Verse Nineteen: Psa 118:24

This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.  

Psa 118:24

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I feel silly even writing about this verse. It's self explanatory, isn't it? Maybe you've known it for so long its even easy to ignore. What's so important about the day being made by God, anyway?

I wasn't born cynical, a lot of life things came about and eventually it was easier to be cynical (notice that they didn't "make" me cynical. I chose it, even if it was out of a perceived need to protect my emotional self). It's become hard for me to just be all optimistic and sunshiny bear about life. Can't you just hear this verse being said by some disgustingly peppy morning person as you stare hazily at them through your coffee steam wishing for Friday? Makes you want to punch them in the face doesn't it? Yeah me too. But then that's not what God's Word is supposed to really trigger in us, so something is wrong here. My guess is it's my attitude ;)

"But," you protest, "I am having a bad day and I really don't care if the Lord made it. It doesn't matter either way, this straight up sucks." I know how you feel. I want to know why it should matter too. So lets explore that.

The word used for "made" (according to Strongs) could also be read as "to labour, to work about anything" and it gives the example of working with gold or silver. This is slightly more powerful. God labored over this day, like a craftsman labors over their work.

And He did this out of "goodness," we are told. Verse one says to "give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his mercy endures forever." Here's the interesting thing about that word good. Again looking at Strongs and the Gesenius Lexicon, we find more depth and complexity to the word that gets lost in translation. It isn't just "good" it's a bountiful, pure and precious goodness. The word mercy is complicated too. I think it's easy to think that mercy is somehow a negative. We get the mental image of a haughty God, seated at his throne watching us be beaten in judgement and then he holds up his hand just before the point of our death to halt the torture, showing us "mercy" in that we get to live. Not a happy image.  The reality is that, in this hebrew form, it's synonymous with lovingkindess, ardour, and desire. Mercy, it seems, is like a desire to correct or reproach another being from a place of fervent love. If this is sounding almost too close to a sort of manipulative emotional abuse ("I love you that's why I hurt you") remember that God is also purely good. He is incapable of abuse. He instructs and disciplines (verse 18). How else could we come from the situation actually singing His praises and declaring how wonderful He is?

So what about a bad day? Well, according to the rest of Psalm 118, when the world, man and nations come against you all you have to do is call on the Lord and He will set you free from it. Verse five, "Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free." and verse 14 "The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."

For such a short verse I sure have gone on a lot :P So after ALL that what is the conclusion? Well this isn't just any day. This is a day the Lord fervently, ardently labored over and, because He is purely good He creates nothing but good things, we have reason to joyfully sing about it. Those good things can go bad, the world can attack us from all sides but even then the answer is the Lord; He will save us when we call and His freedom will get us singing! 

Verse Seventeen & Eighteen: Psalm 97:1 & 8

Psa 97:1

The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice! Let the farthest coastlands be glad. 

Psa 97:8

Jerusalem has heard and rejoiced, and all the towns of Judah are glad because of your justice, O LORD! 

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Well what do you know! Psalm 97 is very much a continuation of what we saw in Psalm 96.  Again, we have the combination of the earth and nature rejoicing and fearing the Lord as well as the proclamation that the lesser gods and idols have nothing on Him. 

Verse 7, "Those who worship idols are disgraced— all who brag about their worthless gods— for every god must bow to him."

Verse 9, "For you, O LORD, are supreme over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods." 

It's a good argument, really. Why bow to something like an idol rather than God when it's bowing to God? Even if you believe this thing to be greater than you, it seems we have a choice of giving our worship to one entity. Why put it on the lesser? 

In my little United States day to day life I don't really know anyone who worships idols like they did in those days. But the concepts of fear and worship go hand in hand. They both set something up higher than you. What you fear, you are also worshiping. And the word "fear" doesn't always mean terror, it is synonymous with revere as well. In our life we have idols, things we put our fear to, things we believe are too big for us. We expend anxiety and worry on these things, we fret about them and think more about them than Truth. Truth like: For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Phil 4:13). 

So much of what God's word has for us is for our betterment. I have heard it referred to as a rule book all my life. So many people believe this! But it's more like advice, the best advice you could ever get, and who would go against advice like that? When God commanded us not to put any other god before Him, do you think it was really just because He doesn't like competition? I have the feeling it's more likely that He knows how easily we put other things before Him and His truth. We completely forget that we "can do everything through Christ" and focus on the things we are afraid of. 

The earth can see how glorious God is. It does not war with Him as it does with the other mythological gods. Its a testimony of simple faith and seeing the truth all around us. 

