Psalm 92

End of the month.. End of the quarter. Much has happened, much is happening… more to come.

In the transition of time, we remind ourselves – or, rather, I’m reminding myself – that it is never a waste of time to reflect on the words of the Maker of Time… and I do have a bit of time to spare, here and now.

Thank You, Father, for the reading of Your Word.

Praise to the LORD for His Love and Faithfulness

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.

It is Wednesday. Christ is my Sabbath. We sing from this relationship with rest, with the Prince of Peace in us, around us, behind us and before us.

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night,

3 On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound.

As a church, we’ve been zeroing in on our overall theme, based on Colossians 2:6-7 – we strive, with the help of the Holy Spirit and in acknowledgement of the Creator as our Father, through Christ and His finished work, to walk in Him, being rooted in Christ and established in the faith. And it’s a solid theme, one that is holding us together in spite of internal changes and conflicts being resolved; in spite of all the external chaos of this reality.

As a congregation, in our appreciation and application of this church-wide theme, I’ve noticed that we’ve also been flowing into understanding and consequently appreciating the real-life benefits of our walk with Christ, and of our being rooted in Christ and established in the faith. In other words, I’m personally seeing the real-life benefits of our eternal salvation, and I believe the rest of our congregation is experiencing the same thing.

See, we talked about how good it is to have the opportunity and privilege to pray, when we find ourselves in dead ends, and when we see ourselves with no immediate solutions to real-world circumstances. We don’t necessarily see God respond according to our expectations, but we celebrate, as we witness Him responding still, according to His eternal wisdom, His infinite power, His sure Word, His perfect Will, and His everlasting love for us.

We also talked about how good it is to have the Holy Spirit, faithful in convicting us in the smallest of moments and over the longest expanses of time – He convicts us, reminds us, quickens us to the facts of sin and judgment, and the truth of our right-standing, and our righteousness in Christ, no matter what. This makes us less agitated, and in genuine peace, when the rest of the world is irritable and anxious. We see, in real time, how perfect love casts out all fear.

Here, we read of how we just have the opportunity to overflow in awe and gratitude – by way of prayer, testimony, and even in song and in the skillful use of instruments.

A corporate framework of development and training has personnel assessed three ways: Knowledge, Skill, and Will. In a nutshell, knowledge and skill are important, but without will, they are irrelevant, if not downright liabilities.

In the Body of Christ, we have no issues with will – for in Him we live, and move, and have our being. It is the grace of our Father, the power of the Holy Spirit and the finished work of Christ that we constantly have in our minds and in our hearts, and we naturally enhance our knowledge and skill, all in worship and testifying God’s goodness and glory overflowing in us and through us.

4 For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

5 O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.

6 A senseless man does not know, Nor does a fool understand this.

And not only does the Holy Spirit convict us from the inside… we are also reminded of the sheer goodness and glory of our God, as our senses behold all of His work.

We are reminded of God’s inhuman, supernatural attention to detail in the intricate structures of atoms and cells.

We are consequently reminded of God’s massive, indeed infinite power, in the precise arrangement of a million billion stars, with each star growing as large as thousands and millions of kilometers, to ensure an intricate balance of forces seen and unseen.

And the goodness and glory of God leads us to repentance – in the body of Christ, this means we are in a constant state of renewal of our minds, a constant state of transformation… we are, indeed, moving from glory to glory.

7 When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever.

8 But You, LORD, are on high forevermore.

9 For behold, Your enemies, O LORD, For behold, Your enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

10 But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.

11 My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; My ears hear my desire on the wicked Who rise up against me.

I’m not saying this to be smug or anything, but another opportunity that we literally see here and now, in this tainted reality, is that ultimately, the wicked end up in destruction and oblivion… while the righteous flourish, and are exalted.

This is so in the grand scale of things (or, as I like to constantly quote Chuck Palahniuk’s Tyler Durden, ‘on a long-enough timeline‘) – eternal fellowship (and consequent life and favor) is for all who have been reconciled to the one true God through Christ and His finished work.

12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,

15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Sorry, I need to start dialling now.

Thank You again, Father, for the reading of Your Word.

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