Psalms 24 – 26
Verse 24:1 is something we really need to understand:
The earth and all that’s upon it belong to the Eternal.
The world is His, with every living creature on it.
Everything is God’s, we own nothing. To put this into perspective when people start talking about the government owning our homes, we get upset. We can’t imagine that something would be able to take what we feel we own at their free will. Well when you think about it God is the same way. The only difference is God is not seen and therefore people don’t take this serious, where the government has guns and the ability to take things by force.
When all is said and done and we look at all the rich people in the world, the only consistent thing is they all die and leave what the acquired. The only “old” money I can think of are the Rothschild’s and that is only 300 or so years old. After that it’s more stories of families blowing it after the “responsible” one dies. In the end we own nothing and are only borrowing it for a very short time. Once we accept that we can be more thankful for what we have here on this earth.
Psalm 25 is the ABC Psalm which most translations do not pick up. In Hebrew the first word starts with the first letter of the alphabet. Unfortunately with most Hebrew to English translations this gets missed, since our words don’t always line up. The Voice has done a great job attempting to do this. A few notes, in the original text there are a few missing letters, showing that life is not always orderly. Also, in the English we are missing W, X, Y and Z. Finally, not how David handle adversity, he focuses on fixing him and not the problem.
Verse 25:4 jumps out to me:
DEMONSTRATE Your ways, O Eternal One.
Teach me to understand so I can follow.
Understanding God’s word and desires sometimes is not easy. I have struggled with “prosperity” for years, with images of what would be God’s plan. I finally have had to take to heart the previous verse. I struggle with trying to regain lost family riches, yet have not accepted the gifts God has given us today. We are in a tough time, on unemployment and almost out of money, yet a pending sale of two homes turn this around to the point where I can be more selective on the work I do. So although things seem awful, God has protected us and led us to his light.
Verse 26:2 ties into the other verse quite well:
Put me on trial and examine me, O Eternal One!
Search me through and through—from my deepest longings to every thought that crosses my mind.
Think about asking this. Would you want to be before God today on trial for your life? Initially I would say no, but imagine what you would learn!! You could fix your flaws and serve God more purely. That is something that is tough, but would be more valuable to us that gold. Character matters in life more than money.
For an example of this just look at the banking sector today. They are taking advantage of peoples desires for more and then when it falls apart the government bails them out. You would think that would have caused them to examine their practices. Instead they are back at it and just trying to defraud more. Oh I pray I am examined and put on trial so I can understand what I am doing wrong.