¹ Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
² How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!
³ He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet.
⁴ He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah
⁵ God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the LORD amid the sounding of trumpets.
⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
⁷ For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.
⁸ God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.
⁹ The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.

As I read this psalm this morning, I stop and reflect about all the influences that have already occurred today in my life. In the past as I made my daily commute to work every morning I would listen either to the radio or to my CDs on the scriptures. When I listen to radio, it seems that half of the time I am listening to advertising that makes claims on how to improve and make your life better and more productive. Yet, most of this claim leaves out one major compound and that is God. By reading the psalms daily, the reader will soon truly grasp how awesome the Lord really is in heaven and on earth. When I listen to these claims that promise to give me a great and better life they leave out God. They usually have one purpose and that is to make the person or company offering them a profit. When hearing these claims, I have to reflect on the very fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Man took the fruit from his wife who had taken it from the serpent, who had convinced her that there was more to life than God had provided. He convinced Eve and she convinced Adam “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”. However, after they eat of the fruit, their eyes was opened and they saw their own nakedness.

Now in retirement there is no longer the daily commute to work. Instead I am free to pursue and activity I desire for the day.. However, one key thought I never plan on giving up is praising my Lord. As I look back on my life I am so thankful for the times when my lifelong dreams were destroyed and everything around me was falling apart I understood that God was still in control. As I witness the world events around me today I wonder how much God is shaping everything for his return to this earth. The time of this return and the events surrounding it cannot be known, but that does not stop me from watching for His return.

I see the same with all the claims that the world offers us today. Even the claims of most Christian ministries seem to fall short of meeting the needs and desires of fallen man. Unless fallen man truly returns to a dependence on God, he will perish just like the beast of the field. As Psalm 49: 20 states “A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish”. However, when we truly get to a point in our life that we trust God and pursue a desire to live a blameless life in the light of his Word, then we will see that he will cloth us in His glory. How awesome would our lives be if our daily routines in this world would truly reflect our true dependence upon God to manage the affairs of our life? To me it is wonderful!