sons of Korah mentioned here became the leaders of the music provided at the worship service.

 The sons of Korah never rebelled again and remained close to the Lord and were the choir at every worship service.

 The word "amiable" is a term of affection used in romantic poetry.

 Whoever this Psalmist was, guided by the Holy Spirit, loved to worship the Lord in any place where people gathered to do so.

 Psa 27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 

 This psalmist just loved to be in the presence of God, and we should all be able to say this!

 *****Psa 84:2  My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

 It is not a beautiful building. It is not the beauty of the sanctuary or the color of the carpet that we are to acknowledge when we come to the house of the Lord.

 If we are not seeking the Living God, we are coming to the House of God for the wrong reason!

 This Psalmist ached to be at the House of God.

 The place we go should be a place where people go to experience God's glorious presence, seeking a movement of God.

 Soul, heart, and flesh mean every part of our being should want to get closer to God.

 Most of this world refuses to accept that there are three parts in our nature.

 The soul.

The heart.

The flesh.

 This psalmist knew the truth!

 It is a privilege to be able to go to the House of God!

 Many places do not allow a place to worship Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 In every House of God, there must be an altar where we can offer up our prayers and give ourselves to the Lord.

 *****Psa 84:3  Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. 

 This psalmist says that every animal in God's creation seeks a place to build a home because it is in their nature.

 It is no different for humanity! 

We desire a place we can call home, and it is the House of God where we can learn about our true home and be with others, who are seeking the same thing.

 He says even the birds loved to build their nests close to the house of God.

 In the Tabernacle and the Temple, there were three altars.

 1) There was the altar of the burnt offerings in the outer courtyard, where sacrifices were offered.

2)There was the altar of incense in the inner courtyard which is a picture of offering our prayers.

Note how the smoke of the incense altar rose toward Heaven.

3) Then there was the "Mercy Seat", the Ark of the Covenant.

This is the altar upon which the blood of the atoning sacrifice was sprinkled, where God's presence was centered.

 Sparrows and swallows were abundant in ancient Israel, and they were considered a worthless nuisance, but not to this Psalmist because they were a creation of God.

 If they found a place to lay their eggs at God's house, then maybe they represent any stranger who might be trying to get into the House of God.

 We are all strangers in this foreign land, "the world" but we can find refuge in the House of God.

 When I first stepped into this Church, I knew I had found what I was missing in my life, praise the Lord it felt like home.

 We should all love to be in the presence of God!

 The Jews could not go into the Holy of Holies, but the Lord Jesus Christ removed the obstacles that keep us from going right into the Throne Room of God.

 Today God's presence is within us, but we are still to gather with all those who love the Lord as we do, we also need to set aside some time daily to be with the Lord.

 If we truly love the Lord, we will want to be close to Him and we do this through worship and prayer.

 Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

Heb 6:20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

 We can get many blessings by being in the house of the Lord.

 *****Psa 84:4  Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Psa 84:5  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

 For those descendants of Korah, they would spend their lives taking care of the House of God, and they loved it.

 What a job!

 It is a blessing to go to the House of God!

 It is a blessing to be in the presence of God!

 We are made whole when the Holy Ghost comes to live within us!

 This is also when we can feel the joy of the Lord!

 This is when we can continuously give God the praise He deserves!

 We can never give the Lord too much praise because we know greater rewards still lie in our future.

 We find that our strength surely comes from the Lord God of all creation.

 With Jesus in our hearts, we are just as determined to get to our home in Heaven as those Jews who were determined to be in the presence of God as they traveled to Jerusalem to worship a Living Savior.

 We will one day certainly be in the actual presence of God, but the closest we can come to this today is to worship in the House of God.

 For those who do not like to worship in the House of God, they will certainly not like Heaven!

 Many Jews traveled many miles to worship at the Temple of God and today, Christians struggle to get out of bed on Sunday and get in their car and drive to the House of God.

 I admit I have laid out also, but I missed a blessing on those occasions when I said to myself, I just do not feel well enough to go today.

I do not think I ever came into this church feeling bad that I did not leave feeling better!

This has not happened very often.

 We must not ever lose our longing to worship!

 *****Psa 84:6  Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. 

 The valley of Baca would be the "Valley of Weeping" and maybe like the "Valley of Death" and not a real place.

 These are places of grief that we feel in our hearts for some reason.

 I think we all have visited both these places on many occasions.

 It is the rain of "God's Grace" that can get us through these times of grief.

 If our heart is filled with the Lord, then the blessings of the Lord can come from even these places and can cause an increase in righteousness and even true holiness.

 This Baca represents the troubles and trials of this life, the painful experiences we all suffer.

 Being in God's presence we will forget these trials and look forward to blessings, even the "Showers of Blessings".

 Ezk_34:26  And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

 The Holy Spirit is teaching us that we can make pools of refreshment out of life's deserts if we gather in the House of God where we can find the presence of God!

 What happens to us when we are obedient to God?

 *****Psa 84:7  They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 

 Our relationship with God gets stronger and stronger.

