Fire in the Place of Darkness

Psalm 96

4/27/2018

Synopsis:

• A prayer of Moses (Continued).
• Sing to the Lord a new song.
• Everyone and everything on earth join the choir.
• Declare His glory and His marvelous deeds to all nations.
• Great is the Lord; He is worthy of praise.
• All other gods are just idols, but God made the heavens and earth.
• Ascribe to God the glory due His name.
• Proclaim to the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
• “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for He comes… to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness.”

 

Reaction:

 

Moses had to have written this in response to a vision of the future. He uses some pretty vivid language to describe earth’s final scenes.

He paints a picture of the whole creation rejoicing and dancing for joy at His return. Even the animals on earth and creatures in the sea are celebrating. The grasses in the meadows, the trees in the hills are joining the choir to sing of their deliverance from the effects of sin.

I have not spent too much time considering how sin has affected the lives of animals or plants or how cognizant they are of their Creator. I am beginning to believe that they have a lot more awareness of their life than we give them credit for.

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Psalm 97

4/27/2018

Synopsis:

• A prayer of Moses (Continued).
• Now, the Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, even to the most distant shores.
• Clouds and thick darkness has surrounded His throne, but now fire goes before Him consuming His foes on every side.
• Mountains will melt like wax.
• The heavens proclaim His righteousness and all peoples see His glory.
• All who have worshiped images are put to shame.
• Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad.
• “God’s light shines on the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.”
• “Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of wickedness.”
• Rejoice in the Lord… praise His name.

 

Reaction:

 

“Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad.” It is interesting to see that Moses was naming at least one city in the Promised Land several hundred years before it existed. He has never even seen this place, unless his nomadic life with Jethro, his father-in-law took him there. For he was born in Egypt, some 400 years after his ancestors left that land to sojourn in Egypt.

“Mountains will melt like wax.” Sounds a lot like the description of the last days found in Revelation.

Moses is here using the metaphor of clouds and thick darkness to show how God has hidden Himself from our view. Then, in contrast he pictures God as one who is preceded by fire that consumes His foes.

As of this date (Nov. 18, 2018), there are a multitude of fires raging along the west coast of the USA, and several volcanoes around the Pacific Rim islands have been at the work of destruction for months. One, the Campfire Fire in California, has completely destroyed the town of Paradise. Homes, businesses, hospital… not much of anything has escaped the inferno.

“Are these just ‘natural’ disasters, or has God already started His preparations for returning to this earth?” one has to ask. I choose to believe that God is starting His judgments on an unrepentant earth.

Psalm 92

4/23/2018

Synopsis:

• A Sabbath Song of Moses.
• “What a beautiful privilege it is to give thanks to the Lord on His day.”
• “To sing anthems to God; to announce His love and faithful presence with dulcimer and harp.”
• “He makes me so happy I cannot be silent”
• “Worldly people just don’t get it; they just pop up like weeds to do their evil.”
• “They seem to flourish, but in the end they will be destroyed forever.”
• “My ears are filled with the sounds of promise: ‘Good people will prosper like Lebanon cedars that have been transplanted to My courtyard; growing lush and green in My presence.’”

 

Reaction:

Too bad that I never learned to play an instrument! Through the years I’ve tinkered at the ukulele and the guitar but never mastered either. Many times I’ve creative tunes in my head, then added different instruments until I had a string quartet or a full-blown orchestra. Alas, most of the time I could neither sing, hum, or whistle the tune. My best “songs” have been sung to God alone. Perhaps, that is why I have been unable to reproduce them audibly.

How about you? Do you ever compose, sing or play just for God?

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Psalm 93

4/24/2018

 

Synopsis:

• A prayer of Moses (Continued).
• The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.
• Long before the world was established and secure, the Lord reigned; from all eternity.
• The seas have lifted up their mighty voices, but the Lord is mightier still.
• Your statutes, Lord, stand firm; holiness adorns your dwelling place for endless days.

 

Reaction:

This is an interesting poem that compares and contrasts God’s power with some of the strongest “forces of nature.” I like the style of this poem. It actually reads more like a poem in English than most of the psalms up to this point. I like the rendition in The Message the best.

