Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.  (KJV)

This is one of the first psalms (along with psalm 23) that we teach our children. Yes, it was from the King James Version that most of us remember. As we read the truths found in this psalm we must also ask how much we apply these truths to our daily routine. Do we truly worship the Lord with gladness, or do we question His actions or lack of actions in the affairs of man? Do we come before him with joyful songs or does our praise seem to focus on the deeds of fallen man whom we have elevated above the common man? Do we look to him as creator when we look at the world around us, or do we try to explain the existence of this universe to other forces? When we said the phrase “we are his people and the sheep of his pasture” does our daily activity reflect his righteousness and truth in every aspect of our labor? The phrase “the sheep of his pasture” should reflect a total guidance of our daily activities being led by him. Do you really even in the darkest of times know that the Lord is good and his love endures forever? When we consider the phase “and his truth endured to all generations” do we stop and reflect upon this truth? In John 14:6 Christ states that He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to God, but through Him.  Are we truly walking with Him hour by hour, or just making Him Lord for a few hour a week while we are in the company of fellow believers?

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. ¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.”  So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” (NIV)

Today as I was reading Oswald Chambers’ devotional for October nineteen I could not help but see how true his observations of the Christians of his day are also true in the society in which we live in today.

“The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . . For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.”

As I read this Psalm I picture the churches of my youth, churches that came together for a worship service. As I reflected on these services they were services that meet the need of a young growing Christian who loved the Word of God. As a young Christian I was interested in reading and studying God’s Word and learning more about Jesus and his message. Today however, the message is having a Purpose in life, a system for living a productive life, looking for the right cause to take a stand, and a multiple other programs to improve either the individual’s life or the world around us. This is the great enemy that I believe that Oswald Chambers is writing about in his devotion.  We seem to forget the true purpose of worship.

Instead of using God’s Word to defend the activities of the church and make God’s Word fit into the mold the church needs; we should let the Bible speak to us on an individual bases. Today it seems that the light in the song “This Little Light of Mine” focus more on the activities that leads on how to live a purpose driven life instead of being the light of Christ that abides in me.

As I read this Psalm I realized how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. In verse eleven the Psalmist writes “So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest” as a warning to us if we reject ways. This Psalm is tied to the very first three commandments “Thy should not have any God before me. Thou shall not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing loving-kindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.” This same fear is what the author of Hebrews wrote about in Hebrews chapter four. With salvation comes a change. We turn from the lord of this world to the Lord of Creation. Therefore keep your focus on Him.

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Hasten, O God, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.  May those who seek my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.  May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” turn back because of their shame.  But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”  Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay. (NIV)

As I read this psalm I can picture Christ praying this during his earthly ministry. The message of God’s love and the way of his righteousness was not only rejected, but was opposed by the very ones he was sent to share the good news of God’s salvation. As you read this psalm ask yourself this simple question “which group would I be in: those who desire Christ’s ruin, or those who love your salvation?” Those who seek his ruin will be turned back in disgrace, those who love his salvation will praise the Lord.

In Revelation 3:7 the Lord is pictured as the one who holds the key of David.  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that opens and none shall shut, and that shuts and none opens.” As we live our life here on earth we face multiple decisions each day. From the time we get up in the morning to the time we retire in the evening. However, as a believer in Christ one decision we must daily strive to make is how I will plan to walk daily with Christ. Am I willing to walk through the doors of opportunity that the Lord has open for me and at the same time willing to leave the doors closed that he has closed for me? Or is it all about me and I am the one who opens and closes my own doors?  In this Psalm David calls on the Lord’s help to save him, to help him, to defend him, and to deliver him. This type of walk will lead to a life that rejoices in the Lord and be glad in the choices we have made in him.

Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled.  O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come.  When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.  Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.  Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy. You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.  The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.  The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.  (NIV)

In my daily studies I try to start the day out by reading five psalms a day and one chapter of Proverbs. The psalms helps me grow in my understanding of the greatness of God and helps develops a closer relationship with Him. The Book of Proverbs helps me understand God’s way in dealing with the issues of life that involves my relationship with those around me. During the rest of the day I try to meditate of God’s word. This involves studying some of the great works of other authors. One such author is Oswald Chambers. His insight into God’s Word reveals a great desire to become more Christ-like in all aspects of live. An example of this can be found in today’s reading from My Utmost to His Highest May 13 “I should be living in such perfect harmony with God’s Son that the spirit of my mind is being renewed through every circumstance of life, and that I may be able to quickly prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Chambers’ devotional is great book that can give great insight on how to develop a daily walk with Christ. However, as I read this psalm I am reminded of God’s courts, his house and his holy temple and those he has chosen to bring near to live there. This makes me think of the church and the role it plays in today’s society.

