Worship and Wisdom, Psalms and Proverbs

Psalm 79, The Message

^1-4 God! Barbarians have broken into your home,
    violated your holy temple,
    left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!
They’ve served up the corpses of your servants
    as carrion food for birds of prey,
Threw the bones of your holy people
    out to the wild animals to gnaw on.
They dumped out their blood
    like buckets of water.
All around Jerusalem, their bodies
    were left to rot, unburied.
We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors,
    graffiti scrawled on the city walls.

^5-7 How long do we have to put up with this, God?
    Do you have it in for us for good?
    Will your smoldering rage never cool down?
If you’re going to be angry, be angry
    with the pagans who care nothing about you,
    or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.
They’re the ones who ruined Jacob,
    who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.

^8-10 Don’t blame us for the sins of our parents.
    Hurry up and help us; we’re at the end of our rope.
You’re famous for helping; God, give us a break.
    Your reputation is on the line.
Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins—
    do what you’re famous for doing!
Don’t let the heathen get by with their sneers:
    “Where’s your God? Is he out to lunch?”
Go public and show the godless world
    that they can’t kill your servants and get by with it.

^11-13 Give groaning prisoners a hearing;
    pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!
Give our jeering neighbors what they’ve got coming to them;
    let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for,
    will thank you over and over and over.
We’ll tell everyone we meet
    how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are!

TRUTH:  God is with us.  God hears and sees all that is going on around us. God loves us even when we don’t love Him back.  God cares deeply for His people even when world pandemics, ravages of war, and other calamities affect all people.  God will continue to take all the bad this sinful world throws at us and makes good of it all in the end.  Count on it.  God wins every time.  God wins in the end. 

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  Romans 8:37, NKJV

Proverb 24:5-9, The Message

It’s better to be wise than strong;
    intelligence outranks muscle any day.
Strategic planning is the key to warfare;
    to win, you need a lot of good counsel.

⁷ Wise conversation is way over the head of fools;
    in a serious discussion they haven’t a clue.

^8-9 The person who’s always cooking up some evil
    soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues.
Fools incubate sin;
    cynics desecrate beauty.

WISDOM:  Wisdom wins over strength and muscle any day.  Know God.  Know your enemy.  Know yourself and what you lack.  Ask for wisdom from God.  God is the key to strategic planning for victory over the real enemy. 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 6:12

Abba Father,

We need wisdom beyond ourselves and you give it for the asking.  So we are asking for wisdom, insight and understanding as you know it.  You created all.  You know how everything works.  You know our minds and what we will do before we do it.  You see what lies ahead that will challenge us.  You know every bump in the road on the path to you.  So, why would we trust in ourselves or anyone else on this earth that is temporary, fragile and gone tomorrow?  I don’t.  My life is in You!  Continue to transform me while giving me the wisdom to allow you to do what needs to be done in me.  I want to grow, not just grow old.  Thank you, dear Jesus for saving my soul. 

In Jesus Name, Amen