Psalms 33 – 35
Verse 33:12 stood out to me today:
The nation whose True God is the Eternal is truly blessed;
fortunate are all whom He chooses to inherit His legacy.
I thought about our nation today and how blessed we were in our founding and how far off track we have gotten. Israel has gone through many cycles of prosperity and failure and it seems today we are going through the failure cycle in the USA. Unfortunately, because of the global climate we are no longer the shining light, but rather the torrent seas that sink all boat. Our economy props up so many third world nations as we abuse their poverty and sink them back into it as we struggle.
We lost our focus on God and are focused on the “almighty dollar.” We are not worshipping Baal but rather dead presidents, aka dollars. Satan has won a major battle, instead of having us worship him or one of his demons, he has taken away worship of God by distracting us will stuff. Our definition of blessing in the church today is based on the dollar. It’s creeping in everywhere and is dangerous. Our government has lost sight of who is in control and thinks they have the only input.
Verses 34:13 & 14 hit home with me:
13 Take care with the things you say.
Don’t lie or spread gossip or talk about improper things.
14 Walk away from the evil things of the world,
and always seek peace and pursue it.
There is a whole bunch here that needs to be considered, much of which James deals with in his book. First is controlling your BS! Why do we need to lie or gossip when there is so much cool happening? Also, it says “walk away from the evil things”, I say run! We do not need to be absorbed in what distracts us from God, no we need to pursue Him whenever we can.
This makes me think about a story our pastor, PK, told. It was early on in our church and he was counseling a woman, who suddenly turned and propositioned him. He just left, ran out of the building and ran home. No telling anyone what was up. Fortunately for him he did not have a Joseph moment where she accused him of wrong doing, but he ran and did not just walk. See I think walking is casual, where running is on purpose and that is what we should be in fleeing evil.
Verse 35:18 brought an interesting question:
Then I will praise You and thank You at the great gathering,
in the company of the entire congregation.
I wonder why just there? Why not always? Why not when you are alone in prayer? Also, it sounds like he is “bargaining” with God when you read the verses before. We don’t need to do that and should never use something we should do anyway as a “bargaining chip” with God!