Psalms 99 – 101

Verse 99:8 talks about God answering the people in the wilderness:

You answered them, Eternal our God;
    You were, to them, a God who forgives,
    yet You did not ignore what they did wrong
    and punished them fairly as well.

As we go through life we find this to be true. God forgives but there are still consequences for a sin. I see this with a friend whose son was murdered; he has forgiven the person but still expects him to serve his jail time. I think we tend to feel forgiveness is getting away with murder but rather it’s more freedom from the angst of the people affected by the sin.

Think about it this way, using my friend’s example, you have one of two choices. You can live in anger and stress about the loss while suffering the negative health effects from these emotions. The other option is to forgive and let go the stress. Either way the loss will never change, you are not going to get freedom from the loss but you will have freedom from the burden of resentment. As for the perpetrator , your forgiveness is not releasing them of the punishment just the peace they are forgiven.

Verse 100:3 is from “one of the best known and most loved psalms”:

Know this: the Eternal One Himself is the True God.
    He is the One who made us;
    we have not made ourselves;
    we are His people, like sheep grazing in His fields.

They compared it to Psalm 23 which I believe most can quote even if they can remember the number, but I read this anew and fresh. That was after reading it at least 3 times prior! I don’t remember this Psalm being quoted or mentioned in sermons yet the Voice considers it with Psalm 23. This is actually one that should be talked about since it deals with gratitude and thanksgiving. That is something that is often missing from prayers and discussions. We always tend to focus on the negatives during “prayer requests” with rare praises. When praises are given resentment and jealousy often happens with others.

Honestly we are going to have problems, that is a given in life. Just because you become a Christian does not mean everything is suddenly going to be sunshine and blue skies. The glory of a life in Jesus is not the good times, but rather the supernatural peace during the bad times. That is something we should live in gratitude for no matter what!!

Verse 101:1 has David singing thanks:

I will sing of God’s unsparing love and justice;
    to You, O Eternal One, I will sing praises.

God is love and love is justice who needs to be praised. Again we tend to get into the rut of prayers based on “life’s little problems” and not the glory of God. I am coming up on a year of being unemployed and am not having too many problems. I could wallow in the misery that I am uninsured, have no income, eating through reserves I may have had and worrying about providing for my family each month. At the same time things couldn’t look brighter with a possible new job as a perfect fit for my experience. Our farm may be selling and our family could be reunited because of this. And if none of this happens? Who cares I just keep plugging away at every opportunity given to us.