Today I read Psalm 29, 59, 89, 119, and 149

Psalm 119 is a verdant field of life-giving words. In June 2023 the Holy Spirit led me to meditate through all 176 verses

It’s broken into eight verse segments. I did one segment at a time. All typed out. I highlighted underlined or circled the words. Looked up the Hebrew meaning. It was an amazing rich time 

Yesterday I started memorizing again. First time since I got out of rehab. My last memorizing was 1 Timothy 6. I got through verse 17 before I fell 

Psalm 119:2-3. Those who keep God’s word: do no iniquity (doing things in our own strength apart from the Lord) 

Keeping His word empowers us to walk in His ways 

Psalm 119:1-7 defines God’s word six different ways. Law. Testimonies. Precepts. Statutes. Commandments. Righteous judgments

Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”

Psalm 148 starts and ends with, “Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 22:3 says that the Lord inhabits our praise

In 2 Chronicles 20:22, when they began to praise, the Lord set ambushes and defeated their enemies

Praise is our strategic weapon of warfare

I was thinking about praise. Animals shake off the stress after they have escaped a predator

Praise is God’s way for us to shake off the stress of adversity

Stress, even caused from negative thoughts, takes our body into fight flight or freeze. Harm!

Sympathetic. Calm is rest and digest. Parasympathetic. No harm!

Remember Paul. He shook off the viper that latched onto his hand. No harm!

Praise takes our focus off the adverse situation onto the Lord

Since the 23rd I’ve been meditating on Psalm 143:6. David wrote, “I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land.”

Another translation says, “…like dry, cracked ground thirsts for rain.”

The context. David is overwhelmed and his heart is distressed because of his adverse circumstances 

Then he remembered in verse 5 how the Lord worked in his life before. He pondered and thought about it. He realized he was dried out and reached for the Lord

Think about the unbelievers in your life. They don’t have the Lord to cry out to. They have no deliverances to recall. Their lives are perpetually dry and cracked

I prayed for an unbeliever early this morning. Thought of Luke 4:18 in the Amplified 

It says that the Lord came to set the captives free and to deliver those, “…who are oppressed (who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity).”

Then in my reading I came to Psalm 147:3. It says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds”

We have His words to bring rain to parched lives. Lord help us be about Your business today of sharing Your life with others

David wrote Psalm 86. Verse 11 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.”

For ‘unite’ my margin says give me singleness of heart

Psalm 18:30 says that the way of the Lord is perfect. Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me…” 

Lord, I ask You to gather up my straying thoughts, distractions, and anything that would pull away my focus on You. Don’t let anything stop Your way to accomplish my inner transformation 

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “…with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Breakfast musingsYears ago I learned to read the Psalms this way. Take the date and add 30. So today is Psalm 23, 53, 83, 113, 143

As I was eating breakfast I was thinking about the Lord being our Shepherd and therefore He is all we need

2 Peter 1:3 says, “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…”

It’s all through relationship. He leads. We follow.

Following is a choice to walk in the righteousness He gave us. Disobedience is a choice to walk in our flesh and sin against Him

He always leads us onto paths He has prepared ahead of time.

A good shepherd checks the pasture for noxious weeds. He leads his sheep to waters that are calm so they will rest well.

Our Shepherd leads us into the trials He has tempered ~ cleared out anything would destroy our faith. 1 Peter 1:7

As we follow Him, His goodness and mercy shadow us all the days of our lives

Reading along this morning. The Holy Spirit highlighted the word “do”

Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments…”

Joshua 1:8 says that as we read and meditate on His word, we are to observe to do what is written

Keeping (doing) His commandments is tangible evidence of our love for Him. John 14:21

Psalm 19:11. Keeping His word brings great reward. He reveals Himself to us in ways we haven’t experienced Him before. Think of a kaleidoscope 

I fell November 18 and have been absent. I fractured my left humerus neck, my right knee cap, and sprained my right wrist. I was in rehab 40 days. I’m home now and recovering. I’m just popping in to share something with you. I’m up to my ears with in-home PT and OT visits and exercises. Not ready to type devotionals quite yet 

I was reading Psalm 78 when the Holy Spirit stopped me 

Verse 57 says “…they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.”

Hebrew for deceitful means lax or slackness 

How does this fit? I asked two of my cousins who hunt with a bow

“One way to look at it is…Arrows that are “spined” for a particular bow are more efficient, if the bow has lost its strength or it’s “poundage” the arrow won’t fly like it once did”

“Bows that are made the “old way”, from a single stave of wood, require straight grain, which the bowyer must follow as the bow is shaped.  If one or both limbs start to twist, the bow will be inaccurate, and in severe cases, the string can jump out of the nock grooves at full draw, and potentially injure the shooter.”

The Amplified says “…they were twisted and warped like a deceitful bow, that will not respond to the archer’s aim).” We need to be straight arrows.

We can say one thing, but our fruit exposes the truth of our heart’s belief. We may say that we love the Lord, but our disobedience to His word tells a different story. John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…” The Greek for keep means to guard.

One way we guard our heart is to release the unresolved issues that are deeply buried. Proverbs 4:23. Our love relationship with the Lord is evidenced by walking in a manner worthy of the gospel ~ exemplifying the Lord through every aspect of our lives.

1 John 2:5 says, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.” Perfected means matured. James 3:2 says, “For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to brindle the whole body.” 

I learned something years ago from a landscaping friend of mine. He had just taken a class and I asked him about the dormant season. He said that the roots are still very active, gathering food from the soil. The dormant time is an essential time. The soil needs nitrogen which is immediate food. Dormancy brings stability, growth, and beauty.

The fruit is determined by the root system. There is an interesting verse in 2 Kings 19:30. It is speaking about the remnant of Israel. It says, “…take root downward, and bear fruit upward.” We cannot see our roots. However, we can be assured they are thriving when we are abiding in Him. It is a given. It is the way He establishes us.  

We flourish in our trials when our roots are being fed through the soil of our intimate communion with the Lord. 1 Peter 5:10 says, “…after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”