The Psalms Challenge

[JTC]

I also love the Psalms. I start almost everyday by reading or listening to 1 to 3 hours of Psalms.

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought there was a Psalm that went something like this,

Your words, O Lord, are health to my flesh and healing for my bones.

But I can't find this. Nevertheless, it still makes a good confession.

[In Him]

@JTC ( ?)

My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your mind retain my commandments;

For they will bestow on you length of days, Years of life and well-being.

Let fidelity and steadfastness not leave you; Bind them about your throat, Write them on the tablet of your mind,

And you will find favor and approbation In the eyes of God and man.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not rely on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths smooth.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and shun evil.

It will be a cure for your body, A tonic for your bones. Prov 3:1-8

~~~

The LORD will guide you always; He will slake your thirst in parched places And give strength to your bones.

You shall be like a watered garden, Like a spring whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11

Edited July 27, 2019 by In Him

[Jayne]

DAY 10 - PSALM 10 [Book 1]

Why Do You Hide Yourself?

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
    and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
    in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9     he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
    and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
    that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
    you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
    the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more

[Jayne]

Quote

 

11 [The wicked] says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

 

How many countless billions of people across the world and across time have said - "God won't see me do this?"

How many countless billions have said that God will not call them on their sin?

What a dangerous, dangerous mindset.

[BeauJangles]

9 minutes ago, Jayne said:

DAY 10 - PSALM 10 [Book 1]

Why Do You Hide Yourself?

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
    and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
    in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9     he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
    and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
    that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
    you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
    the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more

Really beautiful work in posting the Psalms, @Jayne. I'm getting a bit of a late start in this. Thanks for taking the effort in presenting it to us. God bless you!

Shalom,

David/BeauJangles

[turtletwo]

41 minutes ago, Jayne said:

How many countless billions of people across the world and across time have said - "God won't see me do this?"

How many countless billions have said that God will not call them on their sin?

What a dangerous, dangerous mindset.

@Jayne Thanks for posting this warning. It is so true.  God sees all.

 

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)

 

"There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

(Hebrews 4:15)

"For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes." (Jeremiah 16:17)

 

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”

 

(2 Chronicles 16:9)

 

[turtletwo]

I love the entire psalm. Verses I find especially comforting:

 9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,
    for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Verses 9-10 assure me that God is always there for His own. It is akin to Hebrews 13:5 which says He will "never leaves us nor forsake us."

 18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Verse 18 touches me because in a world of suffering people (needy, poor) who many 'sweep under the rug' and could care less about, it shows me how UNLIKE selfish humans God is. He is so compassionate. God has a tender heart towards the poor and needy.

He is not impressed by the superficial (such as riches or beauty.) "For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jayne]

DAY 11 - PSALM 11 [Book 1]

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple

To the choirmaster. Of David.

In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
    “Flee like a bird to your mountain,
² for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
    they have fitted their arrow to the string
    to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
³ if the foundations are destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?”

⁴ The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord's throne is in heaven;
    his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
⁵ The Lord tests the righteous,
    but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
⁶ Let him rain coals on the wicked;
    fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
⁷ For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
    the upright shall behold his face.

[Jayne]

DAY 12 - PSALM 12 [Book 1]

The Faithful Have Vanished

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith.  A Psalm of David.

Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;
    for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
² Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
    with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

³ May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
    the tongue that makes great boasts,
⁴ those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,
    our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

⁵ “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
    I will now arise,” says the Lord;
    “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
⁶ The words of the Lord are pure words,
    like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
    purified seven times.

⁷ You, O Lord, will keep them;
    you will guard them from this generation forever.
⁸ On every side the wicked prowl,
    as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

Edited July 29, 2019 by Jayne

[Jayne]

As James says - the tongue is a very wicked thing.  And the old adage "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt" is just simply NOT true.

David Guzik says, "David was a warrior and a fierce soldier; but we see here that he also had to deal with the battles of gossip and backbiting; of idle and deceptive talkers. David knew what it was like to feel all alone in this kind of battle, where it seemed that no one would speak up and defend him. Instead he took his case to the LORD. We sense that David probably would have preferred to battle with swords and shields than among the gossips and backbiters surrounding him. "

These people who use their words, their speech, for evil are so full of themselves that they believe they are untouchable.  They say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” That's some sick stuff right there.

To me, here is something interesting.  When God speaks after David has asked him to intervene with these people - God says he is doing so to protect and place into safety the poor and the needy.  Apparently the vile and boastful words of these people who believe no one can control them led them to a cruelty to others.

Then David goes into a beautiful exaltation of God's words as opposed these evil people's words.   "The words of the Lord are pure words,  like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,  purified seven times." You know that refining precious metals requires burning them into a liquid and scooping off impurities from the top until you have a "pure" metal.  God doesn't have any impurities in his words, but David uses the metaphor to speak of just how perfect God's words are.  "Purified seven times" - a number that means perfection.  God's words are perfect.

As opposed to these wicked people who according to David lie ALL the time.

God is going to preserve "them".  Who or what is "them"?  It's both his words and those people in jeopardy that he just set he was going to set into safety.

Just a side note - this psalm does not teach the "preserving" of God's word into a particular English translation of the Bible as some teach that it does.

To make this psalm teach a Bible version - English only - as being exalted is to miss the entirety of what God was saying.