This week I started reading Charles Colson’s and Harold Fickett’s book The Faith. The subtitle of this book What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters is a message that should challenge the church today. In the introduction he brings to light how most (yes most not just some) believers really do not have a grasp of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. One of the questions he would ask was plainly “What is Christianity anyway?” One of the trends that I have seem myself within the church over the last fifty years has been a move from it desire to preach the gospel to a lost and dying world, to a defender of Christian values and the family unit. In this process the Bible has taken a back seat to all the self-help, how to have purpose in life, and guides to family living books. This is supported by the statement in the book’s Introduction “Of the twelve critical doctrines that I have identified in this book, most of my friends, admittedly unprepared, could only name four, at the best five”.

As I reflected on this last statement I ask myself if I could identified twelve critical doctrines if I was asked this this question. This is why the psalms are so important to me. I can find and grow in my understanding of the great doctrines of the faith on a daily bases. In this psalm I realize that the most important doctrine to your faith is answer “Who is God”. Here is some of the facts we can gleam from this psalm about who God is:

He is worthy of praise.

He hears our prayers.

All men will come to you.

God forgive sins.

God choose the ones who live in your court.

God are a righteous judge.

God created the world.

God cares for the world.

These are simple yet profound truths about God that we can grasp just by daily studying God’s Word. Another of the critical doctrines is answer in this psalm “Who is man”. He is overwhelmed by sins, yet our sins can be forgiven. It is God who chooses to bring us into his courts.

A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.  May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.  For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave.  I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength.  I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.  You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.  Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah  You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you.  Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? Selah  Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?  Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?  But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.  Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?  From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.  Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.  All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.  You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.  (NIV)

This is probably one of the hardest psalms to understand. Marshall H. Lewis wrote about this psalm “Psalm 88 is like no other psalm. There is nothing like it in the Psalter, nothing like it in the rest of the Bible, nothing like it among Israelite and Judean noncanonical psalms, nothing like it among Babylonian and Egyptian psalms. It is unique in its utter hopelessness, its complete lack of praise, its unmitigated blame of God. Brueggemann goes so far as to call it “an embarrassment to conventional faith.” Not even the Book of Job is as dark. At least God responds to Job; here, the cry of the psalmist disappears into the void. God is invoked, but remains absent. This is the challenge in interpreting Psalm 88.” I believe that this psalm can be understood best as a psalm for those that rejects God’s provisional way of salvation. Read this psalm after you have read Luke 16:19-27. Put the rich man of Luke 16 in the subject role of this psalm. Notice that this psalm does not mention anything about repentance. Now read Romans chapter one, then reread Luke 16:19-27 and then reread this psalm. Unless you seek God and the righteousness found in the work of His son this will become your psalm after your death.

As I was reading this psalm I realized how much this gift of salvation really means to me. Now for the hard question, does my life reflect how important it is in my life to share God’s Word and his message of salvation from the pit, the grave, the place of darkness, the land of oblivion with others? In Luke 16:26 where Abraham tells the rich man that there is a great gulf fixed between us and that none can pass either way makes me realize how important God’s Word is in this world. When the rich man ask Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers Abraham stated “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead”. It is not my lifestyle that leads other to Christ, but my lifestyle that can lead them to the source of my salvation which is Christ. Christ became the living Word. The song Let the Lower Lights Be Burning by Philip P Bless was written to encourage believers of their responsibilities to be the light on this earth to point others to the greater light so that they to might make it safely into the harbor.

1. Brightly beams our Father’s mercy, From His lighthouse evermore, But to us He gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore.
   • Refrain: Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Some poor fainting, struggling seaman You may rescue, you may save.
2. Dark the night of sin has settled, Loud the angry billows roar; Eager eyes are watching, longing, For the lights along the shore.
3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother; Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed, Trying now to make the harbor, In the darkness may be lost.

As you read verse eighteen “You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend” remember David’s words from Psalm 51:10-13:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

Remember it is your relationship with God that makes you shine, not the relationship you have with others. Strive to renew your relationship with God and he will make your light shine and hopefully your light will point them to the greater light.