Verse Sixteen: Psalm 96:11, What's So Important About A Joyous Earth?

Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Psa 96:11 NLT

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This psalm reminds me of something I read recently about ancient beliefs. The Hebrew were actually quite unique compared to other religions, especially the ones surrounding them, because they condemned the practice nature worship. Well, the prophets condemned it and tried to get the people to follow suite. It was a unique and new "mythology" in the world for there to be a single God who exists beyond nature, not bound by its forces. The Hebrew were surrounded by temptation to worship as other cultures did. But consider how the Babylonian gods operated:

"Where the Babylonian gods were engaged in an ongoing battle against the forces of chaos, and needed the rituals of the New Year festival to restore their energies, Yahweh can simply rest on the seventh day, his work complete." (from Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries) 

Those gods didn't have power over nature, they were trying to beat it into submission! Meanwhile, they need rituals to power back up after this exhausting matchup. But then you have Yahweh. Much of Psalm 96 emphasizes this relationship of God to nature, as well as how this sets Him not only apart from the idol gods but higher than them. Knowing this gave me a deeper understanding of what makes a psalm like this important. Vs. 4 says "Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods." We all know the commandment to not have any gods before God, but this psalm could be considered a point for the argument.  If you're wondering why God is greater and you should worship Him instead, consider the fact that nature doesn't try to kick His butt, it worships Him because He made it. 

V. 1  "Sing a new song to the LORD! Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!"

Vs. 5 "The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the LORD made the heavens!"

Vs. 9 "Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him."

Vs. 11 "Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!"

Vs. 12 "Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy! Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise (before the Lord)"

Nature knows its Lord Creator and in what direction its praises should go. And yet in Genesis we are told that man was given authority over it. I don't want to sound to too hippie, but it seems to me we could learn a lesson or two about the proper approach to authority over nature when we compare the Babylonian idol gods methods to that of Yahweh. Trying to dominate "the forces of chaos" wasn't getting them anything but tired.  We shouldn't be taking that route. We should be looking to emulate the Creator, He who knows His creation inside out. This makes Him the ultimate provider of their needs, a caring tender of the earth. It responds gloriously to Him and is it any wonder why? It's praising Him for the same reasons we often do, because we felt the depth of His love through the way He provided and cared for us, showing us just how well He knows our needs. It's rather beautiful, don't you think?

Verse Fifteen: Psalm 89:16

They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. 

They exult in your righteousness. Psa 89:16 NLT

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Ok, a couple of things. First, is it weird that when I read this Psalm I can tell its not David? It says the author is Ethan the Ezrahite and no offense to Ethan here but I find him far more confusing. I am sure this psalm is just above my level of study or something. That still doesn't change the fact that I don't know why it goes from praising God because he is mighty and awesome, on into telling the story of David's anointing and how God will never lift it everything is glorious and will be glorious forever to saying BUT HE HAS LIFTED IT! Everything is awful!! David is abandoned and when is God going to bless Him again?? How long will he hide his face blah blah blah. And then the last line a total 180 to "Praise the LORD forever! Amen and amen!" What?? Talk about swinging from one extremem to another. Make up your mind, man!  There is no middle ground with him or something.

So...with that said... I am confessing I have nothing more to say on this verse because I find the psalm so frickin confusing... I suppose I will say this though... In the end no matter if you are being blessed or feel the Lord has taken that blessing and left you exposed to the world and all its attacks, we don't know enough about everything to not say, as Ethan here does, "Praise the LORD forever! Amen and amen!" No matter what, the Lord is worthy of praise.

Verse Fourteen: Psalm 53:6 Restoration

Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel? When God restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice. Psalm 53:6 NLT

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I have to admit, I do NOT want to do this right now. I have a head cold and my sinus cavities are soOo not happy right now. So this might be short and sweet and my grammer will probably suck be imperfect. I am forcing myself to do it because I am tired of things getting in the way of this very good thing. Maybe thats why they are happening, who knows, but I know one thing God's totally worth it. So if all my own personal strength can handle today is to listen to some fantastic worship and dwell a bit on a verse, that's what I am going to do. God can use that. He can do anything. And its not about me, now is it ;)

I stared at this psalm for a while. My brain isn't working. But I got this: Restoration.