 This is added to the blessing we can get on our journey to Heaven's gates.

 The journey of the Jews to worship in the Temple is a picture of our journey in life.

 We will face many obstacles, but there is no reason we cannot enjoy the trip.

 Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth".

 We do not have to fear death as it is like pouring grease on a walkway, we just slide on into Heaven a little bit quicker.

 We should remember if we die in our service to the Lord, then this was His plan to bring us home.

 This is when we will spend eternity with the Lord.

 Heb 11:14  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 

Heb 11:15  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 

Heb 11:16  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

 There are certainly many dangers as we travel home, both trials and temptations yet, we are blessed on our journey because the Lord is traveling with us, all the way.

 Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

 We will get stronger as we travel as we grow in the "grace" of the Lord.

 2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 

 Our hope is in the Lord so our hope will sustain us at every step of the way!

 *****Psa 84:8  O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. 

 There is nothing wrong in asking God to hear our prayers.

 If we are one of His children in good favor with the Holy Spirit who abides within us, God will certainly hear our prayers and if He hears our prayers He will answer our prayers.

 We must live our lives in such a way that the Lord will always hear our prayers.

 That way is to live according to the Word of God!

 Who are we speaking of? We are speaking of The Lord God Jehovah, Yahweh, the God of all of Heaven's angelic forces.

 Here again, we see that the angels have a Commander, and this Commander knows every move His angels make, and they will not go against Him at any time without His knowledge and He will stop them before they do anything against His Sovereignty.

 God has never lost control of His created beings.

 The angels have only one time to make a mistake against the Lord, but we as His created humans know that He is the God of the second chance.

 God has pledged His "Mercy" and His "Grace" to all those who call upon Him!

 God is our shield, and we can hide ourselves in Him.

 *****Psa 84:9  Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. 

 To assemble in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a blessed thing to do!

 This is what the Church of the Living God must do!

 He is still the God of Hosts because He is still the God that fights our battles for us!

 God's anointed is not David, God's anointed is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 At his best David was a "type of Christ"!

 God the Father proclaims this of His Son.

 God the Holy Spirit makes sure it is written for all the world to see.

 God the Son is the fulfillment of the written Word of God!

 Heb 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 Mat_3:17  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 Mat_17:5  While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

 Mrk_1:11  And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 Luk_3:22  And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

 The Lord Jesus Christ is Israel's protector just as He is for the Church!

 The Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came from the line of King David.

Remember the Lord Jesus Christ was one hundred percent God and He was one hundred percent man while He was upon this earth.

Do not be fooled by this.

If the Lord Jesus came down in all His glory all humans would have died.

It was the glory of God that was laid aside so He could come with His message of salvation.

 2Sa 7:12  And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 

2Sa 7:13  He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 

2Sa 7:14  I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: 

2Sa 7:15  But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 

2Sa 7:16  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

It is the Messiah who is our guide, our shield, and our protector as we go through this thing called life!

 It is the Messiah who will gather us up and take us home to our place in Heaven.

 *****Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psa 84:12  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

 It was the Lord Jesus Christ who opened my mind to the truth of the Gospel!

 Psa 40:6  Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

 There are so many blessings that come from a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus that we cannot even know them all.

 A personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ brings complete satisfaction.

 I will be like this Psalmist and say that one day in the courts of the Lord Jesus is far better than a thousand of the best days life has to offer.

 When we get to Heaven, we will begin a never-ending day!

 The worst job in Heaven, if there is such a thing, is also far better than to dwell in the home of the richest man upon this earth.

 We just cannot compare apples to mansions!

 We cannot compare a meal on earth to a meal at the Lord's Table!

 There is total satisfaction in the Lord!

 1Co_10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

 Whatever task I have in Heaven I will be satisfied with it!

 *****Psa 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

 It is only our Lord Jesus Christ who could make such a promise as this!

 It will be a pleasure to serve in God's presence!

 The Lord Jesus Christ is my sun while I complete my days on this earth!

 Jhn_8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

 Why is the Light of Jesus Christ needed?

 Act_26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

 The Lord Jesus Christ is the light of my life!

 Isa 60:19  The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 

Isa 60:20  Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 

 The Lord Jesus Christ is also my "shield".

 Psa 3:3  But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 

Psa 3:4  I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. 

 The pure fact is that the Lord will never leave us unprotected or uncomforted!

 We should just read about how blessed we are.

 We should know how blessed we are to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior!

 We freely get all these things if, we have faith in the One True God!

 Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

There should not be a day go by where we have not prayed for God's help through that day.

The world is simply this wicked!

Why would we not accept these blessings when there is nothing in this world to compare them to?

The one thing we must remember is that there is no work that we have to do to receive these blessings of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ has completed all the work for our salvation and all we need to do is believe that these things are true and accept His gift.

It must be complete faith.

God is all good, there is no good without the Lord!

There is no good that He will not show us in due time.

After meeting Jesus, we must walk in truth and holiness and these things are not that hard!

Amen