Psalm
33:1-12
“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting
for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to
him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new
song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the Lord
is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and
justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. By the
word of the Lord, the heavens were
made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into
jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the
earth fear the Lord; let all
the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came
to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he
thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the
purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord, the
people he chose for his inheritance.”
It is one of those mornings, very early and
how I wanted to sleep, but I believe the Lord wanted to have fellowship with
me. So as I opened and read these
verses, I once more realized my need to sing joyfully to the Lord, for it is
fitting for the follower of Jesus to praise the Father. I’m not sure what singing a new song means,
but this morning I let the thoughts that came into my mind come out in words of
praise to my Lord.
I’m not close to a scholar; no one will
ever talk about my intelligence but this I know for I’ve experienced that God’s
word is right and true, and He is faithful in all He does. So I
put my trust in Him alone, for I’ve not found that to be true anywhere
else.
Can the mighty government of the USA
speak and form and make something out of nothing, the Lord can and has, so why
would you trust a man who is formed by God out of the dust of the ground? But that is not all that happens, for that
man to have life, God breathed life into him, and he became a living spirit,
with a mind, will, and emotions. My
friend Bill Gillham often said, you never make up your mind about anything, but
you do choose by your will to listen to information from your mind or emotions
and your will is like a light switch, it is yes or no.
Do you fear the Lord, not that He is going
to get even with you for your sins, He is not going to do that, for Jesus took
on all sin, and God took His full wrath out on Him. But I do fear the Father in this way; I do
revere God and understand His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts higher
than mine. His love and mercy are beyond
my understanding, but I’ve experienced them often in my journey on planet
earth.
I’m a small-town boy, and God sent me to a
place that I did not want to go to make a living for my family. Let me be clear, Houston, Texas was not on my
bucket list, but God, it was His plan.
So in great fear I went and for six months, I worked Monday through
Friday in the Houston area with my wife and daughter in Odem, Texas. Odem is tiny and Houston is enormous, and my
life was full of stress-driven by the unknown, and one night I got a call from
a dear friend, Joyce Ray with this verse.
Jeremiah 29:11, is the message God sent to me through this godly
lady. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to
harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Let us end with this word from the Psalmist; “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the
purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord, the
people he chose for his inheritance.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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