Restoration is fantastic isn't it? Think about it, think about all the times you have been broken. shattered. or when something has been taken from you. A dream maybe, a hope. Maybe God hasn't restored all of that to you yet, but He wants to. It can be a journey to even discover that you had this thing once. Recently, I realized there was a dream I'd had when I was young. It was stolen so young that I forgot it even existed. it's been 22 years since then, 22 years of shutting it out, shutting it down, believing a lie to the point I did't even know there was a truth. You can bet that when he restored that dream to me I rejoiced (and cried...a lot).

"Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel?" 

Who will? I love that the response here begins with "When." When God. There's no doubt, no maybe. When. It's gonna happen and WHEN  it does, there WILL be joy, there WILL be rejoicing. DUDE!! Can I get an Amen?! Just thinking about it gets me all jazzed, who knows what else He has for me, He just keeps going... And for you. Be open to it. Trust Him to restore you, choose to let Him show you the truth of His love. You will rejoice :) 

Verse Thirteen: Psalm 51:8

Wow...its been a while since I have been able to do this, between my Dad visiting and then getting some flu thing for five days. SO glad to be back and have the energy to write again. Now if I could just stop getting distracted... ok FOCUS! :)

Psa 51:8 (NIV) Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

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How I digest these verses, so to speak, is by reading the verse by itself and then moving onto the chapter as a whole, then go from there to wherever the Lord leads me. I have to admit, there is quite an impact of that last half alone and I was very motivated to find out what could induce that wording.  

Turns out this psalm has an interesting timing reference indeed. "A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba." Ah. Ok some sense is coming in. As I read, I recognized more and more of it. Somehow I had never made the connection, like a child that watches a movie and then when older sees so much more in it than they ever saw before.

The hebrew used for "crushed" is the piel form of dakah ("i.e broken by a consciousness of guilt")

Dakah

1) to crush, be crushed, be contrite, be broken

a) (Qal) to be crushed, collapse

b) (Niphal) to be crushed, be contrite, be broken

c) (Piel)

1) to crush down

2) to crush to pieces

This is no ordinary day, no ordinary song. This could very well be one of deepest cries of this man's heart ever in his life...  think about that just for a moment. David has monumentally sinned and he knows it, he feels it to the core of his bones and the guilt just shatters him. God is giving him that knowledge, He knows it will hurt, will break David, but that's exactly why He must tell him! He can't let him continue on with his life doing this, He loves him too much. Have you even thought about how when God does this there is no real guarantee that he won't lose us over it? At least for a time. Yes God knows all but we have that freedom of will to choose, to turn it all on Him or to realize what we've done and run back to him crying for the forgiveness we know we don't deserve but will get. Begging to be loved again. And we will be loved again. That's the beauty. But not until that sin has been dealt with. God knows what that sin will do to us, how much it will damage us and He doesn't want that. He is always willing to face the sin with us, but we have to choose to face it with him. 

I think I know what David means in this verse, I have been in that place of knowing my sin. The crushing guilt, the brokenness. But also the overwhelming, staggering relief of being forgiven, freed, purified and loved by God. That joy is like none other.

Verse Twelve: Psalm 48:11

Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.
Psalm 48:11 NIV

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Its one of those days that has really gotten my heart racing, rushing around and ultimately having to fight for my priorities to be kept.  It is a fight isn't it? Not to be selfish but to maintain yourself, to keep things inline.  There are so many things to pull us away from God, the source of everything we actually need, and the next thing you know you're completely drained, sapped.

I love this blog, it has been such a gift, honestly.  A rejuvenating blessing, something I look forward to. And I think that is why I have been trying to share it more. Not like I have anything amazing to say, but God does and when He speaks to us isn't it hard not to share? There is such peace here...

This Psalm reads like a love song to Mount Zion saying,  "Take her in, isn't she gorgeous?" It is the Lord's holy mountain, His city. He protects it, makes it a secure place, a place of meditation. 

Verse 14 is so beautiful, "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." The beauty of it is the truth that pulls at the sense of eternity in our hearts. My heart longs for this to be true and simultaneously rejoices that it is.  This is why Mount Zion rejoices, why the villages of Judah are glad, because of God's judgements, His decisions... which is His guidance. We so often read "judgement" and think heaven or hell, judgement of sin, etc. The ominous judge, high above, waiting to sentence us.  And not saying this is not the correct application at times...ok maybe not the ominous judge...but my point is that it is not always a scary or negative connotation. When we are following a leader, we are relying on them to make the right decision about which way to go, what to do and how to respond. What better guide than one that knows all and sees all? Its hard to give up that control, to have faith that He will keep us safe and protect us, but when that truth sinks in we cannot help but rejoice in the security we feel there in His guidance.