Our only Hope for the Future

Psalm 90

4/21/18

 

Synopsis:

• Psalms 90-106. A prayer of Moses, the Man of God.
• Moses reminds God that He has been the dwelling place of His people throughout all ages.
• “Before there was an earth, You existed.”
• For you a thousand years are but a day of even one watch in the night.
• The people you made, you turn back to dirt.
• You sweep people away in the sleep of death.
• We are like grass, springing up in the morning and dying at day’s end.
• You set our iniquities before You. Our secret sin is in the light of Your presence.
• We finish our sinful lives with a moan after 70 or 80 years.
• The best of our days are but trouble and sorrow, but they pass away too quickly.
• Teach us to number our days, Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
• “May the favor of the Lord rest on us establishing the work of our hands.”

 

Reaction:

 

I have long forgotten that this book of Psalms is a collection of songs, poems, and psalms covering many generations… nearly 1,000 years. This next section is from of Moses.

It seems to me that Moses, here is praying that the work that he has started, will continue to grow to be a blessing to the whole world. And indeed it has been.

Moses fired up a lethargic enslaved people to follow God. It took a lot of time and miracles to get nearly 6,000 people off their asses and ready to trust and follow God. (This story can be found beginning in Exodus, chapter 7)

But it was short lived. In less than two weeks, when they were standing beside the Sea of Reeds and saw the Egyptian army bearing down on them, They wanted to bolt for the only “home” they knew.

A black cloud dropped down between them and the enemy, the sea opened up and provided dry land for their escape. The cloud lifted, exposing them to the enemy. The army picks up the chase and follows across the seabed. The waters come crashing back together, destroying the Egyptians.

From that mightiest of deliveries, the trip to their Promised Land that should have been accomplished in 40 days, took 40 years. The mindset of the people was continuously swinging from faith to despair. Every time they rebelled and vexed God, He met their challenge with a miracle.

This section of Psalms was most likely written near the end of this forty-year period. All but three of the original group of men who had been over the age of twenty when they left Egypt, were still alive. This psalm was written for them, to remind them of how God has been leading and blessing them. Despite the waywardness of their parents, God still loved them.

It is just as true today as it was 4,000 years ago. God loves us no matter what kind of family we came from, no matter how rebellious they were, no matter how rebellious WE have been! God is always ready to change a broken, repentant life.

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Psalm 91

4/22/18

 

Synopsis:

• A prayer of Moses (Continued).
• “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
• He promises that God will protect those who look to Him.
• They will be protected from both natural and man-made disasters.
• You will have no need to fear the terrors of the night nor the plagues that strike at midday.
• “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.”
• “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.”
• “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike you foot against a stone.”
• No harm will overcome you, no disaster will come near your house.
• “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him and I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name.”

 

Reaction:

“He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike you foot against a stone.”

This is the passage that satan ( sorry, Spellchecker, he doesn’t deserve a capitol “S”) quoted to Jesus when he was tempting Him to take a shortcut in His plan of Redemption, by jumping off of the temple roof.

I suppose that many have questioned the statements of Moses in this psalm, for the record plainly covers the history of the Jews through the centuries. They were NOT always protected by God. But the record is also clear that the reason so many of them were killed in battle was because they were disobeying God and living like the surrounding nations.

During the 20^th century persecution of the Jews throughout Europe, millions of Jews were killed. Only a pitiful few survived. Was this, in reality, the only ones who were serving God?

Heavens, NO! For some of those survivors continued their lives as unbelievers, ones who lost their faith in God. Still others praised God in adversity and lived long lives, honoring God.

I rather imagine that there were many faithful God-followers who proclaimed with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him,” and they died trusting God.

Indeed, even as Moses tried to encourage the hordes of escapees from Egypt with this public prayer, every person over the age of accountability died in the desert because of their rebellion against God. Calab and Joshua were the only exceptions.

Perhaps, though, Moses was given a view of the future. He saw past the sleep-death that we all face, and was describing an eternal view of mankind; One in which those that have trusted in God during their lifetime, are protected from everlasting death as a punishment for rebellion against God.

“He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.” This metaphor was used almost verbatim by Jesus when He wept over Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you under my wings like a hen her chicks, but you would not.”

Oh, I hope that I will no longer refuse to be gathered under God’s protection, for He is my only hope for the future.