Psalm 33:16-"No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength."
Here David is basically saying that people are not great by their own strength, only by God's. He learned to depend on God's strength and not his own several times throughout his life. This is an important question for us today: Do we acknowledge that any greatness comes from God? This is often a difficult thing to do, but I have come to realize that it is so much better to depend on God's greatness and strength instead of my own limited strength and understanding! Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
-Psalms 34:8 Don't take my word for it, taste and see that The Lord is good! Two verse later David will say, "even the young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek The Lord shall not lack any GOOD THING." The king of the beasts of the field suffer from hunger, but God takes care of His people. This is consistant from Genesis to the present day. Taste and See that The Lord is good and let us rejoice in our Savior! -Pete More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
-Psalm 19:10 In this passage David is referring to the judgements of The Lord and states that His judgement is better than gold. So often we walk around judging others when only God can. As David continues he proclaims the Lords judgement is sweeter than honey! The judgement we pass in our daily lives is neither more desired than gold nor sweeter than honey so we must refrain from judgement and leave it to God. -10 Grade Student My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute.-psalm 31:15
In reading this I'm reminded that God has it under control! No problem is too big for our Jesus, because Jesus is bigger than our problems! Once again we read that many enemies of David were persecuting him; this was nothing new for him. But what does he do about the problems that arise? Well, in 1 samuel 30, he was facing a problem of his family being taken captive and his fellow brothers wanting to stone him, and it says David strengthened himself in the Lord. Pretty much he went to the Lord and asked "what do I do?" In doing that he was giving it over to God. In the same way we have to strengthen ourselves in Jesus and bring our problems to Him and let Him take them. And just as God fixed Davids problems, He fixes ours a well. Though the enemy pursues, just remember that the Lord is in control and will work everything out for the better. -Luke Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. -I Samuel 30:6
What a difficult situation to be in! (1)David's family has just been taken captive. (2)The city has been burned with fire. (3)David's people are so frustrated that they are ready to stone him! If there was ever a time in David's life that he wanted to give up, I'm certain this moment he was ready to walk away. I have this verse to be of the utmost encouragement, because like David we encounter moments of servere discouragement. What we must glean from this verse is David's solution to his discouragement. As David strengthened himself in The Lord, in our time of need, when we are at our deepest depths let us strengthen ourselfs in The Lord! Psalm 121 says- I WILL lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. Let us lift our eyes above the problems of this earth, and set them upon our help, in our time of need. -Pete 1 Samuel 31:6-"So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day."
Here we see a horrible defeat to the Isrealites. The sad thing is it was all due to Saul's pride and sin as a leader. Another sad thing is that Jonathan died because of Saul's pathetic leadership. This shows that people walking with God the right way can be affected by those in leadership who are not following God correctly. As a leader, Saul was given kingship from the King of Kings, but instead of being used mightily he killed himself and brought death upon many others. I pray that when we are given leadership by God we would recognize that it belongs to Him, and realize what an impact we have on others! -10th Grade Student I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on The Lord! Psalms 27:13-14
In this life it is easy to lose heart. It is so tempting and sometimes ensnaring to focus on earthly deeds, daily routines and present concerns. But The Lord has indeed promised us a true land of the living, residing with Him eternally when we leave these earthen vessels, these dusty tent. May our eyes be tilted to the heavenlies each morning and nigh and may our minds be sharply fixated on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He will give us the strength we need daily to run our race. -Kendra Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you.-psalm 28:2
Blessed be the Lord, because He heard the voice of my supplications!-psalm 28:6 David cried out to God and God heard him. Basically David prayed to God and God answered him. This is what Jesus desires of us! He desires for us to cry out to Him, to be dependent on Him alone. David must have been going through some tough times when he started writing this psalm. We see in verses 1 through 5 him being discouraged about the evil going on and the wickedness of peoples deeds. Then we see it switch to encouragement in verses 6-9. David knew that regardless of all the evil going on, that God was still seated on His throne. As we get discouraged in this day and age with all the wickedness, we also get encouraged by knowing that God is on His throne. But in knowing that, that doesn't mean that we should stop crying out. Its a sweet aroma to God when He hears our cries, because we are relying on Him and not ourselves. God answers! -Luke Psalms 27:14
Wait on The Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on The Lord! Sometimes it's really hard to wait on God. We all want to know what are future holds and want to do things on our own time, and we forget that God has the perfect plan for us. But true rewards will come if we are patient and do things the way He wants us to. On our own we are worthless, but when we place God in control of our lives everything will turn out for the better! -8th Grade Student One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
Psalms 27:4 Jesus said, "seek ye first the Kingdom of God" and what a glorious day it will be when look our Savior in the face! When we hold the nail pierced hands of our Redeemer, touch the nail pieced side of our Lord! Paul said to the Philippians- that our citzenship is in heaven for which we eagerly wait for our Savior. How sweet will it be when we arrive at the shores of eternity and dwell with our King forever! -Pete |