Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
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Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 103:13-14,
"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."
This wonderful insight of David comes to us as he speaks of those who fear the Lord. The Lord is like a father who is compassionate toward his children. This brings to my mind what Paul has to say about God in his second letter to the church in Corinth regarding the purpose God has in mind relative to his compassion for those who are his: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
Such an intimate, loving and caring disposition God has for those who are his! He is truly "the God of all comfort"! While those who fail to embrace him in faith and fail to harbor a healthy reverence and fear of God will certainly face his wrath and judgment, his care and loving kindness for those who are his is wonderful! His compassion is ours to experience, to behold and to exult in!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 103:13-14,
“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.”
This wonderful insight of David comes to us as he speaks of those who fear the Lord. The Lord is like a father who is compassionate toward his children. This brings to my mind what Paul has to say about God in his second letter to the church in Corinth regarding the purpose God has in mind relative to his compassion for those who are his: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
Such an intimate, loving and caring disposition God has for those who are his! He is truly “the God of all comfort”! While those who fail to embrace him in faith and fail to harbor a healthy reverence and fear of God will certainly face his wrath and judgment, his care and loving kindness for those who are his is wonderful! His compassion is ours to experience, to behold and to exult in!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 96:9,
“Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.”
In this psalm of invitation to “sing to the Lord a new song” we are exhorted to worship the Lord in the “splendor of his holiness”.
We read much in the psalms about the glory, the splendor and majesty of God. Far from flowery language to adorn Hebrew poetry, I take these passages as insightful descriptions that accurately depict God’s presence. As such I find myself often attempting to picture in my mind that for which I have no comparison. I have never seen God in all his glory, in his majesty, in his splendor.
Possibly, because I haven’t in a literal sense, I find myself attempting to piece together just what that might look like. Tips, cues and clues are provided us. In this passage we are told to worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. The Lord’s holiness is inherent in the splendor of his presence. Since that which is consistent with the Lord’s character and nature is defined as what is holy, the splendor of his holiness speaks to an intensity of the Lord’s character and nature, his many perfections. So much so that, in my mind, it is accompanied by a sense that this intensity becomes for us a blinding presence, a blinding splendor. I am reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” 1 Timothy 6:15-16.
This splendor is something that rightfully brings a trembling to those who behold it. We see this in those who have witnessed it to some degree: Moses on Mt. Sinai, Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, etc. Our Lord is to be feared, verse 4. I suspect that upon gazing at the glory of God, fearing him will not come from obedience to the command to do so, but as an involuntary reaction to the tremendous presence of the Lord himself. Indeed, all creation convulses at the presence of God: the heavens, the earth, the sea and all in it, the fields and everything in them, the trees of the forest! Rejoicing, gladness, resounding, jubilation, joy, fear and trembling are all acknowledged in this psalm as potential reactions to the presence of the Lord!
The Lord exists in the splendor of his holiness!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 91:9-12,
“If you make the Most High your dwelling- even the Lord, who is my refuge- then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For 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 your foot against a stone.”
This psalm is rich in figurative language: “the fowler’s snare”, “He will cover you with his feathers”, “under his wings”, “you will tread upon the lion and the cobra”, “the great lion and the serpent”, etc. With this beautiful language the psalmist speaks of one of the most cherished realities of God: he watches over those who are his and keeps them safe! “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty… He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Verses 1-2.
While some mistakenly take this promise as assurance that somehow God’s people will escape the harsh realities of living in this lost and fallen world that exists under God’s judgment, this psalm, as well as the rest of Scripture speaks to the wonderful reality that if we “dwell within the shelter of the Most High” he will see us arrive safely into his kingdom, in the resurrection and into a blessed inheritance that is ours for all eternity! There will be difficulties in this life, all with purpose and meaning for God’s people, and life here will end in certain death. But our loving Lord will be with us throughout all of our hardships and difficulties and see us safely home.
What strikes my attention this morning is in the midst of this beautiful, figurative language is a promise I find quite literal, “he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways”! While this passage is quoted by Satan in his temptation of Jesus, Matthew 4:5-7, it is a promise for us all. Many passages of Scripture speak of angels interacting with people, being sent for their protection, as well as other assignments: Genesis 28:12, Exodus 23:20, Psalm 34:7, Isaiah 37:36, Daniel 3:28, Matthew 13:41, 16:27, 18:10, 26:53, Luke 16:22, Acts 10:3, 12:7, Hebrews 1:7, 13:2, 1 Peter 1:12, and so many more passages!
