O God of Our Salvation

 

Psalm 65

 

6-28-2022

 

O God of Our Salvation

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.  O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.  When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.  Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!  We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! 

 

By awesome deeds, you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;  who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.  You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.  

 

You visit the earth and water it;  you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.  You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.  You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.  The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

 

What is wrong with a nation that has been blessed with the abundance we the people of the USA have received?  Unlike any other nation, we have been given rights by God in our Constitution to live as a free people to seek God and be grateful or to reject Him and believe our talents and skills were our own doing and to buy into the lie of a self-made man.

 

Why are we so ungrateful, so full of want and greed that we do not stop and acknowledge how blessed we are as a people?  We give little thought that God’s only Son became lower than the angels when He took on the form of a man.  We forget that Jesus, though He being God always went to the Father for His strength and power, as an example to you and me to run to the Father for our strength and power!

 

What happened to the Church, have we also lost our focus, has the culture molded us into it?  Have we forgotten the One who stills the waters?

Let’s go back to a bunch of guys like us, but they were different also in many ways, they followed a man who they hoped was the Messiah or at least a great prophet of God.  But God had a lot to teach them and He has a lot to teach us.  Remember, David's account of God;  who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves,   Those men also experience roaring of the sea, and Jesus was in the boat, do you recall that account in Luke 8:22-25, “One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.   And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.   He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Have you heard that voice ask those very questions; “Where is your faith?”  If not you must be walking very close to Jesus, or you do not have Him in your boat.  To my shame, I hear that voice asking that question, more than I want to admit.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice