April 27

Psalm 118
Mercy! Many of us instinctively know that we are in need of it; the rest just lie to themselves. His mercy, once extended, endures forever, and the Psalmist knows it very well! He calls out to the Lord, “Save now, I pray, Oh Lord!” (v.25) (translates into ‘Hosanna!’) He knows that he lacks the righteousness to enter into the gates of the temple of the Lord. He stands before the gates and throws himself upon the mercy of the Lord. Oh Lord, save me! I don’t have the required righteousness to come through the gates into Your presence. But when does the plea for salvation come? After the stone which the builders rejected becomes the chief cornerstone.
On Jesus’ triumphal entry the crowds and the children cried out, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The stone presented Himself to the builders. They rejected Him. They bound the sacrifice (so to speak) to the horns of the altar. They crucified Him. God raised Him from the dead! That death and resurrection became the basis for mercy which pours out abundantly on those who will now kneel and plead for His mercy! He told us about it 1,000 years before it happened. Oh Lord, I receive Your mercy! Wow! Now that is glory. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 26

Psalm 116
He looked me in the eye and said, “I just want you to know that I don’t like the way you are treating my brother.”
“How am I treating your brother?” I responded.
His open palm went up and he declared, “Enough said!” He ignored my question, my voice, and stormed out of the building. Such a response can be expected out of an immature child, or even and immature adult, but not out of a man in his sixties who has spent the bulk of his life in ministry and is a trained psychologist. He ignored my voice. It did not endear me to him.
Has your voice ever been ignored? The Psalmist says, “I love the Lord because He heard my voice.” If there is anyone in all of creation that I might expect to ignore my voice, perhaps it would be the Creator. After all as I look at the vastness of His creation and its overpowering complexity, I am convinced of my smallness! Why should He listen to me? Not only am I such a small thing in His finite creation, but He has a reason to be mad at me. I have rebelled against His authority and sinned against Him. According to His own justice, I deserve death. The Psalmist cries out to the Lord as he is about to die. The Lord heard his voice and delivered him.
I have called out to the Lord; He has delivered me from death and from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over me. I will take that cup of salvation. It enables me to live victoriously over sin in this life. I can live this life in victory because He has heard my voice. I can call on His name and because He hears my voice, I can expect power to live victoriously. It endears me to Him. I love Him for it.
My death is precious in His sight. Physically I think that means that if I am walking with Him, my death is a valuable thing to Him. It will come neither before nor after the appropriate time. Spiritually, He desires the death of my old nature. It is precious to Him so that He can raise me to walk in newness of life. This infinite God desires to hear my voice. He desires to hear me call out to Him so that He might deliver me from and through death. Wow! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 25

Psalm 115
Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. A god made by man behaves according to man’s nature. Anyone who has studied mythology can observe this. The mythological gods think and act as supermen, but men none-the-less. Consequently within the myths, men manipulate the gods in order to get them act as men desire. We become like what we worship. If we worship a god of our own creation, one created in our own image, we simply become more of what we are really like. It is no wonder that many churches have become powerless to change lives. It is no wonder that many churches use manipulation to get their desired results. They do not worship a God who does whatever He pleases. They worship a god who uses programs and plans that are manipulated by men. Why? Because that is what they are like.
But this God who does whatever he pleases also desires to bless us. He desires to bless us so that we will praise Him. He desires that we should recognize Him for who He really is. It is only in that recognition that we find what we were created to be and do. Let us bless the Lord for he does whatever He pleases, and He is pleased to bless us. That blessing is that we should be become like Him. It is not that He should become like us. Is my focus on His glory transforming me into His image? If not, then I am focused on my glory not His. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 24

Psalm 114
What would God do to deliver me out of sin and into His holiness? Would He divide Keystone Lake to provide a way of escape? Would He stop the flow of the Cimarron to give me access to the other side? Would He make the plains of Oklahoma tremble with an earthquake that I might know His law? What would He do? He has already done far greater for Israel. Indeed, He has done far greater for me. He has divided the flesh of His own Son on the cross, raised Him from the dead, seated Him at his right hand, so I might be delivered. That provision is mine when I identify with Him. My flesh is, so to speak, divided with His, giving me a way of escape. As I identify with Him, He enables me to stop the flow of the power of the old nature and replenishes it with the flow of His life giving Spirit. I now have a fountain of life giving waters flowing out of me. What would God do to deliver me out of sin and into His holiness? What more could He do? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 23

Psalm 113
When I woke up Sunday morning, I already had an e-mail in my inbox from a friend in Japan. He had written it after returning from church and he was telling me about his experience. By the time I read it, it was eight o’clock at night in Japan and I had not yet started to church. Before I had gone to bed Saturday night, people just across the International Date Line were rising to praise the Lord. As the earth spins at the rate of 1,037.56 mph at the equator, people are rising every minute to bring praise to the glory of his name. If believers were evenly distributed in every time zone, and if there are 2 billion believers in the world, then 83 1/3 million rise every hour. We were created for the purpose of praising the Lord. If each of those 83 million were fulfilling their purpose, then what a sound of praise is rising up to heaven to give God praise! “From the rising of the sun to its going down the LORD’s name isto be praised.”
But He deserves more praise! There are still 5 billion people who do not name the name of Christ. There are still 2 billion people alive right now who will die without ever having had the opportunity to hear the name of Jesus in a Gospel presentation! He has humbled Himself to behold us! He beheld us by becoming one of us. He was seen with human eyes and handled with human hands. He was heard with human ears. With human hands He was crucified that He might bear our sins upon the cross. He was raised without human hands by the Father and His own power. In so doing He is able to raise the poor out of the dust and the needy out of the ash heap. I was sinking in the ash heap of sin, and He raised me up! Not only did he raise me out of sin, but He seated me with Himself in heavenly places, the right hand of the Father. I am seated with the Prince of the universe! This is all His doing! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 20

Psalm 110
In this Psalm David says that Yahweh says to his lord, “Sit at my right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” I have many questions about this passage. Some are, “When did Yahweh say this to him? How did David hear it? Was it verbal? Was it through a prophet? Was it a voice in his thoughts? How did he know it was Yahweh? Does Yahweh speak to us in the same way? How do we know it is Him speaking in our thoughts?” While the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, Jesus quotes this verse and asks them how David can call his descendant his lord. Clearly Jesus understood the passage as referring to Himself. So in this passage, God the Father is speaking to God the Son. It speaks clearly of His glory.
First is speaks of His authority. God the Father commands the Son to sit at his right hand. In royal etiquette one does not sit at the right hand of a sovereign except at his invitation, and in so doing the sovereign is granting authority to rule with Him. Jesus has all the authority of God the Father to rule over the whole universe! Peter picked up on what Jesus had to say to the Pharisees when he quoted this verse. In His famous sermon on Pentecost Peter preaches to a once hostile crowd and says concerning Jesus:
“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Wow! He is a gusty fellow! But he could be gutsy because of who Jesus is and where He is seated. He has all authority in that seat. One day He will even reverse the effects of death. Now that is authority. So what if I die? The One whom I trust has authority even over death! The writer of Hebrews (1:13) makes it absolutely clear that there is no other being that has greater authority than He.
The second thing that the Father speaks to in His Son is the Son’s role a priest. As a priest in the order of Melchizedek (King of Righteousness), He intercedes for those who volunteer to be among His ranks. I would be too afraid to come to the Son, if He did not have this role. My sin was like a fog horn before me sounding out to a Holy God that I had transgressed His holiness. My sin was like a dead skunk on the highway to holiness. The stench would make the holy God seek to eradicate me. My sin was like the putrid rotting flesh of the leper who had never been treated and was in the late stage of the disease. The mess could only be revolting to His holiness. Yet my King of Righteousness has taken on the role of being my priest. Unlike the Levitical priests who had to make continual sacrifices for themselves and for others, and who died and had to be replaced, my Priest is of the order of Melchizedek in that He is righteousness in Himself, and He has always been and always will be! He ever lives to make intercession for me! I do not have to worry about my sin. He has eradicated it. He intercedes for me!!!!!!!!
Authority and Priesthood, now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 19

Psalm 109
This is what is commonly called an ‘imprecatory’ Psalm. It is one of those Psalms that calls for destruction of the Psalmist’s enemies. Some have real problems with someone under the inspiration of the Spirit calling down curses on their enemy, but there has to be justice if God is good. And if there is true justice, we do not have to worry about desiring it. We simply need to remember that we are the recipients of mercy. We received mercy because we responded to His unmerited favor. The people in imprecatory Psalms are ones who have refused to respond to God’s unmerited favor, particularly in today’s Psalm. The one upon whom David is calling down curses is certainly unrepentant. More than unrepentant, Peter recognized that David was looking beyond his enemy down the corridor of time to Judas. He quotes Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8 in reference to Judas.
Certainly Judas is an example of one who was unrepentant. He was seeking to manipulate Jesus to his own ends. I believe that was his purpose in betraying Jesus. He had left his former lifestyle and hooked his wagon to what he thought was the rising Messiah. Judas saw an opportunity to wealth and power. When Jesus began speaking of suffering and death, he felt cheated and sought to redeem what he could of the situation. He sold Jesus for the price of a slave. There is nothing wrong with desiring true justice. We just need to remember that if it were not for His mercy, we would be obliterated in the distribution of true justice. But that is the glory of our Lord. He is indeed truly just, but He also ministers mercy to the repentant! ! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

April 12

Psalm102
I guess because my grandson is visiting me right now, I think about dirty diapers when I read about being changed. Babies are helpless to change themselves. Some of them like being changed. Some of them do not like it. In general they do not like being in their poop, but as they grow older, they don’t like the experience of being changed, especially if they have sat in it long enough to develop a rash. Coupled with the desire to not be controlled, the pain of the rash makes the experience of changing unbearable. What an analogy to us when we are helpless in our sin! The Psalmist says, “He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, And shall not despise their prayer.” As babies are destitute to change themselves, so are we helpless to change ourselves.
Yet we are given this promise that He looks down from heaven, “To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To release those appointed to death.” That sounds a lot like Isaiah 61:1:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
This is the passage that Jesus quoted and claimed to fulfill when He spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus came to do that. To change the metaphor, He came to change our poopy diapers. We cannot change them ourselves. But you know, there must be cooperation on our part. I just heard my daughter-in-law cry out, “Come hear! Let me change your poopy diaper.” Then I heard the footsteps of my granddaughter running away. Is that not just like us? The Lord of the Universe commands us to come to Him to permit us to be changed by him, but we run the other way. He has power to set us free, but we won’t cooperate. Does that diminish His glory? Only in the ability of others to see it. When we cooperate with Him and freely yield to his power to change, it increases the ability of other to see His changing power, and that increases his glory! Lord, let me cooperate with your changing power! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 11

Psalm 111
Five times in this Psalm (NKJV) the word ‘work’ or ‘works’ is used. Out of ten verses, that is every other verse. They are described as great, honorable, glorious, wonderful and powerful. The result of His work is verity and justice. It is said that His works are studied by all who have pleasure in them. The converse of that is that if I do not study His works then I do not take pleasure in them. Makes sense. I mean; I don’t study something unless I enjoy it, or I have to study it because I am in school or my job requires it. Do I have pleasure in the works of the Lord? Certainly I enjoy His creative works. They never cease to amaze me. Truly they can be called great, honorable, glorious, wonderful and powerful. The way He works with His people is also of great interest. When I reflect upon the way He has worked with me I understand that He is full of grace and compassion.
But you know, unless I actively call them to mind, I tend to focus on negative things and pain. I guess that is why I need to meditate on His glory. It is necessary for my wellbeing. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 10

Psalm 100
You know that there is only one reason a sheep would enter into the gates of the temple. There is only one reason that a sheep would enter the court. A sheep comes to die, to be a sacrifice. He first tells us that we are His people and the sheep of his pasture. Then He commands us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Hmmmm. . . Why in the world would I ever want to do that? I can only do that if I am convinced that He is good, merciful and true.
How can a God who is good, merciful and true ask me to die for Him? Doesn’t that seem kind of incongruent? If He were good, would he not protect me from death? Does not goodness protect from unpleasantness and death? Does not goodness seek pleasure for its object? If God the Father loved God the Son, how could He ask Him to die for us? Sounds like a pretty awful thing to ask of your beloved son. Does love require the preservation of goodness, the expression of mercy or the enforcement of truth? If so, then perhaps it would change the way we view the expression of love. What if those three elements were more important than providing comfort or pleasure for the object of love?
Did you know that www.Dictionary.com has 47 separate entries for the definition of “good?” Its first entry is, “morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man.” However, its nineteenth entry is, “agreeable; pleasant: Have a good time.” Can a certain circumstance be morally excellent but not pleasant? If so, then it can be both bad and good at the same time. Can a certain time be morally excellent but not pleasant? Is the death burial and resurrection of our Lord a ‘good’ thing? So while He was hanging on the cross, was it a ‘good’ time or a ‘bad’ time for Him? Well, it was both. It was bad. It was not pleasurable. It was not agreeable. It was good. It accomplished our redemption. It made it possible to restore us to a morally excellent state.
While Jesus was upon the cross, He cried out, “My, God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He was enduring the moral punishment for our sins. He was enduring the full wrath of a righteous God against our sin. At the point in which He cried out, He was not experiencing the mercy of God, but the wrath of God. Whether you agree or not, the moral excellence of God, (his goodness) was on display. There is goodness in justice, and His justice was being meted out. But His goodness led to the showing of His mercy. Dictionary.com defines mercy as:
1. compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence: Have mercy on the poor sinner. 2. the disposition to be compassionate or forbearing: an adversary wholly without mercy. 3. the discretionary power of a judge to pardon someone or to mitigate punishment, especially to send to prison rather than invoke the death penalty. 4. an act of kindness, compassion, or favor: She has performed countless small mercies for her friends and neighbors. 5. something that gives evidence of divine favor; blessing: It was just a mercy we had our seat belts on when it happened
God accepted the sacrifice of His Son and had mercy upon Him, raising Him from the dead.
His death, burial and resurrection are also evidence of His truth. Since truth is the actual state of a matter, it is impossible that the Creator could be anything but truth. However, truth also refers to faithfulness to a standard. That the Son should die for us at the request of the Father clearly demonstrates that He is true. He remained faithful to His love for the Father, and they remained faithful to their love for us.
The definitions all sound rather cold and factual, but grasping His goodness, mercy and truth are very important in my motivation for entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise as a sheep. I can joyfully enter, knowing that I will die, because His goodness means that upon my sacrifice, He will produce the highest form righteousness in me. My death releases Him to build righteousness in me, ever expanding His glory. As His goodness is displayed in my death, He pours His mercy upon me resulting in my resurrection as He was raised. His goodness and mercy showered upon me yields faithfulness in my relationship with Him allowing me to fully enjoy His love. Immersed in the bliss of His love, I cannot but help to bring great glory to His name! . Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 6

Psalm 96
He is great! What is so great about Him? He is our Creator. A long look at His creation reveals His greatness for He is necessarily greater than His creation. We are to fear Him; why? He told Moses that to see His glory fully and frontally would kill us. We couldn’t take it. Infinite power and infinite purity scares me. If we could instantly be placed on the surface of the sun, the heat of the radiated power would vaporize us instantly. Why should being exposed completely to the infinite God, who created that sun, be any less threatening? I don’t walk in fear of the sun destroying me, but I do know my rightful position in relation to it. I know to wear sunscreen, a wide brimmed hat and long sleeves if I am going to be exposed to its rays. I know that I cannot get too far from it, or I will die. I know that I cannot get too close to it, or I will die. So with God, I cannot get too far or too close to Him, or I will die. I need a healthy fear of Him.
Honor and majesty are before Him. Last week I performed a wedding ceremony. Part of the vows that I made the groom give to the bride was to “share with you all the honor of my name.” What if the grooms name was not honorable? What if he was a cheating scoundrel? What would he be sharing with her? His name had to be honorable if that vow were to be of any value to His bride. Suppose honor were something that was already ingrained in Him, suppose that honor was a deep part of His character, then the vow would have great meaning and benefit to his bride. Honor must go before him. We are the bride of our great God. He seeks to share with us all the honor of His name. His honor goes before Him in strength. He is not a scoundrel, but is faithful and true. He keeps His promises. He is pure. We benefit greatly from Him.
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. How is strength in a sanctuary? Beauty I think I understand, but how can strength be in a sanctuary? Maybe I should defer to my friend, Mark Pruitt, an architect to speak to this issue. Some sanctuaries are plain and unadorned. Some are simply the vegetation of the outdoors. Some are grandiose and gaudy. I have had opportunity to travel a little in Germany and Mexico. I have seen great cathedrals and chapels which were built hundreds of years ago. Buildings over a hundred years old in Oklahoma are rare indeed. Most buildings in Oklahoma of that age are decaying and weak. But the cathedrals are strong and will probably endure much longer. But their strength is more than just their ability to stand strong through the ages. When you walk into a cathedral, there is just an atmosphere of strength. There is something about the architecture that exudes strength. It makes you look up. It makes you feel small. It makes you realize the power of a greater force. Hopefully that force would be God, but sometimes it is another god. The point is that He is STRONG! When I come to worship Him, is that what I find, a God who is strong? Is He stronger than all the problems of my day? Indeed He is.
Greatness, honor and strength are all part of His glory. To bless His name, I need to know these things about Him, relate them to my life and then speak them to others. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 5

Psalm 95
What causes you to sing? Do you ever just break forth into singing? What motivates it? I have several motivations when I break into singing. Occasionally, I just enjoy it. Sometimes I am kind of melancholy, and it just seems fitting to sing a sad song. Sometimes I am depressed, and I need to combat depression with joyful expression. But usually it comes as an outburst of something I am joyful about. I have written a few songs, not many but a few. They all came to me when I was thinking about the Lord when He had just brought Laura into my life. It set me in a joyful mood because of His wonderful grace. The songs just came.
The Psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, commands us to sing joyfully to the Lord. It is not enough for him to give us a command, but He also tells us how great He is. He is in the deep places of the earth. I have visited a few caverns. I have been to Marvel Cavern, Lurray Caverns, Alabaster Caverns and some caverns in Chiapas, Mexico. I am always amazed at the beauty under the earth that God has created. Who knows what beauties lie under the earth that only God knows what is there. He alone appreciates their great beauty. He created if for His own pleasure. Yet man from the very beginning has been digging in the earth trying to mine its treasures and explore its beauties.
I am equally amazed at the beauty of the sea. I saw the ocean for the first time when I was 19 years old. For almost three years I lived only three blocks from the beach. Another ten years I lived just a fifteen minute drive from the beach. The sea is incredibly vast in its majesty and beauty. It has been said that we know more about outer space than we know about our oceans. I don’t know if that statement is true, but I do know the ocean is an incredible ecosystem which also is full of the beauty of the Lord. Its storms are terrible indeed. Its life is teeming with complexity and diversity. Its color is breath taking. I remember one night walking on the beach. We had some kind of anomaly in the ocean that caused thousands maybe millions of little jellyfish to wash up on the beach. As Laura and I walked along, the breakers would dash the little jellyfish against the sand. When their tentacles hit, they would light up light like mini-lightning bolts. The beach literally sparkled with the jellyfish raging against the breakers and sand. It was a sight of outrageous beauty. He created it for His own pleasure. Even if we had not been there, it would have happened, and He would have enjoyed it! What was it like for those firs explorers to build boats and rafts and set out for other continents across the vast sea?
I have also lived near mountains. Their beauties to me are the most staggering of all. To stand on the edge of an outcropping of rock near the pinnacle of a mountain causes a swelling of awe to rise up in me that takes my breath away. Because of the panoramic scene which spreads out before me, it causes me to see how little I am in a vast array of beauty. Yet I am only able to enjoy its beauty because others have built roads and cut pathways for me to get to the top safely and then return home. Yet God created and sees this beauty and more that we cannot ever see. He does it all for His pleasure.
This God, who does this, takes even greater delight in His creation of us. He sees possible beauty in us that no one else can see, and He rejoices! With all this possibility, He chooses take us into His flock, and he cares for us as a shepherd for his sheep. He yearns to draw that beauty out of us, but it means that we must listen to His voice. It is going to take a lot of work. Work makes me tired, but if we listen to his voice, He leads us into a work that is restful. That is His desire. He leads us into a work of beauty that is restful. Why wouldn’t that knowledge cause a song of joy to well up in me? I have to let it out! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 4

Psalm 94
I receive it once a month, and perhaps you do as well. It is a magazine called The Voice of the Martyrs. Every month it is full of stories of the faithfulness of God’s people in the world today who are willing to lay down their lives for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They endure hardships, imprisonments, tortures and unspeakable difficulties all for the love of Jesus. A skeptic might ask, “What kind of glory is that?” Even believers at times fall into the trap of thinking in the same manner. What they/we forget is that God is the One to Whom belongs vengeance. In the words of R.G.Lee’s famous sermon, there is a “Payday Someday.” His lack of vengeance now is really His patience and love waiting upon the perpetrators to repent and turn to Him; He loves even them.
The Psalmist reminds us of that. We are reminded that judgment will one day return to the righteous. Woe to the unrepentant in that Day! The Psalmist consoles himself in those thoughts. Whenever the anxieties of the day begin to rise up, he comes back to the thoughts that the Lord will help, and the Lord’s mercy will hold him up. I love verse 19, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” One of the things I love about the stories in The Voice of the Martyrs, is how those have been persecuted for the sake of His name, so frequently talk about what a privilege it is to be counted worthy to endure hardship for His name. It is a living demonstration of His comforts, which delight our soul. I say that is a greater glory than a would-be god who promises us no hardship! His comfort is so sweet that it exceeds any hardship imposed upon us! Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 3

Psalm 93
He is clothed in majesty. I once had a coffee table book that displayed photographs of the kings of Africa. We have all seen TV pictures of royal events such as the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. We have seen movies that display the royal glory of past kings and queens. But I like Matthew Henry’s comparison of the majesty of earthly kings compared to how God clothes Himself in majesty, “The majesty of earthly princes, compared with God’s terrible majesty, is but like the glimmerings of a glow-worm compared with the brightness of the sun when he goes forth in his strength.” What difference does it make that He has such glory?
When I am secure in His majesty, my circumstance is irrelevant. Ever been in a flood? I lived in Southport, NC when the eye of Hurricane Floyd went over us. The next week a Tropical depression went over us and dropped even more water than Floyd dropped upon us. We had floods! Our community was cut off from the rest of the world for days. For weeks I had to follow a twisted path to find streets that were not washed out in order to get out of my neighborhood. What difference does it make? His majesty rules even in the floods of life! When they rise up, He delivers! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

April 2

Psalm 92
“I will triumph in the works of Your hands.” Is this a hope of victory because of the works of His h!nds, or is this a statement of ecstatic joy because of the works of His hands? And the answer is, “Yes.” Verse seven indicates that the psalmist’s enemies are alive and well. Verses 8-9 indicate that psalmist is resting in the overwhelming high-eternal power of the Lord. Because of the bedrock knowledge of that power, he has a hope of a future victory. Because of that knowledge, he has joy now.
What is that knowledge? It is that the Lord has accomplished already many great works; He is full of deep thoughts; He anoints and exalts us; He makes us flourish like mighty trees of a forest; He gives us fruit in our old age; He is our rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Hmmm. . . I turn 57 this month. I am already considered by some to be a senior citizen. I guess I am on the doorstep of old age. But He will cause me to bear fruit. I wonder how much longer I have to live. Lord because of Your great works, cause me to bear much fruit in my old age. Glorify Yourself in the works of Your hands in my old age! I triumph in the works of Your hands. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John