How wonderful we are surrounded by angels sent by the Lord!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 89:33-37,
“I will not take my love from him [David], nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness— and I will not lie to David- that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”
As Ethan, the Ezrahite, views the devastation of David’s throne, likely the sacking of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity of the remaining Jews of 586 B.C., he cries out to the Lord. He observes that the Lord has “rejected… spurned… been very angry with your anointed one. You have renounced the covenant with your servant and defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins. All who pass by have plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice… You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.” Verses 38-44.
In his plea to the Lord to relent, as if to remind the Lord of his former love and commitment (covenant) to David’s throne (his line of successors), He extols the Lords faithfulness. Embedded within Ethan’s reasoning with the Lord, the throne of Jesus Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords clearly comes into view as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s faithfulness to David’s throne. Ethan speaks of God’s faithfulness, that God established it in heaven itself, verse 2, and that David’s line would be established forever, through all generations, verse 4. It is the faithfulness of the Lord that the heavens stand in awe of as they praise the wonders of God, verse 5.
As Israel discovered, a national appetite for sin would not escape the justice of God. Yet, in spite of the judgment of God for Israel’s rebellion against him, God will nevertheless stand firm with his covenant with David. That covenant is assured through the Son of God as he assumes David’s throne as the rightful heir.
The wonderful aspect of all this is that as a co-heir with Jesus Christ, Romans 8:17, I have God’s assurance that no matter what ever may happen, God’s commitment to us is certain, assured and complete! Nothing will ever stand between us as believers and the faithfulness and love of our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ!
What a wonderful thing to meditate on!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 71:6,
“From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you.”
The psalmist here points to something many of us often forget. It is because of God that we have life! He brought each and every human being into existence. Without God none of us would exist. Because of God’s miracle of life we enjoy all of the opportunities life has to offer. He has provided us with faculties that reflect his own personality: the ability to think, to feel, a will we are free to exercise! We have bodies that provide us opportunity to relate to the rest of God’s creation and one another. In addition he has provided all of us the opportunity for our lives to have purpose and meaning, the potential for a rich life well-lived.
While many of us worship God for such, there are many others who fail to find cause for worship of God. Disenchantment with life is often laid at the feet of God as if he were responsible for the disappointments in life, for life not to be meaningful and fulfilling. It is often thought that if God is the cause of life then it is God who is responsible for the difficulties and disappointments. But the disappointments in life are to be laid at the feet of mankind himself. Even provided fair warning ahead of time by God himself, given the opportunity to live life in a pristine existence without the hardship and difficulties life now has, man traded it all for what we experience in life today. Disappointments, failure, sickness, infirmities and death are all now a part of life, the result of man’s rejection of God and willingness to follow the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
In God’s great mercy and love he has not left us to our own destruction. In addition to bringing each of us from our mother’s wombs he has provided us opportunity for second birth, to be born into his family. Each of us, if we but just take the reverse course that Adam did and embrace God as Adam should have, can become a child of God, a co-heir with Jesus Christ! In addition to a fulfilling life here lived with purpose and meaning, he provides us an eternity with him in an environment of his original intent! What a wonderful love our Creator has for mankind!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Psalm 67:7,
“God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.”
The resurrection will bring a whole new paradigm to life. We read of a change all of us who embrace Jesus Christ will experience in the resurrection, new bodies that will be “imperishable”, “glorious” and “raised in power”, a “spiritual body”, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44. We will be changed “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye” to immortality. In this new paradigm of life we will dwell with God himself, not by faith from a distance, but right within his presence. “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” Revelation 21:3.
This verse in Psalm 67:7 points to another facet of this paradigm shift to life: “all the ends of the earth will fear him.” The world today seems to be driven by people who live life in anything but fear of God. As such they indulge the sin nature and the resulting consequences are born by not just them but all of us in their path. Criminals, swindlers, crooked politicians that feign public service to embellish their own personal power and wealth, church leaders who do likewise, many who elbow one another out to “get theirs” and so on. Life in the here and now can be quite discouraging. Imagine what life will be like lived with others who fear the Lord and not subject to a dominating sin nature! “He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” Revelation 21:7-8.
To have such a change in neighbors (and ourselves) sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486