It’s a short month, February, and March comes quickly with warming weather. Oh I am going to get some outside things done if just for an hour today,  and I should walk too… It is still winter and a cold snap we complain about, and yet it WAS nice to snuggle in, be indulgent (even too restful for myself) in indoors activities this short long winter… I’ve had not marathon TV days, but snippets of time in the evenings,  good stuff and junk too… BLESSED online offerings too. I am in the middle of watching the Sight and Sound production of David, a tremendous overview of the shepherd boy turned king and hand-chosen ancestry to Jesus’s birth… David was a man after God’s Heart. 

The music in this show came with pre-written lyrics – a musical after God’s heart – as David writer and singer of over 70 Psalms. The placement of certain Psalms in the scenes of his life connect the context to content. The lyrics set to melody in various arrangements from traditional to contemporary, are then placed at the appropriate time frame for David’s life: joyous in joy moments or expressing sadness and fear yet trusting God. Psalms of true lament, as David like us was flawed, and wrote and sang Psalms in reminders of God’s faithfulness by singing PRAISE. 

A praise for the Lord God Almighty is purposeful and pertinent because the Lord Himself instills in us this ability to PRAISE. God fills us with love too as GOD IS LOVE and this means the opportunity is always appropriate to try to apply LOVE in tough situations with tough people. Tough love too. For extraordinary extravagant LOVE is God’s existence. Psalm 103 reminds: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

A friend once said: “God has no choice but to love”… and for this we PRAISE! Psalm 56 states “I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you.”

May we apply PRAISE and apply LOVE, today and always. 

Amen

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Psalm 103 Of David.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

—-

Psalm 56 – For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

All day long they twist my words; all their schemes are for my ruin. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life. Because of their wickedness do not let them escape; in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise – in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

—-

Psalm 56

For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

All day long they twist my words; all their schemes are for my ruin. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life. Because of their wickedness do not let them escape; in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise – in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.