relationships (Psalm 9:1-20) Having Constant Communication

(Psalm 9:1-20)  I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;

     I will tell of all Your wonders.
2   I will rejoice and be jubilant in You;
     I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

3   When my enemies turn back,
     They stumble and perish before You.
4   For You have maintained my just cause;
     You have sat on the throne judging righteously.
5   You have rebuked the nations, You have eliminated the wicked;
     You have wiped out their name forever and ever.
6   The enemy has come to an end in everlasting ruins,
     And You have uprooted the cities;
     The very memory of them has perished.

7   But the Lord sits as King forever;
     He has established His throne for judgment,
8   And He will judge the world in righteousness;
     He will execute judgment for the peoples fairly.
9   The Lord will also be a stronghold for the oppressed,
     A stronghold in times of trouble;
10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You,
     For You, Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You.

11 Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion;
     Declare His deeds among the peoples.
12 For He who requires blood remembers them;
     He does not forget the cry of the needy.
13 Be gracious to me, Lord;
     See my oppression from those who hate me,
     You who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 So that I may tell of all Your praises,
     That in the gates of the daughter of Zion 
     I may rejoice in Your salvation.
15 The nations have sunk down into the pit which they have made;
     In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16 The Lord has made Himself known;
     He has executed judgment.
     A wicked one is ensnared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion Selah 

17 The wicked will return to Sheol,
     All the nations who forget God.
18 For the needy will not always be forgotten,
     Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
19 Arise, Lord, do not let mankind prevail;
     Let the nations be judged before You.
20 Put them in fear, Lord;
     Let the nations know that they are merely human. Selah

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

We have all been born into sin, and where there is sin, there is death.  Therefore, there is a need for blood to be shed.  This is why the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross, in payment for all sin, of all time, for all people (retroactively), and He rose again to have victory over death.  Whoever humbly goes to the Lord to repent and believe, is forgiven all sins and is reborn and adopted into God's family forever.  Our salvation is eternal and secure.

Verse 10 sums it up another way.  Those who seek the Lord, and come to know Him in a personal relationship, to understand that He loves and cares about us, will trust in His word and His will.  To truly trust in what God wants for our lives, is to be obedient.  I know, this sounds so draconian, but God doesn't just hand out laws and commandments willy-nilly so that we'll feel stifled.  In reading through the Bible and taking notes on all the "do's and don'ts", I actually saw that there aren't that many.  They can be summed up into ten main commandments.  And those, Jesus summed up very nicely - first, love God - and then love people!

As a believer, we have been set free from the law and from sin!  But understand, we should still do as God says, not because we have to, but because we want to... because God wants the best for our lives, and by doing as He says, we will experiences the best outcomes.  And in striving to do as He says, He will use us in mighty ways to be a testimony to others.

We should also never forget that the Lord is fair and just, and there will come a day of reckoning - for everyone.  Believers will be judged and rewarded according to the good deeds done with pure motives.  Unbelievers will be judged by their sins.  So another point to meditate on and consider is - what are we doing and saying so that others will come to know that they are merely human and in need of saving and having Jesus in their lives?  

I used to be so intimated by this, but I've come to understand that it is so much easier when we focus on living out God's purpose for our lives - all in His strength and wisdom - asking the Lord to do everything FOR us!  As we all need the Lord Jesus to save us from our sins, we all still continue to need the Lord to help us in all things.  Just like in any human relationship, Jesus desires that we stay in constant communication with Him:  to rely on Him in both good times and bad times, as well as to get to know Him better and better through His word.