We must daily pause in our battles with self and evil to give praises to God for all He has done, is doing and will do.  The battles sometimes distract us from the Lord who is fighting for us.  We might not know what God’s provisions and care, purpose and leading will look like tomorrow or the next day, but we know God.  We know God is worthy of all our pauses to recognize Him for Who He is.  God is I AM, the beginning and the end, alpha and omega, along with His Son who saved us from our sin.  We know He loves us and wants the best for us because of His mighty acts of grace to us. 

So, like David is doing in his psalm today, we join him to pause to praise in the middle of it all.  We take time to realize God, our Father, bends down and listens to our praise and prayers.  We trust that God is always at work.  We have faith knowing that nothing gets by the attention of God.  When we pause to truly realize the depth of His love and greatness of His power over all, we humbly bow down, showing gratitude for our Creator who cares to listen to us! 

We learn from David, in this pause to praise, that we need to stand to sing a new created song to God.  Every time we hear and learn from God, we add another verse to our life-song.  This song includes verses of gratitude for saving our souls, dusting us off when we fell, washing us clean from the world’s dirt.  As we realize what we have in God at a much deeper level, the song becomes more compassionate.  We become more passionate about tenaciously LIVING the song with what we know and have learned from His Word and heard from God through His Holy Spirit living in us!  Yes, we want more and more of God and less and less of ourselves. 

Like David, “I’ll be the poet who sings your glory—and live what I sing every day.”

In Jesus Name, and By His power living in me, Amen.  I believe.

Worship and Wisdom, Psalms and Proverbs

Psalm 61, The Message

A David Psalm

61 ^1-2 God, listen to me shout,
    bend an ear to my prayer.
When I’m far from anywhere,
    down to my last gasp,
I call out, “Guide me
    up High Rock Mountain!”

^3-5 You’ve always given me breathing room,
    a place to get away from it all,
A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
    an open invitation as your guest.
You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
    made me welcome among those who know and love you.

^6-8 Let the days of the king add up
    to years and years of good rule.
Set his throne in the full light of God;
    post Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts,
And I’ll be the poet who sings your glory—
    and live what I sing every day.

TRUTH: “You’ve always taken me seriously, God, made me welcome among those who know and love you.”

Pause to thank God.

Proverb 20:12, The Message

Ears that hear and eyes that see—
    we get our basic equipment from God!

WISDOM:  All we are and all we have comes from God!

Pause to thank God for all He has given to help us sing His song.

Abba Father,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Hallowed is Your Name.  May Your Kingdom come and reign supremely in us and all around us.  May Your Will be done in all the details of our lives here on earth as it is in heaven.  Yes, give us this day all you know we need to know.  Lead us not into temptations but draw us closer to you.  Deliver us from all evil and evil’s schemes to snatch us away.  We know you can and we know you will.  Thank you for fighting all our battles, growing our minds, loving us deeply and settling our souls with your perfect peace.

In Jesus Name, Amen